Hey, don't forget Salmongate! Politics of the Plate: Salmongate

[babsbunny]

http://www.gourmet.com/foodpolitics/2008/09/politics-of-the-plate-salmon-scandal

At the very least, there was something fishy about Alaska Governor (and Vice Presidential hopeful) Sarah Palin’s decision to speak out publicly against the state’s Clean Water Initiative late last month. There may also be something blatantly illegal about her advocacy for defeating the ballot initiative, which ultimately failed to pass when 57 percent of Alaskans voted against it.
Related links

* Read more by Barry Estabrook on gourmet.com
* Find out why you should avoid raw salmon
* Read Gourmet’s guide to buying sustainable seafood
* Catch up on the latest food politics news in Politics of the Plate

A bit of background. The Clean Water Initiative (aka Ballot Measure 4) was put in place to restrict the amount of arsenic and other toxic pollutants that new, large-scale mines could dump into the state’s waterways. Its stated goal was to protect human health and safeguard salmon that use the rivers and streams to spawn. More specifically, it was aimed at a massive gold and copper operation called Pebble Mine located directly upstream of Bristol Bay, site of one of the world’s largest and most sustainable wild salmon fisheries, which produced 31 million pounds of king, sockeye, and chum salmon in 2007.

The law in Alaska forbids a governor from officially lobbying for or against a ballot initiative such as Ballot Measure 4. To get around the law, Palin exercised what she called “personal privilege” when she said to reporters, “Let me take my governor’s hat off for just a minute here and tell you, personally, Prop 4—I vote no on that.”

[Eric J in MN]

1. A right-wing pastor in Minnesota endorsed Republican...

...Michelle Bachmann (now a US Congresswoman)from the pulpit while claiming that he was speaking for himself and not the church.

It's illegal to use church resources to endorse candidates regardless.

It's similar to Sarah Palin saying, "Let me take my governor’s hat off for just a minute here and tell you, personally, Prop 4—I vote no on that."