Sarah Palin: Difference between revisions

Sarah Palin
Governor Sarah Palin
11th Governor of Alaska
Incumbent
Assumed office December 4 2006
Lieutenant	Sean Parnell
Preceded by	Frank Murkowski
Personal details
Born	(1964-02-11) February 11, 1964 (age 60) Sandpoint, Idaho
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Todd Palin
Residence	Wasilla, Alaska
Alma mater	University of Idaho
Profession	Journalist

Sarah Heath Palin (born February 11 1964) is the current Governor of Alaska, and a member of the Republican Party. She is the first female governor of Alaska, its youngest, and is the first governor born after Alaska achieved statehood. Brought to statewide attention because of her whistleblowing on ethical violations by state Republican Party leaders,^[1] she won election in 2006 by first defeating the incumbent Governor in the Republican primary, then a former Democratic Alaskan Governor in the general election.

Palin was born as Sarah Louise Heath in Sandpoint, Idaho, U.S.A., the daughter of Charles and Sally (Sheeran) Heath.^[2] The family moved to Alaska when Sarah was an infant.^[3] Charles Heath was a popular science teacher, and coached track.^[3] The Heaths were avid outdoors enthusiasts; Sarah and her father would sometimes wake at 3 a.m. to hunt moose before school, and the family would regularly run 5k and 10k races.^[3]

Palin was the point guard and captain for the Wasilla High School Warriors when they won the Alaska small-school basketball championship in 1982; she earned the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" because of her intense play.^{[3] [4]} She played the championship game despite a stress fracture in her ankle, hitting a critical free throw in the last seconds.^[3] Palin, who was also the head of the school Fellowship of Christian Athletes, would lead the team in prayer before games.^[3]

In 1984, Palin was first runner-up in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant after winning the Miss Wasilla contest earlier that year, winning a scholarship to help pay her way through college.^[3][5] In the Wasilla pageant, she played the flute and also won Miss Congeniality.

Details of Palin's personal life have contributed to her political image. She hunts, eats moose burgers, ice fishes, rides snowmobiles, and owns a float plane.^[6][7] Palin holds a lifetime membership with the National Rifle Association. She admits that she used marijuana when it was legal in Alaska, but says that she did not like it.^[8]

Palin holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Idaho where she also minored in politics. She briefly worked as a sports reporter for local Anchorage television stations, while also working as a commercial fisherman with her husband, Todd, her high school sweetheart.^[3] One summer when she was working on Todd's fishing boat, the boat collided with a tender while she was holding onto the railing; Palin broke several fingers.^[3] Outside the fishing season, Todd works for BP at an oil field on the North Slope^[9] and is a champion snowmobiler, winning the 2000-mile "Iron Dog" race four times.^[3] The two eloped shortly after Palin graduated college; when they learned they needed witnesses for the civil ceremony, they recruited two residents from the old-age home down the street.^[3] Todd is a Native Yup'ik Eskimo.^[3] The Palin family lives in Wasilla, about 40 miles (64 km) north of Anchorage.^[10]

On September 11, 2007, the Palins' son Track joined the Army. Eighteen years old at the time, he is the eldest of Palin's five children.^[10] Track now serves in an infantry brigade, and will be deployed to Iraq in September. She also has three daughters, Bristol, 17, Willow, 13, and Piper, 7.^[11] On April 18, 2008, Palin gave birth to her second son, Trig Paxson Van Palin, who has Down syndrome.^[12] (Sarah returned to the office three days after giving birth.^[13]) Palin refused to let the results of pre-natal genetic testing change her decision to have the baby. "I'm looking at him right now, and I see perfection," Palin said. "Yeah, he has an extra chromosome. I keep thinking, in our world, what is normal and what is perfect?"^[13]

Palin served two terms on the Wasilla, Alaska City Council from 1992 to 1996. In 1996, she challenged the incumbent mayor, criticizing wasteful spending and high taxes.^[3] The ex-mayor and sheriff tried to organize a recall campaign, but failed.^[3] Palin kept her campaign promises, reducing her own salary, as well as reducing property taxes 60%.^[3] She ran for reelection against the former mayor in 1999, winning by an even larger margin.^[3][14] Palin was also elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors.^[11]

In 2002, Palin made a failed bid for Lieutenant Governor, coming in second to Loren Leman in a four-way race. After Frank Murkowski became governor (resigning his long-held U.S. Senate seat in mid-term), Palin interviewed to be his possible successor, but Murkowski appointed his daughter, then-Alaska State Representative Lisa Murkowski.^[3]

