Sarah Louise Palin ( ;
née Heath;
born February 11, 1964) is an American
politician
who served as Governor of Alaska
from 2006 until her
resignation in 2009. She was the
Republican candidate for
Vice President of
the United States in 2008.
Palin was
a member of the Wasilla,
Alaska
, city council from 1992
to 1996 and the city's mayor 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 until her resignation in
2004. She was elected
Governor of Alaska in November
2006. Palin became the first
female
governor of Alaska and the youngest person ever elected
governor of that state.
In 2008, Republican presidential candidate
John McCain chose Palin as his
running mate in that year's
presidential
election, making her the
second female candidate and the first Alaskan candidate of
either major party on a national ticket, as well as the first
female vice-presidential nominee of the Republican Party. Since the
defeat of the McCain–Palin ticket in the 2008 election, there has
been speculation that she may run for the
Republican presidential
nomination in
2012.
On , Palin announced she would not seek reelection as governor and
that she was resigning, effective , eighteen months prior to the
completion of her first term. She cited
ethics complaints that had been
filed following her selection as running mate to John McCain as the
reason for her resignation, saying the resulting investigations had
affected her efficacy to govern the state.
Early life and career
Palin was
born in Sandpoint
, Idaho
, the third
of four children born to Sarah and Charles R. Heath,
respectively a school secretary and science teacher /
track coach. The family moved to
Alaska when she was an infant.
She attended Wasilla High School
, where she was the head of the Fellowship of Christian
Athletes, and a member of the girls' cross country team. As captain
and
point guard of the school's girls'
basketball team that won the Alaska state
championship in 1982, she gained the nickname "Barracuda" for her
competitive streak. She graduated in 1982.
She
attended Hawaii Pacific University
in the Fall of 1982 and North Idaho
College
(whose Alumni Association gave her the
Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award in June 2008) in the Spring
and Fall of 1983. In 1984, after winning the Miss Wasilla
pageant,she finished third in the
Miss Alaska pageant,receiving the
"
Miss Congeniality" award and a
college scholarship.
She
attended the University of
Idaho
in the Fall of 1984 and Spring of 1985, Matanuska-Susitna College in the
Fall of 1985, and the University of Idaho again in the Spring and
Fall of 1986 and the Fall of 1987, when she received her Bachelor's degree in communications with an emphasis in
journalism.
Palin's early ambition was to be a
sportscaster.
Accordingly, after
graduating, she worked as a sportscaster for KTUU-TV
and KTVA-TV
in Anchorage
, and as a sports
reporter for the Mat-Su Valley
Frontiersman. In 1988, she
eloped with her childhood sweetheart
Todd Palin, believing that her parents
"couldn't afford a big white wedding." After the marriage, she
helped in her husband’s commercial fishing business.
Early political career
Wasilla city council
Motivated
by concerns that revenue from a new Wasilla sales tax would not be spent wisely, Palin was
elected to the city council of Wasilla
in
1992. She won 530 votes to 310. She ran for reelection in
1995, winning by 413 votes to 185, but did not complete her second
term on the city council because she was elected mayor in 1996.
Throughout her tenure on the city council and the rest of her
career, Palin has been a registered Republican.
Mayor of Wasilla
Palin
served two three-year terms (1996–2002) as the mayor of Wasilla. In
1996, she defeated three-term incumbent mayor John Stein,
[194228] on a platform targeting wasteful
spending and high taxes. Stein says that Palin introduced
abortion,
gun rights, and
term limits as campaign issues. Although
the election was a
nonpartisan blanket primary, the
state Republican Party ran advertisements on her behalf. At the
conclusion of Palin's tenure as mayor in 2002, the city had about
6,300 residents. In 2008, Wasilla's mayor credited Palin's tax cuts
and infrastructural improvements with helping the local economy,
"br[inging] the big-box stores to Wasilla, ... helping Wasilla grow
and draw 50,000 shoppers a day." The
Boston Globe quoted a local business owner
as crediting Palin with making the town "more of a community ...
It's no longer a little strip town that you can blow through in a
heartbeat."
First term
Shortly after taking office in October 1996, Palin consolidated the
position of museum director and asked for updated resumes and
resignation letters from "city department heads who had been loyal
to Stein," including the police chief, public works director,
finance director, and librarian. Palin stated this request was to
find out their intentions and whether they supported her. She
temporarily required department heads to get her approval before
talking to reporters, saying that they first needed to become
acquainted with her administration's policies. She created the
position of city administrator, and reduced her own $68,000 salary
by 10%, although by mid-1998 this was reversed by the city
council.
