Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin
11th Governor of Alaska
Incumbent
Assumed office December 4, 2006
Lieutenant	Sean Parnell
Preceded by	Frank Murkowski
Chairperson, Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission
In office 2003–2004
Preceded by	Camille Oechsli Taylor
Succeeded by	John K. Norman
Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska
In office 1996–2002
Preceded by	John Stein
Succeeded by	Dianne M. Keller
City Council Member, Wasilla, Alaska
In office 1992–1996
Personal details
Born	(1964-02-11) February 11, 1964 Sandpoint, Idaho, United States
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Todd Palin (since 1988)
Children	Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, Trig
Residence	Wasilla, Alaska
Alma mater	University of Idaho
Profession	Politician
Signature

Location of Wasilla, Alaska

Sarah Louise Heath Palin (Template:Pron-en; born February 11, 1964) is the current governor of the U.S. state of Alaska, and is the presumptive Republican vice presidential nominee in the 2008 United States presidential election.

On December 4, 2006, Palin was sworn in as the governor of Alaska, becoming the first woman and youngest person to hold the office. She defeated incumbent Republican governor Frank Murkowski in the Republican primary and former Democratic governor Tony Knowles in the general election. Palin served two terms on the Wasilla, Alaska, city council from 1992 to 1996, then won two terms as mayor of Wasilla from 1996 to 2002. After an unsuccessful campaign for lieutenant governor of Alaska in 2002, she chaired the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission from 2003 to 2004 while also serving as Ethics Supervisor of the commission.

On August 29, 2008, Republican presidential candidate John McCain announced he had chosen Palin as his running mate. She is expected to be formally nominated at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. She would be the second woman to run for vice president on a major-party ticket and the first Republican to do so.

Early life and education

Palin was born Sarah Louise Heath in Sandpoint, Idaho, the daughter and third of four children of Sarah Heath (née Sheeran), a school secretary, and Charles R. Heath, a science teacher and track coach. She is of English, Irish, and German ancestry. Her family moved to Alaska when she was an infant.

Palin attended Wasilla High School in Wasilla, Alaska, where she was the head of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter at the school and the point guard and captain of the school's basketball team. She helped the team win the Alaska small-school basketball championship in 1982, hitting a critical free throw in the last seconds of the game, despite having an ankle stress fracture at the time. She earned the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" because of her intense play and was the leader of team prayer before games. In her high-school yearbook, she stated that her professional ambition was to sit in a broadcast booth with sports journalist Howard Cosell and broadcast basketball games starring her boyfriend at the time, Todd Palin.

In 1984, Palin won the Miss Wasilla beauty contest, then finished second in the Miss Alaska pageant, at which she won a college scholarship. In the Wasilla pageant, she played the flute and won "Miss Congeniality".

Palin attended Hawaii Pacific College in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1982 for a semester, where she majored in Business Administration, and transferred in 1983 to North Idaho College. In 1987, Palin received a Bachelor of Science degree in communications-journalism from the University of Idaho, where she also minored in political science.

She worked briefly as a sports reporter for KTUU-TV in Anchorage, Alaska, and also helped out in her husband’s family commercial fishing business.

Early political career

City council and mayorship

Palin began her political career in 1992 when running for Wasilla, Alaska city council, supporting a controversial new sales tax and advocating "a safer, more progressive Wasilla". She won and served two terms on the council from 1992 to 1996.

In 1996, she challenged and defeated incumbent John Stein for the non-partisan office of mayor, criticizing wasteful spending and high taxes. In January 1997, Palin fired the Wasilla police chief, citing a failure to support her administration. In response, a group of 60 residents calling themselves Concerned Citizens for Wasilla discussed attempting a recall campaign against Palin, but decided against it. The fired police chief sued Palin, saying he had been fired because he supported Palin's opponent. The court dismissed the suit, finding that Palin had the right to fire city employees even for political reasons.

