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ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The Democratic Alaska legislator leading an investigation into Gov. Sarah Palin's dismissal of her public safety commissioner should be removed because he appears to be manipulating the probe to damage her vice-presidential candidacy, a Republican representative said.

Alaska state Senator Hollis French "appears to be steering the direction of the investigation, its conclusion and its timing in a manner that will have maximum partisan political impact on the national and state elections," state Representative John Coghill said in a letter dated Friday.

Coghill is on the Alaska legislature's Legislative Council, the body that appointed French to oversee the investigation. The letter was sent to the council chairman Senator Kim Elton, whom Coghill asks to convene a meeting to discuss whether French should be replaced. Coghill's efforts were reported by Newsweek magazine Saturday.

Coghill said the council instructed French to keep politics out of the investigation.

"He just failed that, in my view," Coghill said Saturday.

Elton did not immediately return a message left at his office.

In July, the council approved $100,000 for an investigation into whether Palin abused her power by firing Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. Monegan said he felt pressure from Palin family and staff to dismiss a trooper, Mike Wooten, who went through a messy divorce with her sister before Palin's election as governor.

Coghill wrote in the letter that French was quoted in news reports saying the results of the investigation were going to be an "October surprise" that is "likely to be damaging to the administration."

Coghill said he was not approached by the McCain-Palin campaign to draft the letter but he called the campaign to "apprise" them of the letter he sent it.

"I'm on my own in this one," he said.

French said he said some things he probably shouldn't have but noted he is not in charge of gathering the facts and writing the report. Prosecutor Stephen Branchflower was hired to conduct the investigation and the integrity of the investigation remains intact, he said.

"The reason we hired Steve Branchflower was to avoid this entire discussion. Sooner or later, everybody gets accused of partisanship no matter what you're doing," French said.

A recent decision to not subpoena the governor is evidence the investigation was not politicized, French said.

On Friday, French said the legislature will subpoena seven other witnesses and the investigation is on a fast track now that Palin is Republican John McCain's running mate.

The investigation previously was expected to end Oct. 31, five days before the Nov. 4 U.S. election. The new target date for Branchflower to complete the report is Oct. 10.

Wooten divorced Palin's sister and served a five-day suspension after the Palins filed a complaint against him for threatening Palin's father. The Palins also accused Wooten of using a Taser on his stepson, drinking in his patrol car and illegally shooting a moose.

Monegan was fired by Palin in July. She has strongly denied Monegan's dismissal had anything to do with her former brother-in-law and has said she welcomes the investigation.