Buzz around Palin in full roar

GOP vice-presidential pick Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska accepted at least $4,500 in campaign contributions in the same fundraising scheme at the center of a corruption scandal that led to the indictment of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens.

The contributions, made during Palin's failed 2002 bid to become Alaska's lieutenant governor, were not illegal for her to accept.

But they show how Palin, a self-proclaimed champion for clean government, has been part of an Alaska political system that is under the cloud of an FBI investigation.

It is the latest in a string of disclosures that raise questions about whether Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign had sufficiently investigated the background of Palin, 44, a little-known governor new to the national stage. Palin surprised delegates at the GOP convention Monday when she said through the McCain campaign that her unmarried 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is five months pregnant.

With the convention still abuzz, a list of potentially embarrassing details grew yesterday:

□ Palin pursued pork-barrel projects for her city and state, contrary to her reformist image.

□ Her husband once belonged to a fringe political group in Alaska with some members supporting sucession from the United States.

□ A private attorney is authorized to spend $95,000 to defend her against accusations of abuse of power.

□ She has acknowledged smoking marijuana in the past.

Defending his choice and the team that helped pick her, McCain said yesterday that "the vetting process was completely thorough." Campaign advisers at the convention in St. Paul said that Palin filled out a survey with 70 questions, including: Have you ever paid for sex? Have you been faithful in your marriage? Have you ever used or purchased drugs? Have you ever downloaded pornography?

McCain's aides said that Palin was a finalist from the start

But a senior Republican familiar with the search, who requested anonymity when speaking without authorization, said that Palin had all but fallen from the radar until late in the summer when McCain -- apparently unsatisfied with his working list -- asked for more alternatives. Suddenly, she was a finalist.

When she was introduced as McCain's running mate last week, Palin portrayed herself as a political maverick in the McCain mold: "I've stood up to the old politics as usual, to the special interests, to the lobbyists, the big oil companies and the ‘good old boy' network,'" she said.

But Palin, Alaska's first female governor, has at times benefited from the state's entrenched political system.

As she campaigned unsuccessfully in 2002 to become lieutenant governor, she received contributions from executives at VECO Corp., a powerful Alaska oil-field services company. Company founder Bill Allen has admitted that the company steered its donations through a "special bonus program" in which executives received money and the company instructed them to donate it to favored politicians.

Allen pleaded guilty to bribery and corruption charges. He admitted that the program violated federal tax laws and said that it was used to keep his political allies flush with cash.

"If they're working with the oil industry, I'd like to help with their campaigns," Allen testified last year in the corruption trial of a former state legislator.

Since Palin's selection last week, these issues also are raising eyebrows:

□ In her earlier career as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Palin hired a lobbyist to help the tiny town secure at least 14 earmarks, worth $27 million between 2000-03. McCain has promoted Palin as a force in his long battle against earmarks.

□ Under her leadership this year, Alaska asked for almost $300 a person in requests for pet projects from Stevens, one of McCain's top adversaries. That is more than any other state received, per person, from Congress.

□ Her husband, Todd, twice registered as a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, a fierce states' rights group that wants to turn all federal lands in Alaska back to the state. Sarah Palin never registered as a member of the party, according to state officials, though party members said that she attended a 1994 convention with her husband.

□ The head of the firm hired to defend Palin in a state ethics investigation was previously her family's lawyer and is permitted to bill the state up to $95,000 for work in the current case. It involves the dismissal of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan after he refused to fire a state trooper who had divorced Palin's sister.

□ Palin opposed the U.S. government's listing of a variety of animals as endangered, including the polar bear and the beluga whale, both of which inhabit areas also rich in oil and natural gas.

□ Palin previously acknowledged that she smoked marijuana but said in a 2006 interview she no longer used the drug. "I can't claim a Bill Clinton and say that I never inhaled," she said.

In the fundraising-corruption investigation, VECO founder Allen is cooperating in an FBI investigation that has already sent several state political figures to prison. He is expected to be the Justice Department's star witness at Stevens' trial later this month when he testifies about home renovations and other gifts he provided Stevens -- gifts that Stevens is charged with concealing on Senate documents.

Palin got $500, the maximum amount allowed by law, from Allen and VECO Vice President Rick Smith. Several other VECO managers, including Pete Leathard, who came up with the idea for the special bonus program, also donated the maximum. Allen's son, a VECO employee, also donated $500. All the checks were donated the same day, except for Leathard's, which was dated two days after the rest.

The donations are not evidence of corruption, and Palin is not among the legislators under investigation in the VECO case. But they could undermine arguments that Palin has broken from Alaska's Republican machine, including Stevens.

"If you can take on Ted Stevens and that crowd in Alaska, you can handle the Russians," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C, told ABC News this week.

But Palin did not reach the governor's office picking fights with Stevens, the Senate's longest-serving Republican. She was a director for a nonprofit group Stevens set up to increase the number of Republican women in government.

Stevens also campaigned for Palin in 2006 and appeared in a political advertisement for her.

Palin has had her share of run-ins with Stevens, including a dustup earlier this year in which Stevens accused Palin of not being enthusiastic enough about his efforts to bring federal earmark money to Alaska.

She has also called on Stevens' son, Ben, to resign as national committeeman for the state party.

She was among the first Alaska Republicans to urge Stevens to answer questions about the FBI investigation. But she did not urge him to resign after his indictment, as she did after a state legislator was indicted. She said that Stevens "has dedicated his life to the betterment of the state."