During her first year in office, Palin kept a jar with the names of
Wasilla residents on her desk. Once a week, she pulled a name from
it and picked up the phone; she would ask: "How's the city doing?"
Using income generated by a 2% sales tax that was enacted before
she was elected to the city council, Palin cut
property taxes by 75% and eliminated personal
property and business inventory taxes. Using municipal bonds, she
made improvements to the roads and sewers, and increased funding to
the Police Department. She also oversaw new bike paths and procured
funding for storm-water treatment to protect freshwater resources.
At the same time, the city reduced spending on the town museum and
stopped construction of a new library and city hall.
Palin ran for re-election against Stein in 1999 and won, with 74%
of the vote.She was also elected president of the Alaska Conference
of Mayors.
Palin appointed
Charles
Fannon to replace Stambaugh as police chief.
Second term
During her second term as mayor, Palin introduced a
ballot measure proposing the
construction of a municipal sports center to be financed by a 0.5%
sales tax increase.
The $14.7 million Wasilla
Multi-Use Sports Complex
was built on time and under budget, but the city
spent an additional $1.3 million because of an eminent domain lawsuit caused by the failure
to obtain clear title to the property before beginning
construction. The city's long-term debt grew from about $1
million to $25 million through voter-approved indebtedness of $15
million for the sports complex, $5.5 million for street projects,
and $3 million for water improvement projects. A city council
member defended the spending increases as being caused by the
city's growth during that time.
Palin also joined with nearby communities in jointly hiring the
Anchorage-based lobbying firm of Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh
to lobby for federal funds. The firm secured nearly $8 million in
earmarked funds for the Wasilla
city government.Earmarks included $500,000 for a youth shelter,
$1.9 million for a transportation hub, and $900,000 for sewer
repairs.
Term limits in the Wasilla
Municipal Code proscribe candidates from running for more than two
consecutive terms.
Controversies
Wasilla librarian Mary Ellen Emmons strongly objected to remarks by
Palin that Emmons characterized as being about censorship. Emmons
said that Palin asked two or three times in October 1996 if she
would object to books being removed from the library. Palin has
said the question was "rhetorical". John Stein, the former mayor of
Wasilla and Palin's 1996 political opponent, said in September 2008
that Palin's "religious beliefs," and the concerns of some voters
about language in the books, motivated her inquiries. In December
1996, Palin said she had no books or other material in mind for
removal. No books were removed from the library,and Palin stated in
2006 that she would not allow her personal religious beliefs to
dictate her political positions.
Police Chief Irl Stambaugh, who was fired by Palin, was previously
nominated to be Alaska's Municipal Employee of the Year. Because he
had heard that Palin had felt intimidated by him during a meeting,
he made sure to sit when talking with her, and to use a soothing
voice. Nevertheless, Palin said, "When I met with you in private,
instead of engaging in interactive conversation with me, you gave
me short, uncommunicative answers and then you would sit there and
stare at me in silence with a very stern look, like you were trying
to intimidate me." On January 30, Stambaugh was on the phone with
the town's librarian — who said she had just been fired — when an
assistant of Palin's walked up and gave Stambaugh an envelope.
Inside was a letter from Palin, saying Stambaugh, too, was fired.
His firing was to be effective February 13.
Palin said that she fired Emmons and Stambaugh because they did not
fully support her efforts to govern the city. The next day,
following expressions of public support for Emmons at a personal
meeting, Palin rescinded the firing of Emmons, stating that her
concerns had been alleviated, and adding that Emmons agreed to
support Palin's plan to merge the town's library and museum
operations. Palin described the letters as just a test of loyalty.
Stambaugh, who along with Emmons had supported Palin's opponent in
the election, filed a lawsuit alleging
wrongful termination, violation of his
contract, and
gender
discrimination. In the trial, the defense alleged political
reasons; Stambaugh said that he had opposed a gun control bill,
Alaska Senate Bill 177, that Palin supported. The federal judge
said in the decision that the police chief serves at the discretion
of the mayor, and can be terminated for nearly any reason, even a
political one, and dismissed Stambaugh's lawsuitordering Stambaugh
to pay Palin's legal fees.
Post-mayoral years
In 2002, Palin ran for the Republican nomination for
lieutenant governor,
coming in second to
Loren Leman in a
five-way Republican primary.The Republican ticket of U.S. Senator
Frank Murkowski and Leman won the
November 2002 election. When Murkowski resigned from his long-held
U.S. Senate
seat in December 2002 to become governor, he considered appointing
Palin to replace him in the Senate, but chose his daughter,
State Representative
Lisa Murkowski.
Governor Murkowski appointed Palin to the
Alaska Oil and Gas
Conservation Commission.She chaired the Commission beginning in
2003, serving as Ethics Supervisor. Palin resigned in January 2004,
protesting what she called the "lack of ethics" of fellow
Republican members.
