Who will be the lucky beneficiary of the hefty fee Sarah Palin received for her Tea Party Convention address?
Mark Skoda, a spokesman for the convention, tells TPMmuckraker that when he called Palin’s office in the days after the speech to thank her for appearing and inquire about the money, “at that point they had no disposition at all. I do know that she’s committed to providing that honorarium to conservative causes.”
This is no small sum. Her standard speaking fee is reported to be $100,000, and one activist told TPMmuckraker before the convention that Palin was charging that amount for the tea party speech, which lasted 40 minutes.
After reports of the mega-honorarium added fuel to the controversy around the expense of the convention, Palin declared on the O’Reilly Factor that she would not benefit financially from the speech.
And she wrote in a USA Today op-ed:
“My only goal is to support the grassroots activists who are fighting for responsible, limited government — and our Constitution. In that spirit, any compensation for my appearance will go right back to the cause.”
Palin’s spokeswoman did not immediately respond to our request for comment.
