By Jim Popkin, NBC News Senior Investigative Producer
When federal judges in San Francisco ruled in 2002 that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools was unconstitutional because it included the phrase "under God," Sarah Palin was not amused. Palin, who at the time was Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, quickly drafted a terse letter to the editor of a San Francisco newspaper.
“Dear Editor,” Palin wrote in 2002. “San Francisco judges forbidding our Pledge of Allegiance? They will take the phrase ‘under God’ away from me when my cold, dead lips can no longer utter those words,” Palin wrote.
“God Bless America,” she concluded.
Hundreds of notes and letters
Palin’s letter to the editor is one of hundreds of personal notes and letters written by the former Mayor, and obtained this week to NBC News and others. The documents shed light on the management style--and personality--of the small town mayor turned vice presidential candidate.
There are few headline grabbers in the lot. Even Palin’s Pledge-of-Allegiance rant was a commonly held view at the time. (The U.S. Supreme Court later overturned the ruling on technical grounds. But not before Palin pushed through a city resolution stating that the Wasilla City Council “shall continue to recite America’s Pledge of Allegiance, in its entirety, including and especially the words, ‘…one nation, under God…”)
While hardly earth shattering, Palin’s personal missives can be revealing.
Consider the letter to Mike Doogan, then a columnist for the Anchorage Daily News.
Doogan had written in the paper on March 5, 2002, that lawmakers were considering moving the state legislature to Wasilla. “Now, I disrespect Wasilla as much as the next guy, but this seems a little extreme,” Doogan quipped. “Isn't being a blight on the landscape enough shame for Wasillians?”
Palin couldn’t resist. Two days later, she wrote a personal letter that simply said:
“Dear Mr. Doogan: Why do you do what you do to Wasilla?”
She signed it, “Respectfully, Sarah.”
Dear Senator Stevens
Several other letters in the old files further confirm Palin’s close relationship with Senator Ted Stevens, who was the state’s go-to lawmaker for the congressionally approved pet spending projects called earmarks. Palin wrote to Stevens at least three times in 2002 alone, asking for funding for a $150,000 “floatplane study” for Wasilla, an airport instrument landing system for the city, railroad depot improvements and a “Land Mobile Radio Project” for emergency responders. She got most of it, as previously reported here. “Thank you for your continued support,” she writes.
Minutiae matters
The correspondence also reveals an extreme attention to detail and a political deftness that clearly served her well as mayor. Palin wrote more thank-you notes than Miss Manners. She made sure she personally welcomed every new business owner to town. And every new baby too.
--“Dear Tracy, We heard the news! Congratulations from the City of Wasilla on the birth of your daughter,” she penned to one local resident.
--“Dear Porky, Thank you so much for the smoked salmon!” she wrote to another supporter.
--“Dear Trudy, Thank you so much for the beautiful Cyclamen plant. I appreciate you so much. God bless you,” she wrote.
--“To Allure Day Spa Staff, Thank you so much for the awesome facial that I received from Allure Day Spa a few weeks back,” she continued.
--“Dear Mr. Brittingham, Thank you so much for returning my pen to me after the Chamber meeting today,” the mayor wrote.
As the city files make clear, Palin wrote endless recommendations for local students, seemed to honor every Eagle Scout in a 200-mile radius and, as might be expected, obsessed over all things snow related. There are warnings about snow blowing and snowmachine safety, earnest letters regarding avalanche awareness and proclamations honoring sled-dog racing.
Smiley-face sincerity
Her letters are informal, even homey.
In a note to a Wasilla landscape firm thanking the owners for donating a tree, she writes, “You’re the best!” in pen and scribbles a smiley face, too.
In a letter to a businessman in Wasilla, she hand writes, “Thanks for all you do, Dude!”
The trove of old letters also makes clear how small Wasilla truly is.
“Under City of Wasilla Account 100-0074, please disconnect cell phone number 354-7676,” she wrote in 2002.
It was Mayor Palin, and not a low-level office worker, who was responsible for making sure the local phone company disconnected cell-phone service for some city workers.
