I visited the governor's pages on the official websites of all female governors to see how many of them had a First Gentleman page and what they contained.
Jan Brewer, Arizona - No First Gentleman page
Linda Lingle, Hawaii - No First Gentleman
Jodi Rell, Connecticut - No Fisrt Gentleman page
Jennifer Granholm, Michigan - First Gentleman page, no commercial links
Bev Purdue, North Carolina - First Gentleman page, no commercial links
Chris Gregoire, Washington - First Gentleman page, no commercial links
Kathleen Sebelius, Kansas - No mention of First Gentleman
Sarah Palin, Alaska - First Dude page with link leading to commercial sponsors
I also checked a few random male governors. Some have First Lady pages, but none have commercial links in them.
I noticed that the spouses who have separate pages are involved in some cause, advocating better reading, visiting war veterans, better education, healthcare for children, mentoring, etc. They tend to be involved in some sort of community organizing. Otherwise spouses only get a mention in the governor's bio, if at all.
The wife of the governor of Indiana sells a cookbook online for $10 and all proceeds go towards the maintenance and preservation of the Governor's Residence.
Todd Palin is not the only First Gentleman involved in sports and outdoor pursuits, but his page is the only one with a link leading to his commercial sponsors.
I couldn't find any forms detailing First Family invitations to events, but I didn't check all 50 states websites...
Another thing I couldn't find in other websites were press releases belittling the citizens of the state or encouraging a backlash against dissenters, responding to events in snarky tones, nor did I find any press releases about First Family little scandals. No press releases from other governors were whiny, defensive, accusatory or attempted to blame others.
It's a question of style, I suppose...
Picture from Governor's website, which also appeared on other websites and newspapers.
Recall Sarah Palin
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18 comments:
Thanks for your research. I am so not surprised.
Clearly the other Governors understand they are public servants, and Gino has 554 more days that she can be pretend Queen of Alaska. (Awesome nilaP countdown clock!)
I looked at my governr's page (Tim Kaine) of Virginia, quite some tiome ago, when Per Diem/Kids Travel gate came up. He's been in office 4 years and to be honest with you, I knew he had kids, but never knew their names and ages, because they don't go to events, and aren't in the papers or on TV. Turns out he has three teenagers, and guess what? They all go to school, and never even got themselves pregnant or arrested! How about that?
Sarah has turned her term as governor into a tabloid aadministration, and still uses her kids and husband as political props. It is sad, because she has dragged her kids into her self made political cesspoll with her.
Regina
Please link to your original post on this subject.
Sarah uses her official state website like it is a tabloid newspaper...
Not shocking it is the only one with commercial links and links to companies that pay money to Sarah and Todd.
With your efforts and others, hopefully Sarah will never be able to say, "show me the nuclear launch codes"
Anonymous@16:53,
Thanks for the reminder about linking to original post. It slipped my mind (too many links!). It's linked now.
Cheers,
Reg
Living in Illinois, we are used to some pretty tough politics and wacky politicians. When I looked up our state website, there is no personal information about our current governor, Pat Quinn. I had to search Google to learn that he was divorced, had two sons, chooses to live in governor's mansion in Springfield, the capital. He replaced the recently removed Rod Blagojevich, who makes it his business to be seen on TV (or in the papers) performing some kind of ridiculous stunt-- anything to make a buck to pay off his mounting legal bills. A judge recently denied his request to go the Costa Rica to take part in a reality show saying that Blago should spend his time reading the boxes of papers detailing the serious legal charges against him. In a recent sound clip, Sarah Palin moaned about having to defend the Office of Governor against all of the baseless charges. It has nothing to do with her office; it has everything to do with her misuse of that office. Maybe she should read some of the serious ethics violations she is accused of. And, I sincerely hope that having commercial links on the state website will be added to the list of charges. Thanks, Regina.
Sarah
Put more ads on your state website for Saks, Needless Markup, Louis Vuitton or Huggies you may get more free stuff from these companies.