Then-Governor Murkowski appointed Palin Ethics Commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission^[15], where she served from 2003 to 2004 -- until resigning in protest over what she called the "lack of ethics" of fellow Alaskan Republican leaders, who ignored her whistleblowing complaints of legal violations and conflicts of interest.^[3] After she resigned, she exposed the state Republican party's chairman, Randy Ruedrich, one of her fellow Oil & Gas commissioners (who was accused of doing work for the party on public time, and supplying a lobbyist with a sensitive e-mail).^[16] Palin filed formal complaints against both Ruedrich and former Alaska Attorney General Gregg Renkes, who both resigned; Ruedrich paid a record $12,000 fine.^[3]

In 2006, Palin, running on a clean-government campaign, executed an upset victory over then-Gov. Murkowski in the Republican gubernatorial primary.^[3] Despite the lack of support from party leaders and being outspent by her Democratic opponent, she went on to win the general election in November 2006, defeating former Governor Tony Knowles.^[3] Palin said in 2006 that education, public safety, and transportation would be three cornerstones of her administration.^[8]

When elected, Palin became the youngest governor in Alaskan history (42 years old upon taking office), and the first woman to be Alaska's governor. Palin was also the first Alaskan governor born after Alaska achieved U.S. statehood. She was also the first Alaskan governor not to be inaugurated in Juneau, instead choosing to hold her inauguration ceremony in Fairbanks. She took office on December 4 2006.

Highlights of Governor Palin's tenure include a successful push for an ethics bill, and also shelving pork-barrel projects supported by fellow Republicans. Palin successfully killed the Bridge to Nowhere project that had become a nationwide symbol of wasteful earmark spending.^[13][17] "Alaska needs to be self-sufficient, she says, instead of relying heavily on 'federal dollars,' as the state does today."^[6]

She has challenged the state's Republican leaders, helping to launch a campaign by Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell to unseat U.S. Congressman Don Young^[18] and publicly challenging Senator Ted Stevens to come clean about the federal investigation into his financial dealings.^[13] Palin supports holding occasional legislative sessions outside the state capital, and municipal revenue sharing to help local governments.^{[citation needed]}

Palin's tenure is noted for her willingness to take on oil companies.^[6][13]

Shortly after taking office, Palin rescinded the appointment of former chief of staff Jim Clark to the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority, one of thirty-five appointments made by Murkowski in the last hour of his administration that she reversed. ^[19][20] Clark later pled guilty to conspiring with a defunct oil-field-services company to channel money into Frank Murkowski's re-election campaign. ^[21]

In April 2007, Palin announced plans to create a new sub-cabinet, to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions within Alaska. ^[22]

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.^[23] Only one legislator, Representative Ralph Samuels, voted against the measure,^[24] and in June Palin signed it into law.^[25][26] On January 5, 2008, Palin announced that a Canadian company, Transcanada, was the sole AGIA-compliant applicant.^[27][28]

In response to high oil and gas prices, and in response to the resulting state government budget surplus, Palin proposed giving Alaskans $100-a-month energy debit cards. She also proposed providing grants to electrical utilities so that they would reduce customers' rates.^[29] She subsequently dropped the debit card proposal, and in its place she proposed to send Alaskans $1,200 directly and eliminate the gas tax.^[30][31]

Palin is strongly pro-life and belongs to Feminists for Life.^[8] She opposes same-sex marriage; but, she has stated that she has gay friends, and is receptive to gay and lesbian concerns about discrimination.^[8] While the previous administration did not implement same-sex benefits, Palin complied with a state Supreme Court order and signed them into law. ^[32]

She supported a democratic advisory vote from the public on whether there should be a constitutional amendment on the matter.^[33] Alaska was one of the first U.S. states to pass a constitutional ban on gay marriage, in 1998, along with Hawaii.^[34]

Palin's first veto was used to block legislation that would have barred the state from granting benefits to gay state employees and their partners. In effect, her veto granted State of Alaska benefits to same-sex couples. The veto occurred after Palin consulted with Alaska's attorney general on the constitutionality of the legislation.^[35]