Palin fulfilled campaign promises to reduce the salary of the mayor, and to reduce property taxes by 40 percent. She increased the city sales tax to pay for construction of an indoor ice rink and sports complex. At this time, state Republican leaders began grooming her for higher office. She ran for re-election as mayor against Stein in 1999, winning by a 50% margin. Palin was also elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors.

In 2002, when term limits prevented Palin from running for a third term as mayor, her mother-in-law, Faye Palin, ran for the office but lost the election to Dianne Keller.

Palin added nearly $20 million dollars in long-term debt to Wasallia's government, or about $3,000 per town resident.

2002 run for Lieutenant Governor

In 2002, Palin made an unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor, coming in second to Loren Leman in a five-way race in the Republican primary. After Frank Murkowski resigned from his long-held U.S. Senate seat in mid-term to become governor, he considered appointing Palin to his Senate seat but instead chose his daughter, Alaska state representative Lisa Murkowski.

Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commissioner

Governor Murkowski appointed Palin to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, where she chaired the Commission from 2003 to 2004, and also served as Ethics Supervisor. Palin resigned in January 2004 in protest over what she called the "lack of ethics" of fellow Republican members.

After resigning, Palin filed formal complaints against the state Republican Party's chairman, Randy Ruedrich, and former Alaska Attorney General Gregg Renkes. She accused Ruedrich, one of her fellow commissioners, of doing work for the party on public time and working closely with a company he was supposed to be regulating. Ruedrich and Renkes both resigned and Ruedrich paid a record US$12,000 fine.

Connection to Ted Stevens

From 2003 to June 2005, Palin served as one of three directors of "Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.," a 527 group that was designed to serve as a political boot camp for Republican women in Alaska.

In the 2006 gubernatorial race, Stevens endorsed Palin. In July, Palin held a joint press conference with Stevens to demonstrate her continued support of Alaska's senior senator. Later that month, Senator Stevens was indicted on seven counts of corruption. Palin said the indictment "rocks the foundation of our state," but said that she would not call for the senator's resignation until she had time to review the 28-page indictment.

Governor of Alaska

Palin with Lt. Governor Sean Parnell

In 2006, running on a clean-government platform, Palin defeated then-Governor Murkowski in the Republican gubernatorial primary. Her running mate was State Senator Sean Parnell.

In August, she declared that education, public safety, and transportation would be the three cornerstones of her administration. Despite spending less than her Democratic opponent, she won the gubernatorial election in November, defeating former Governor Tony Knowles 48.3 percent to 40.9 percent.

Palin became Alaska's first woman governor and, at 42, the youngest in Alaskan history. She is the first Alaskan governor born after Alaska achieved U.S. statehood and the first governor not inaugurated in Juneau. She chose to have the ceremony held in Fairbanks. She took office on December 4, 2006.

She has challenged the state Republican establishment. For example, she endorsed Parnell's bid to unseat the state's longtime at-large U.S. Congressman, Don Young. Palin also publicly challenged Senator Ted Stevens to come clean about the federal investigation into his financial dealings. Shortly after Stevens was indicted on corruption charges, Palin removed a 2006 campaign ad in which she appeared with Stevens from her gubernatorial campaign Web site. Not long after taking office, she auctioned the Goveners's state jet on eBay.

A poll published by Hays Research on July 28, 2008, showed Palin's approval rating at 80 percent, while another Ivan Moore poll showed it at 76 percent, a drop which the pollsters attributed to the controversial firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. A subsequent Rasmussen Reports poll from July 31, 2008 showed 35 percent of Alaskans rated her performance as excellent, 29 percent good, 22 percent fair, and 14 percent poor.

In March 2008, Palin produced a video welcoming the convention of the secessionist Alaskan Independence Party to Fairbanks.