Maybe even get a new free wardrobe to replace the one the mean GOP guys took from you.
Wow, Regina. Excellent work, once again. Very interesting comparisons.
In the magical world of Sarah Palin, the state's official website is her own little electronic billboard and her own little blog, where the content of press releases is the equivalent of "STFU H8trz!"
I checked out the Michigan website in more detail. No children's pictures (or even their names or ages). Pictures of governor seem to be at or promoting state events. The site is about Michigan not a Myspace personality page. Interesting contrast.
Regina,
Thank you for writing about this!
I have not checked Alaska law, but Palin's use of the government paid site to complain about her constituents and call it "news" would seem to be a HUGE ethics violation worthy of a complaint.
I checked her buddy Rick Perry's site paid for by Texas. He uses it to say what he supports but does not use it to attack his critics. And he has plenty of critics, especially since his tea bag party pander about seceding.
I find her website outrageous, and I wasn't even paying attention to the First Dude's advertisements.
Thanks Regina,
I read our governor, Ted Kulongoski's web page.
No mention of any relatives there, although at the very bottom of his bio page, it says he has a wife and kids.
You already covered my governor Jan Brewer - I had to Wiki to discover she is married.
She replaced Janet Napolitano whom Obama STOLE (she was a Dem check and balance on the 90 Dwarfs as our Legislature is fondly called here in the great state of AZ, whose formal reputation is built upon the Gunfight at the OK Corral). Janet was not married so there was no first Dude.
I guess once again, this becomes Alaska's problem. They don't seem obviously to mind the fact that GINO uses her office as a slush fund.
The issue of State confidential emails being copied to TODD is one that should make people angry. Or did Alaska actually elect the First couple???
Look we know what she is - and that's all she'll ever be. She is her own worst enemy and when she goes down, it's her fault and no one elses.
Thank you for doing all that research and for the interesting article.
While the First Gentleman's link to the Iron Dog page has an Artic Cat ad, it doesn't appear to be more prominent than all the other ads. I imagine there are a lot of inquiries about the Iron Dog, hence, the link. I am concerned that any new ethics complaint about the link would really seem petty. I think CD's complaint does a great job of addressing the Artic Cat issue.
I do hope someone will take Palin to task about the nasty press releases. They show no respect for constituents or for the AK ethics review process. How can she prejudge a particular complaint? By saying a complaint is frivolous, is she saying the ethics law is frivolous? She's the governor. If she has a problem with the ethics law, she should work on changing it.
Sounds like governor narcissism . . .
Regina or someone, please capture those pages before they are changed or dropped. It will be good added proof if a law suit on conflict of interest comes about over using her "office" to promote arctic cat.
We know dang well she's trying to slip this in hoping no one cares or notices. I'm sure all those companies are very "pleased" for the "favor".
Linda's ethics complaint is very valid.
Good job Regina!
Sounds like SP thought the chance at being Governor was cool and fun, and an opportunity to get seen on the news, to earn extra income on the sidelines (questionable commercial promotions, magazine interviews). The word "serve" never even entered her mind.
It takes "pounding the pavement" work like this to get to the nitty gritty of things.
It is easier to accept slipshod ethical behavior when it has come to "seem" normal. This opens the door for greater abuses. Then, when ethics lapses are pointed out, the next step is to mock, criticize and attempt to ostrasize whoever dares to do so. What is acceptable and "normal" becomes repositioned without public consent or permission. This is the behavior of bohemians, jet-setters, teenagers, hipsters, rock and rollers and cafe society girls. It is not what Governors are supposed to be known for.
By exposing that this seemingly "smaller" breach of ethics is definitely NOT the norm for other Governors, you shed light on the slippery slope of Palin's sloppy, slovenly and stinky ethical swamp.
Well done.
blatant misuse of a gov't webpage. why doesnt he link to his buddies that built his house?
ANON> said"If she has a problem with the ethics law, she should work on changing it."
26 April 2009 19:59
Methinks that was part of the agenda in appointing WAR ... too, and also
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