When the Alaska Creamery Board recommended closing Matanuska Maid Dairy, an unprofitable state-owned business, Palin, citing concern for the impact on dairy farmers and the fact that the Dairy had just received $600,000 in state money, objected. When Palin learned that only the Board of Agriculture and Conservation could appoint Creamery Board members, she simply replaced the entire membership of the Board of Agriculture and Conservation.^[6][36] The new board, led by businesswoman Kristan Cole, reversed the decision to close.^[36] The new board approved milk price increases offered by the dairy in an attempt to control fiscal losses, even though that milk from Washington was already offered in Alaskan stores at lower prices.^[37] In the end, the dairy was forced to close, and the state tried to sell the assets to pay off its debts, but received no bids.^[38][39]

In the first days of her administration, Palin followed through on a campaign promise to sell the Westwind II jet purchased (on a state government credit account) by the Murkowski administration. The state placed the jet for sale on eBay three times. In August 2007, the jet was sold for $2.7 million.^[40]

Shortly after becoming governor, Palin canceled an 11 miles (18 km) gravel road outside of Juneau to a mine, reversing a decision made in the closing days or hours of the Murkowski Administration.^[41]

In June 2007, Palin signed into law the largest operating budget in Alaska's history ($6.6 billion).^[42] 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.^[43]

On July 11 2008, Governor Palin dismissed Walter Monegan as Commissioner of Public Safety, and instead offered him a position as executive director of the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, which he subsequently turned down.^[44][45] Monegan allleged shortly after his dismissal that it may have been partly due to his reluctance to fire an Alaska State Trooper, Mike Wooten, who had been involved in a divorce and child custody battle with Palin's sister, Molly McCann.^[46]

In 2006, before Palin was governor, Wooten was briefly suspended for ten days for threatening to kill McCann's (and Palin's) father, tasering his 11-year-old stepson, and violations of the game laws. After a union protest, the suspension was reduced to five days.^[47]

Governor Palin asserts that her dismissal of Monegan was unrelated to the fact that he had not fired Wooten, and asserts that Monegan was instead dismissed for not adequately filling state trooper vacancies, and because he "did not turn out to be a team player on budgeting issues."^[48] Palin acknowledges that a member of her administration, Frank Bailey, did contact the Department of Public Safety regarding Wooten, but both Palin and Bailey say that happened without her knowledge and was unrelated to her dismissal of Monegan.^[48] Bailey was put on leave for two months for acting outside the scope of his authority as the Director of Boards and Commissions.

In response to Palin's statement that she had nothing to hide, in August 2008 the Alaska Legislature hired Steve Branchflower to investigate Palin and her staff for possible abuse of power surrounding the dismissal, though lawmakers acknowledge that "Monegan and other commissioners serve at will, meaning they can be fired by Palin at any time."^[49] The investigation is being overseen by Democratic State Senator Hollis French, who says that the Palin administration has been cooperating, and so subpoenas are unnecessary.^[50] The Palin administration itself was the first to release an audiotape of Bailey making inquiries about the status of the Wooten investigation.^[48][51]

Wooten and the police union alleged that the governor had improperly released his employment files in his divorce case. However, McCann's attorney released a signed waiver from Wooten demonstrating that Wooten had authorized the release of his files through normal discovery procedures.^[52][53]

In July 2007, Palin had an approval rating often in the 90s.^[6] A poll published by Hays Research on July 28, 2008 showed Palin's approval rating at 80%. ^[54]

Fred Barnes praised Palin as a "politician of eye-popping integrity" and referred to her rise as "a great (and rare) story of how adherence to principle—especially to transparency and accountability in government—can produce political success."^[6]

Palin has been rumored as a candidate for the vice-presidency with Republican presumptive nominee Senator John McCain in the 2008 election.^[55][56] Due to her gender, youth, background in government reform, pro-life stance, fiscal and social conservatism, and an approval rating in Alaska generally in the range of 80 to 90 percent, Palin could become the second female vice-presidential nominee of a major party. Palin is supported by a community of online groups.^{[57][57][58][59][60][61]}

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sarah Palin.

• Alaska Office of Governor Sarah Palin
• National Governors Association - Alaska Governor Sarah Palin biography
• University of Idaho alumni magazine - Sarah Palin - winter 2008 - p.14
• Follow the Money - Palin 2006 campaign contributions
• Follow the Money - Palin/Parnell 2006 campaign contributions
• On the Issues - Sarah Palin's issue positions and quotes
• Project Vote Smart - Governor Sarah H. Palin profile
• Palin for Governor
• Sarah Smile Anchorage Press, August 2006 cover story
• Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski ousted in a humiliating defeat to Sarah Palin Alaska Report, August 24 2006
• Official Portrait
• Alaska's 'Frustrated' Governor Palin On Our 'Nonsensical' Energy Policy Interview with Investor's Business Daily

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