Energy and environment

See also: Alaska Gas Pipeline and Palin's political positions on energy and the environment

Palin has strongly promoted oil and natural gas resource development in Alaska, including in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), where such development has been the subject of a national debate. She also helped pass a tax increase on oil company profits. Palin has followed through on plans to create a new sub-cabinet group of advisers to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions within Alaska. However, when asked about climate change after becoming Senator McCain's presumptive running mate, she stated that it would "affect Alaska more than any other state", but she does not "attribute it to being man-made".

Governor Palin testing a flight simulator at Alaska National Guard Headquarters, Fort Richardson

Shortly after taking office, Palin rescinded 35 appointments made by Murkowski in the last hours of his administration, including that of his former chief of staff James "Jim" Clark to the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority. Clark later pleaded guilty to conspiring with a defunct oil-field-services company to channel money into Frank Murkowski's re-election campaign.

In March 2007, Palin presented the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) as the new legal vehicle for building a natural gas pipeline from the state's North Slope. This negated a deal by the previous governor to grant the contract to a coalition including BP (her husband's former employer). Only one legislator, Representative Ralph Samuels, voted against the measure, and in June, Palin signed it into law. On January 5, 2008, Palin announced that a Canadian company, TransCanada Corp., was the sole AGIA-compliant applicant. In August 2008, Palin signed a bill into law giving the state of Alaska authority to award TransCanada Pipelines US$500 million in seed money and a license to build and operate the US$26-billion pipeline to transport natural gas from the North Slope to the Lower 48 through Canada.

In response to high oil and gas prices, and the resulting state government budget surplus, Palin proposed giving Alaskans US$100-a-month energy debit cards. She also proposed providing grants to electrical utilities so that they would reduce customers' rates. She subsequently dropped the debit card proposal, and in its place she proposed to send Alaskans US$1,200 directly, paid for from the windfall surplus the state is getting because of the high oil prices.

In May 2008, Palin objected to the decision of Dirk Kempthorne, the Republican United States Secretary of the Interior, to list polar bears as an endangered species. She filed a lawsuit to stop the listing amid fears that it would hurt oil and gas development in the bears' habitat off Alaska's northern and northwestern coasts. She said the move to list the bears was premature and was not the appropriate management tool for their welfare.

Budget

Governor Sarah Palin in Kuwait visiting soldiers of the Alaska National Guard, July 24, 2007.

Shortly after becoming governor, Palin canceled a contract for the construction of an 11-mile (18-kilometer) gravel road outside Juneau to a mine. This reversed a decision made in the closing days of the Murkowski Administration. She also followed through on a campaign promise to sell the Westwind II jet purchased (on a state government credit account) by the Murkowski administration. In August 2007, the jet was sold for US$2.1 million.

In June 2007, Palin signed into law a US$6.6 billion operating budget—the largest in Alaska's history. At the same time, she used her veto power to make the second-largest cuts of the construction budget in state history. The US$237 million in cuts represented over 300 local projects, and reduced the construction budget to nearly US$1.6 billion.

In 2006, Ketchikan's Gravina Island Bridge, known outside the state as the "Bridge to Nowhere", became an issue in the gubernatorial campaign. Palin initially expressed support for the bridge and ran on a "build-the-bridge" platform, but later decided to use the bridge funds for other projects when Congressional legislation decreased the federal portion of the bridge's funding. Palin directed state transportation officials to find the most "fiscally responsible" alternative for access to Ketchikan's airport. Although Alaska kept the federal money, Palin stated that Alaska should rely less on federal funding. Palin now claims that, "I told Congress, thanks but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere."

In 2007, the Alaska Creamery Board recommended closing Matanuska Maid Dairy, an unprofitable state-owned business. Palin objected, citing concern for dairy farmers and a recent infusion of US$600,000 in state money. Gov. Palin subsequently replaced the entire membership of the Board of Agriculture and Conservation. The new board reversed the decision to close the dairy. Later in 2007, the unprofitable business was put up for sale. No offers met the minimum bid of US$3.35 million, and the dairy was closed. In August 2008, the Anchorage plant was purchased for US$1.5 million, the new minimum bid. The purchaser plans to convert it into heated storage units.

