The whole Ted Stevens thing sounds familiar...
Some facts, some possible connections...
http://news.spreadit.org/palin-housesarah-palin-s-house-built-for-free/
Palin House:Sarah Palin’s House Built For Free? - Palin house is the drama of the day.The Palin family has a house worth $552,000 that is causing a bit of controversy. Palin house is located at Lake Lucille.It is a two-story, four bedroom, four bath home and “Todd Palin said that he built the house with friends who were contractors.â€But reports claim that the house was actually built by the Spenard Builders Supply that was hired for the $12.5 million Wasilla Sports Complex.To make a long story short Palin made Spenard Builders Supply build her house in order for them to obtain the big Sports Complex contract.
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According to the tax returns released by the Palins, they paid $10,203 in mortgage interest in 2007. Based on the average interest rates for 30-yr and 15-yr fixed-rate mortgages in 2002 (www.hsh.com/natmo2002.html), the principle at its origination would have been approximately $165,000 and $220,000, respectively. As their house is now worth $552,000, the Palins sure have “built†a lot of equity in 5 years.
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A list of subcontractors on the [sports complex] job, obtained by the Voice, includes many with Palin ties. One was Spenard Builders Supply, the state’s leading supplier of wood, floor, roof, and other “pre-engineered components.†In addition to being a sponsor of Todd Palin’s snow-machine team that has earned tens of thousands for the Palin family, Spenard hired Sarah Palin to do a statewide television commercial in 2004. When the Palins began building a new family home off Lake Lucille in 2002—at the same time that Palin was running for lieutenant governor and in her final months as mayor—Spenard supplied the materials, according to Antoine Bricks, who works in its Wasilla office. Spenard actually filed a notice “of its right to assert a lien†on the deed for the Palin property after contracting for labor and materials for the site. Spenard’s name has popped up in the trial of Senator Stevens—it worked on the house that is at the center of the VECO scandal as well.
Todd Palin told Fox News that he built the two-story, 3,450-square-foot, four-bedroom, four-bath, wood house himself, with the help of contractors he described as “buddies.†As mayor, Sarah Palin blocked an effort to require the filing of building permits in the wide-open city, and there is no public record of who the “buddies†were. The house was built very near the complex, on a site whose city purchase led to years of unsuccessful litigation and, now, $1.3 million in additional costs, with a law firm that’s also donated to Palin collecting costly fees from the city.
Dorwin and Joanne Smith, the principals of complex subcontractor DJ Excavation & Development, have donated $7,100 to Palin and her allied candidate Charlie Fannon (Joanne is a Palin appointee on the state Board of Nursing). Sheldon Ewing, who owns another complex subcontractor, Weld Air, has donated $1,300, and PN&D, an engineering firm on the complex, has contributed $699.
Ewing was one of the few sports-complex contractors, aside from Spenard, willing to address the question of whether he worked on the house as well, but he had little to say: “I doubt that it occurred, but if it did indirectly, how would I know anyhow?†The odd timing of Palin’s house construction—it was completed two months before she left City Hall and while she and Todd Palin were campaigning statewide for the first time—raises questions, especially considering its synergy with the complex.
What an unusual situation. Giant construction contracts are being awarded to campaign contributors at the same time that “buddies†who just happen to be contractors are “helping†Todd build their two-story house. At the same time Sarah ensures there will be no public record of building permits. WTF? How is this different from the Stevens situation?