Boehner to Fundraise with Former Alaska GOP Chair Palin Confronted

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) is set to raise money in Alaska with the former chair of the Alaska GOP that Sarah Palin took on for corruption. 

Politico reported on Thursday that Boehner will raise money in Alaska on July 2, and former Alaska GOP Chair Randy Ruedrich is listed on the invitation to the event.

According to Politico, Boehner will “headline a July 2 event at a private home in Anchorage to collect donations for the Boehner for Speaker joint fundraising committee, which benefits his campaign, PAC, the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Ohio Republican Party.” The maximum donation allowed is $52,600. 

Rep. Don Young (R-AK), who has faced numerous ethics charges in Congress, is also on the host committee for the event.

Ruedrich ultimately resigned “his job as a state oil and gas regulator” in 2003 after Palin joined Democrats to call his political fundraising a conflict of interest for drawing money from industries he regulated. Palin was the chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission at the time. She said then that “the conflict of interest questions were hurting the agency’s credibility.” Ruedrich would later pay record fines and admit to wrongdoing, vindicating Palin. 

“The right thing has been done here,” Palin said after Reudrich’s resignation. “Randy was a qualified engineer for the commission but there was a conflict with him being a party chairman.”

“The Undefeated,” a documentary about Palin’s political record in Alaska, argued that “Palin took on Alaska GOP Chairman and fellow commission member Randy Ruedrich for doing party business on the taxpayers’ dime and leaking confidential information to oil industry insiders.”