By Celeste Katz, Michael Saul, and Kenneth R. Bazinet, New York Daily News, October 23, 2008

23 Oct 2008 // It's too late for Mr. Blackwell to weigh in, but Sarah Palin's $150,000 wardrobe spending spree didn't wear well with some voters and legal experts Wednesday.

"You could just scrape Cindy McCain and give [Palin] what's left over," said Sean Lopez, 21, a Tampa student who was perplexed by the Republican Party-paid spending spree for its vice presidential nominee.

But Kathleen Pemiss, 41, a speech pathologist from Bedford, N.H., thought it was money well-spent.

"She's from Alaska. If she wore what she normally wears, people would be horrified," Pemiss said.

Even if it was legal for the Republican National Committee to drop $150,000 at Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Macy's and Bloomingdale's, it went against the spirit of the campaign finance law John McCain championed in the Senate, legal experts said.

"The McCain-Feingold law of 2002 specifically banned the use of campaign funds to purchase clothing," said lawyer Brett Kappel. Larry Noble, another Washington lawyer, agreed: "McCain-Feingold was the first statute that prohibited the use of campaign money for clothing."

The Republican National Committee, however, insists a loophole allowed it to spend the money to try to turn the already attractive hockey mom into a cosmopolitan runway model.

Unrepentant McCain campaign insiders insisted that it was smart, too.

"She's a middle-class woman from Alaska who dressed that way," an unapologetic top McCain adviser said. "Somebody needed to spruce her up for national television."

Melanie Sloan of the legal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said it would file a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission as early as today to seek a ruling on the legality.

"The reality is it won't be decided before the election, so it may be more of a political issue than a legal issue," Noble added.

The news of how the party laid out the big bucks to put Palin in fancy frocks, leather stiletto boots and a new hairdo divided the electorate.

At a McCain campaign rally in New Hampshire, Debbie Holmwood, 55, of Norwood, Mass., stood by her candidate.

"It ain't easy being a girl and trying to make it to the top," she said, adding that "$150,000 isn't a lot of money for a wardrobe."

Pat Barrett, 70, of Norwood, said it was a nonissue. "[Barack] Obama's campaign was kicked off by a terrorist," Barrett said. "Why would you care if the RNC gave her money for clothes?"

But Russ Glines, 48, a McCain supporter from Salem, N.H., said her Alaska governor's wardrobe should have been good enough. "She's a fine dresser on her own," he said. "We should use our money more wisely.

"Her appeal is not in her dress as much as in her belief system," Glines added.

Amy Elliott, 37, of Dunedin, Fla., a stay-at-home mom at a pro-Obama rally in Tampa, was shocked by the expense.

"I would be a Republican if they would do my hair and makeup for me," she said. "I didn't even spend $150 on my [three] children's clothes this year."