Public Safety Commissioner dismissal

Main article: Alaska Public Safety Commissioner dismissal

On July 11, 2008 Palin dismissed Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan. She instead offered him a position as executive director of the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, which he turned down. On July 17 she stated, "Former Commissioner Monegan was not released due to any actions or inaction related to personnel issues in his department." A month later, Palin asserted that Monegan had not adequately filled state trooper vacancies, and that he “did not turn out to be a team player on budgeting issues.” Monegan responded that the two recent trooper graduating classes had the most recruits in years.

Palin's power to fire him is not in dispute, but Monegan alleged that his dismissal may have been partly in retaliation for his reluctance to fire Palin’s former brother-in-law, Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten, who had been officially reprimanded and disciplined before and had been involved in a divorce and child custody battle with Palin’s sister, Molly McCann. Initially, Palin denied that there had been any pressure on Monegan to fire Wooten from her or anyone in her administration. However, she later disclosed that her staff had contacted Monegan or his staff about two dozen times regarding Wooten, including many from her chief of staff, stating most calls were made without her knowledge. Monegan claims he was also contacted about Wooten by Palin herself, Palin's husband, and the state's Attorney General, Talis Colberg. An investigation of the dismissal, currently being conducted by an independent investigator hired by the Alaska Legislature, should be completed in October.

2008 vice-presidential campaign

Main article: John McCain presidential campaign, 2008

See also: Republican Party (United States) vice presidential candidates, 2008 and Reaction to McCain picking Palin

2008 Republican Party Presumptive Nominees
File:McCainPalin.png
Campaign	US presidential election, 2008
Candidate	John Sidney McCain (presidential) Arizona Senator 1987–incumbent Sarah Louise Heath Palin (vice-presidential) Governor of Alaska 2006–incumbent
Affiliation	Republican Party
Status	VP presumptive nominee August 29, 2008
Headquarters	Arlington, Virginia
Website
www.johnmccain.com

File:McCain-Palin 2008 logo.jpg

McCain-Palin website logo.

On August 29, 2008, John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate announced that he had chosen Palin as his running mate. Palin's selection surprised many people because speculation centered on others like Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, United States Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, and former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge.

According to advisors close to the campaign, McCain had originally wanted to select Lieberman, primarily on the advice of one of his national chairmen, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. However, religious conservatives said they would never accept an abortion-rights supporter on the ticket. McCain was reportedly concerned about reclaiming his image as a "maverick Republican" and wanted someone to shake up the ticket. With this in mind, he called Palin on August 24 to discuss the possibility of having her join him on the ticket.

The Washington Post and other sources quote several McCain advisors as saying Palin had been under consideration since a private meeting with McCain in a February National Governors Association meeting. Although this was the first time the two had met, advisors told the Post that Palin made a very good impression on McCain. Advisors state as the vetting rounds narrowed the candidate list down Palin was always one of the potential candidates, and McCain aides insisted that the backlash against Lieberman had no effect on his final choice. On August 27, Palin visited McCain's vacation home near Sedona, Arizona where she was offered the position of vice presidential candidate. According to the New York Times, Palin was the only prospective running mate who had a face-to-face interview with McCain to discuss joining the ticket.

McCain confirmed this offer after further talks later that night in Dayton, Ohio; site of the event where McCain formally introduced Palin the next morning. Speculation began early Friday morning with reports that Palin and her family had been seen getting off a plane in Dayton. At approximately 10 a.m. Eastern time—two and a half hours before her formal introduction—senior advisors confirmed that Palin had in fact been selected.

A month previously, Palin had said:

But as for that VP talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day? I’m used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we’re trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the U.S., before I can even start addressing that question.

