No big bombshells in Palin's e-mails

JUNEAU, Alaska -- The state of Alaska on Friday released more than 13,000 emails that shed light on Sarah Palin's tenure as governor -- before she became a vice-presidential candidate, a reality-TV star, and an undeclared heavyweight in the 2012 race for the White House.

Many of the emails dealt with the mundane matters of running an office and a state: speech preparations, gubernatorial appointments, even office softball games. Others, however, provide a look at Palin's political persona, before she was catapulted into the national spotlight.

In one email, written weeks before Palin was chosen as a running mate by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Palin praises a speech by the man who would be McCain's opponent in the 2008 presidential race.

Then-Sen. Barack Obama "gave a great speech this morn in Michigan -- mentioned Alaska," Palin wrote to aides. In a speech in Lansing, Mich., Obama had spoken of the need to complete the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline, and open more oil and gas drilling in Alaska. "So . . . we need to take advantage of this and write a statement saying he's right on."

The governor told her fish and game commissioner in blunt terms that she opposed using state helicopters to hunt wolves and preferred paying private hunters.

The emails also reveal Palin's sensitivity to the way she was portrayed in the media, even at a time when the coverage came mainly from local outlets in Alaska. Palin's contentious relationship with the national news media has become a major theme of her political persona in the years since the end of the 2008 campaign.

The emails also show Palin dealing with the management of the governor's mansion. Though it was a ceremonial and government-owned residence, the emails show that their home had the same kind of mundane concerns that others do.

One example: As a mother of two teens, Palin was concerned about the alcohol stored in the liquor cabinet in the governor's mansion, and suggested that it be stowed away in boxes.

"Here's my thinking: with so many kids and teens coming and going in that house, esp during this season of celebrationstt 1/8sic 3/8 for young people -- proms, graduations, etc. I want to send the msg that we can be --and " the People's House'' needs to be --alcohol-free," she wrote to Erika Fagerstrom, the executive residence manager, on May 6, 2007.

At 9 a.m. Alaska time -- 1 p.m. in Washington -- 24,199 pages of printed-out emails that Palin either sent or received on her official account became public. The emails cover her first 21 months as governor, from December 2006 to September 2008. The remaining 10 months' worth could be released later.

News organizations first requested the emails after Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., made Palin his surprise choice for a running mate in the 2008 presidential race.

The emails released provide a look inside that period, as Palin corresponded with staff members about a flood of requests for media interviews. In one interview from September 2008, a Palin staffer relayed questions about the governor's favorite poem, and if she believes that dinosaurs and humans coexisted on the earth.

"Arghhhh! I am so sorry that the office is swamped like this! Dinosaurs, even?!" Palin wrote back. She promised to work on answers to some of the questions, and agreed with a the staffer's assessment that he was "dismayed" by the media.

"I, too, will continue to be dismayed at the media," Palin said in her reply.

After about a thousand days of delay, the emails were distributed in a set of five 55-pound boxes, with sensitive information redacted. The copying fees come to $725.97 for each news outlet. The Washington Post will post the emails online.

On Friday morning, the boxes containing the email were stacked chest-high in a state office building in Juneau, marked for news organizations like the Post, MSNBC, and the Associated Press. Some had been pre-loaded on dollies, so they could be rushed away quickly for examination.

"The thousands upon thousands of emails released today show a very engaged Gov. Sarah Palin being the CEO of her state," said Tim Crawford, an official at Palin's political action committee, Sarah PAC. "The emails detail a Governor hard at work. Everyone should read them."

Smaller troves of Palin family emails have been made public before. Last year, MSNBC obtained and released 1,200 sent and received by Todd Palin. Just this month, former Palin aide Frank Bailey released a tell-all book about his old boss entitled: "Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin."

"I think every rock in the Palin household that could ever be kicked over and uncovered anything, it's already been kicked over," Palin herself told Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday" last weekend.

However, she added some caveats. "A lot of those emails obviously weren't meant for public consumption," she said, and people who read them will "never truly know what the context of each one of the emails was."

State officials said they had reviewed more than 14,000 emails, and held back 953 of them because of state records rules. Another 2,373 will be released with some information redacted.

Sharon Leighow, a spokeswoman for Alaska's current governor, said that the state struggled to cope with nearly 600 records requests from various news organizations. She said that the state had to contract with a private law firm for help with this batch of emails.

"The sheer volume has been overwhelming," said Leighow, who previously worked the state government under the Palin administration. "We followed the process, and we followed the law."

The state provided few details about the emails that were redacted or withheld. It said many were protected because they were part of a deliberative process; others fell under attorney/client privilege. Other emails, the state said, contained private information like phone numbers.

Palin conducted some of her state business on a private Yahoo account, and not all of those emails are included in the release. Emails between that account and state accounts are included, but those between two private accounts are not.

Staff writers David A. Fahrenthold , Sandhya Somashekhar and R. Jeffrey Smith in Washington also contributed to this story.

/AP-WF-06-10-11 2346GMT