Todd Palin's role in the presidential campaign

Since his wife was tapped as John McCain's running mate, Todd Palin has been presented as a macho but modern stay-at-home dad who shuttles the couple's five kids to their activities and once finished a snowmobile race with a broken arm -- a man as comfortable on the oil fields and fishing grounds of Alaska's north shore as he is attending official functions as "first dude."

But another picture of Sarah Palin's 44-year-old husband has also begun to emerge, one that paints him as a man who played a major role in his wife's administration and who was not afraid to use his access to make his own wishes known.

In a 25-page affidavit released this week, Palin defended his involvement in the so-called Troopergate scandal, answering questions about whether his wife abused her authority by firing the state's public safety commissioner.

Walt Monegan says he was dismissed after resisting pressure from Ms. Palin to fire Mike Wooten, a state trooper involved in a bitter divorce with the governor's sister.

After initially refusing to cooperate with a legislative investigation into the allegations, Mr. Palin answered questions in an affidavit leaked to the media this week that reveals his own dogged attempts to end Wooten's employment with the state police force.

"I make no apologies for wanting to protect my family and wanting to publicize the injustice of a violent trooper keeping his badge," he wrote.

Palin also defended his influence as the governor's spouse, saying his role was within the acceptable boundaries of a politically active couple.

"I have heard criticism that I am too involved in my wife's administration," Palin wrote in his affidavit.

"My wife and I are very close. We are each other's best friend. I have helped her in her career the best I can, and she has helped me."

"Anyone who knows Sarah knows she is the governor and she calls the shots," he added.

But people involved in Alaskan politics have suggested Mr. Palin was more than just a sympathetic ear to his wife. According to those close to the administration, he attending meetings, sat in on interviews, made phone calls to lawmakers to express his support for his wife's issues and was copied in on staff e-mails.

He has been referred to as the "shadow governor."

In his affidavit, Palin denied any undue influence in government proceedings and suggested there is a double standard being applied in criticizing his role because his wife is the state's first female governor.

But since Mr. Palin emerged on the national scene with his wife's nomination in August, he has managed to largely avoid the public scrutiny that has surrounded other political spouses such as Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain.

He has given only one media interview, to Fox News's Greta Van Susteren, in which he appeared a humble and soft-spoken guy who shares his wife's colloquial manner.

"It's been a couple years since I dropped a moose," he said in the interview at the family home in Wasilla, Alaska.

His public statements have avoided any discussion of his political involvement and concentrated on his credentials as an Alaskan good ol' boy.

He showed Fox News his floatplane, snowmobiles and the family home he built with contractor friends.

However, aspects of Mr. Palin's character and past affiliations are beginning to find their way into criticism of the McCain-Palin presidential ticket.

He seems to share his wife's affinity for privacy, telling Fox that he confiscated his children's cell phones on the day he learned their mother had been tapped as John. McCain's running mate.

"Whoever's going to ask questions is staying at grandma's house," he recounted telling them as they flew to Ohio for the official announcement in August.

It has also emerged that Mr. Palin registered as a Republican only last month, and had previously been a member of the Alaska Independence Party, which supports the state's secession from the United States.

Since August, Palin has been traveling with his wife on the campaign trail, but has remained mostly silent. Any involvement in Republican election strategy is unknown.

When Ms. Van Susteren suggested that this anonymity would soon disappear, and that he would not be allowed out of the media's sight, he looked amused.

"You want to make a bet on that?" he asked.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)