Palin strongly supports drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), which McCain has opposed. They also disagree on her belief that global warming is not caused by human activity. On August 4, 2008, Palin put out a press release praising portions of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's energy plan including the call for completion of the Alaska Gas Pipeline and proposal of US$1,000 rebates for families struggling with energy costs, although she took exception with its call for a windfall profits tax on oil companies. The press release in question appears to have been removed from the governor's website, but can still be accessed through Google's cache.

Palin is the second U.S. woman to run on a major party ticket, after Geraldine Ferraro, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee of former vice-president Walter Mondale in 1984.

Political positions

Main article: Political positions of Sarah Palin

In 2002, while running for lieutenant governor, Palin called herself as "pro-life as any candidate can be." She opposes abortion for rape and incest victims, supporting it only in cases where the mother's life is in danger, and suggested that requiring parental consent for abortions be added to Alaska's constitution. Palin does support contraception, and is a member of Feminists for Life. Palin is also a supporter of abstinence-only education and opposes sex education programs.

Palin opposes same-sex marriage and supported a non-binding referendum for a constitutional amendment to deny state health benefits to same-sex couples. Palin has stated that she supported the 1998 constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

In a televised debate, Palin said she supported teaching both creationism and evolution in public schools. She clarified her position the next day, saying that if a debate of alternative views arose in class she would not prohibit its discussion. She added that she would not push the state Board of Education to add creation-based alternatives to the state's required curriculum.

Palin is in favor of capital punishment. She has stated that: "If the legislature passed a death penalty law, I would sign it. We have a right to know that someone who rapes and murders a child or kills an innocent person in a drive by shooting will never be able to do that again."

Palin does not support the legalization of marijuana in Alaska, stating concerns about the message re-legalization would send to her children. She has smoked marijuana in the past.

Palin has strongly promoted oil and natural gas resource development in Alaska, including opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to drilling. She does not believe that global warming is human-made. She opposed listing of the polar bear as an endangered species on the grounds that the "population has dramatically increased over 30 years as a result of conservation", and supported a controversial predator-control program involving aerial hunting of wolves to manage moose populations for hunters.

Palin is a long-time member of the National Rifle Association, and is popular among gun rights activists. She supports gun safety education for youth.

Palin's foreign policy positions were unknown at the time she was picked as McCain's running mate. Although she has supported President Bush's efforts to stop terrorism, she has also criticized the lack of an exit strategy in Iraq. Palin has tied the war to the quest for new energy supplies, saying, "We are a nation at war and in many [ways] the reasons for war are fights over energy sources, which is nonsensical when you consider that domestically we have the supplies ready to go."

Personal life and family

Palin is a self-described "hockey mom" and mother of five. She hunts, goes ice fishing, eats mooseburgers, rides snowmobiles, has run a marathon, and owns a floatplane.

Religion

Palin was originally baptized as a Roman Catholic, but her parents switched to the Wasilla Assembly of God, a Pentecostal church, where she was rebaptized at age 12 or 13. When she is in the capital, she attends Juneau Christian Center, another Assemblies of God church. Her current home church in Wasilla is The Church on the Rock, an independent congregation. Although initial reports described her as the first Pentecostal ever named to a major party's presidential ticket, Palin describes herself as a non-denominational Christian. The National Catholic Reporter described her as a "post-denominational" Christian.

Family

Palin family members at the announcement of Palin's vice presidential selection, August 29, 2008. From left: Todd, Piper, Willow, Bristol, and Trig.

Palin eloped with her high-school boyfriend, Todd Palin, on August 29, 1988, when she was 24 years old. Alan Colmes of FOX News noted on his blog that her son Track was born just over eight months later on April 20, 1989 and has raised the issue of Track's possibly being conceived out of wedlock as the reason for the elopment. According to her mother, however, the reason was simple: "It was a shock but she did it because she knew we couldn’t afford a big white wedding." Colmes does not cite a source for the birthdate, and other sources, such as Bloomberg News only note that he was born in 1989. Todd works for the oil company BP as an oil-field production operator, is a member of District 12, Local 4959 of the United Steelworkers Union (USW), and is registered to vote as an independent ("nonpartisan"). He is a Bristol Bay salmon set-netter and owns a commercial fishing business. He is a champion snowmobiler, winning the 2,000-mile (3,200 km) "Iron Dog" race four times. The family lives in Wasilla.

