ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) -- He's the man Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin affectionately calls her "first dude."

Todd Palin was introduced to the nation at the Republican National Convention as a blue-collar oil worker, a laid-back father of five and a world-record-holding snowmobile racer.

Todd and Sarah met in high school at a basketball game and eloped in 1988, six years after graduation. Todd grew up in Alaska and is part Eskimo. He's an avid outdoorsman and champion of the Iron Dog snowmobile race.

He's worked in Alaska's oil industry and as a fisherman. But in recent times, he's had another role. Some call him the "Shadow Governor."

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CNN has seen thousands of e-mails released this year from the governor's office that show that Todd Palin was copied on hundreds of them. The topics of the e-mails ranged from public criticism of Sarah Palin to her meetings with corporate leaders.

Andrew Halcro, who ran as an independent against Sarah Palin for governor in 2006 and is a critic of the Palins, wants to know why Todd Palin was being copied on state correspondence.

Halcro wrote a blog post about Todd Palin called "Shadow Governor" and says, "Todd plays the role as kind of the fixer."

Even Halcro found himself the subject of e-mails that Todd Palin was copied on. He wants to know why.

"This whole process, and the whole string of e-mails, to me really raise some red flags," Halcro said.

He's not on the state payroll, but lawmakers say he is a central figure in his wife's policy agenda.

Stephen Branchflower is one man who certainly thinks so. Branchflower was hired by the Alaska Legislature to investigate Governor Palin's firing of the state's top cop - Walt Monegan - and whether the Palins pressured him to fire the governor's former brother-in-law, trooper Mike Wooten.

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Branchflower wants to subpoena Todd Palin because the governor's husband "has spoken to numerous government employees. ... He's such a central figure to the events."

Sarah Palin has denied exerting any pressure to have anyone fired. Todd Palin hasn't spoken publicly about the case, but his wife's attorney said Thursday Mr Palin would not comply with the subpoena request. The McCain campaign said the Legislative Council was no longer carrying out "a legitimate investigation because it has been subjected to complete partisanship and does not operate with the authority that it had at the time of its initial authorization."

The list of still-secret emails includes a series of messages that circulated on February 1, 2008, among Palin, Bailey, Frye, and Todd Palin "re Andrew Halcro." A former Republican, Halcro ran as an independent against Palin for governor in 2006, collecting only 9 percent of the vote. Since then he has been a blogger who often criticizes Palin. There is no telling what the emails said about Halcro. But in a July blog posting, Halcro asked, "why in the world is Todd Palin getting copied on emails [about me] that his wife's administration is classifying as confidential....These emails should be released to the public....after all Todd Palin has no standing to claim executive privilege. By including him in the email loop, the Palin administration has arguably breached any claim of executive privilege." And McLeod wonders, "What do emails about Andrew Halcro have to do with policy deliberations?"

The list of confidential emails includes a number of communications related to the Public Safety Employees Association, a union for the state's police officers and state troopers, and the headings refer to PSEA ads and a "PR campaign." Many of these PSEA-related emails were CC'ed to Todd Palin—and were also withheld under the deliberative process and executive privileges. (Recently, John Cyr, the PSEA executive director, told The Washington Post that Sarah Palin held a grudge against the state troopers and held down their salaries and other funding because her ex-brother-in-law-the-trooper had not been fired.) A separate email sent from Frye to Bailey and Todd Palin and headed "I may be in trouble here guys" was withheld because it involves a personnel matter. In April, a series of emails with the subject line "from Sheila Toomey" zipped between Sarah Palin, Bailey, Frye, other Palin aides, and Todd Palin. Toomey writes the "Alaska Ear" political gossip column for the Anchorage Daily News. These emails were also withheld under the deliberative process and executive privileges. And a string of emails titled "Racism on the Radio" that went back and forth between Governor Palin and her aides was blocked from release on the same grounds.