The couple have five children: sons Track (19) and Trig (4 months) and daughters Bristol (17), Willow (14) and Piper (7) [ages as of September 2008]. Palin's son Track enlisted in the U.S. Army on September 11, 2007, subsequently joining an infantry brigade, and Palin has said he will be deployed to Iraq on September 11, 2008. Palin's youngest child, Trig, has Down syndrome. Palin has said that she feels blessed that God chose them to raise a baby with Down Syndrome. The pro-life community has applauded her decision to have the baby.

Palin's announcement that she was seven months pregnant generated publicity and surprise, as did the circumstances of Trig's birth. More than a month before the baby was due, she was about to deliver the keynote address at a conference in Texas when she began leaking amniotic fluid. She delivered the speech before flying back to Alaska, giving birth seven hours after her return at the Mat-Su Valley Regional Medical Center. Palin returned to work three days later.

On September 1, 2008, following internet rumors that Trig Palin was actually Bristol's son, the McCain campaign released a statement from the Palins announcing that their 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is five months pregnant. They further stated that she intends to keep the baby and to marry the father of her child. The McCain-Palin campaign states that John McCain was previously aware of the situation, but decided that it would not affect his choice of Palin as his vice presidential nominee.

Electoral history

2006 Gubernatorial Election, Alaska

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Sarah Palin	114,697	48.33	-7.6
	Democratic	Tony Knowles	97,238	40.97	+0.3
	Independent	Andrew Halcro	22,443	9.46	n/a
	Independence	Don Wright	1,285	0.54	-0.4
	Libertarian	Billy Toien	682	0.29	-0.2
	Green	David Massie	593	0.25	-1.0
	Write-ins		384	0.16	+0.1
Majority			17,459	7.36
Turnout			238,307	51.1
	Republican hold		Swing	4.0

Alaska Republican Gubernatorial Primary Election, 2006

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Sarah Palin	51,443	50.59	n/a
	Republican	John Binkley	30,349	29.84	n/a
	Republican	Frank Murkowski, Incumbent	19,412	19.09	n/a
	Republican	Gerald Heikes	280	0.28	n/a
	Republican	Merica Hlatcu	211	0.21	n/a
Majority			21,094	20.75	n/a
Turnout			101,695	n/a	n/a

2002 race for Lieutenant Governor (primary)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Loren Leman	21,076	29%	n/a
	Republican	Sarah Palin	19,114	27%	n/a
	Republican	Robin Taylor	16,053	22%	n/a
	Republican	Gail Phillips	13,804	19%	n/a
	Republican	Paul Wieler	1,777	2%	n/a

1999 race for Mayor of Wasilla

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	n/a	Sarah Palin, Incumbent	909	73.6%	n/a
	n/a	John Stein	292	23.6%	n/a
	n/a	Cliff Silvers	32	2.6%	n/a

External links

• Official Campaign Website for McCain/Palin 2008
• Alaska Office of Governor Sarah Palin
  • Family photo
• Profile from The Almanac of American Politics
• Profile from the National Governors Association

• Profile at Vote Smart
• First chapter of biography, Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska’s Political Establishment Upside Down by Kaylene Johnson
• Palin 2006 campaign contributions from Follow the Money
• Palin/Parnell 2006 campaign contributions from Follow the Money
• News and commentary from The New York Times
• "Palin's Way"—Cover story ("America's Hottest Governor") for Alaska Magazine, February 2008: Text only/ PDF file (including cover and photos)

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