After resigning, Palin filed a formal complaint against Oil and Gas
Conservation Commissioner Randy Ruedrich, also the chair of the
state Republican Party,accusing him of doing work for the party on
public time and of working closely with a company he was supposed
to be regulating. She also joined with Democratic legislator
Eric Croftto file a complaint against
Gregg Renkes, a former Alaskan
Attorney
General,accusing him of having a financial conflict of interest
in negotiating a coal exporting trade agreement,while Renkes was
the subject of investigation and after records suggesting a
possible conflict of interest had been released to the
public.Ruedrich and Renkes both resigned and Ruedrich paid a record
$12,000 fine.
From 2003 to June 2005, Palin served as one of three directors of
"Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.," a
527 group designed to provide political training
for Republican women in Alaska. In 2004, Palin told the
Anchorage Daily News
that she had decided not to run for the U.S. Senate that year,
against the Republican incumbent,
Lisa
Murkowski, because her teenage son opposed it. Palin said, "How
could I be the team mom if I was a U.S. Senator?"
Governor of Alaska
In 2006, running on a clean-government platform, Palin defeated
incumbent Governor
Frank Murkowski
in the
Republican
gubernatorial
primary. Her running
mate was State Senator
Sean Parnell.
She will not be a candidate for re-election as Governor in
2010.
In the
November
election, Palin was outspent but victorious, defeating former
Democratic governor
Tony Knowles by a margin
of 48.3% to 40.9%.
She became Alaska's first female
governor, at the age of 42, the youngest governor in Alaskan
history, the state's first governor to have been born after Alaska
achieved U.S. statehood, and
the first not to be inaugurated in Juneau
(she chose
to have the ceremony held in Fairbanks
instead). She took office on December 4,
2006, and for most of her term was very popular with Alaska voters.
Polls taken in 2007 showed her with 93% and 89% popularity among
all voters,which led some media outlets to call her "the most
popular governor in America." A poll taken in late September 2008
after Palin was named to the national Republican ticket showed her
popularity in Alaska at 68%. A poll taken in May 2009 showed
Palin's popularity among Alaskans was at 54% positive and 41.6%
negative.
Palin declared that top priorities of her administration would be
resource development, education and workforce development, public
health and safety, and transportation and infrastructure
development. She had championed ethics reform throughout her
election campaign. Her first legislative action after taking office
was to push for a bipartisan ethics reform bill. She signed the
resulting legislation in July 2007, calling it a "first step", and
declaring that she remained determined to clean up Alaska
politics.
Palin has frequently broken with the state Republican
establishment. For example, she endorsed Sean Parnell's bid to
unseat the state's longtime at-large U.S. Representative,
Don Young, and she publicly challenged
then-Senator
Ted Stevens to come clean
about the federal investigation into his financial dealings.
Shortly before his July 2008 indictment, she held a joint news
conference with Stevens, described by
The Washington Post as needed "to
make clear she had not abandoned him politically."
Palin
promoted oil and natural gas resource development in Alaska,
including drilling in the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge
(ANWR). Proposals to drill for oil in ANWR
have been the subject of a
national debate.
In 2006,
Palin obtained a passport and in 2007 traveled for the first time
outside of North America on a trip to
Kuwait
.
There she
visited the Khabari Alawazem Crossing at the Kuwait–Iraq
border and
met with members of the Alaska
National Guard at several bases. On her return trip to
the U.S., she visited injured soldiers in Germany.
Budget, spending, and federal funds
In June 2007, Palin signed a record $6.6 billion operating
budget into law.At the same time, she used her veto power to make
the second-largest cuts of the construction budget in state
history. The $237 million in cuts represented over 300 local
projects, and reduced the construction budget to
$1.6 billion.In 2008, Palin vetoed $286 million, cutting or
reducing funding for 350 projects from the FY09 capital
budget.
Palin followed through on a
campaign
promise to sell the
Westwind II
jet, a purchase made by the Murkowski administration for
$2.7 million in 2005 against the wishes of the legislature. In
August 2007, the jet was listed on
eBay, but
the sale fell through, and the plane was later sold for
$2.1 million through a private brokerage firm.
Gubernatorial expenditures
Palin lived in Juneau during the legislative session and lived in
Wasilla and worked out of offices in Anchorage the rest of the
year. Since the office in Anchorage is far from Juneau, while she
worked there, state officials said she was permitted to claim a $58
per diem travel allowance, which
she took (a total of $16,951), and to reimbursement for hotels,
which she did not, choosing instead to drive about 50 miles to
her home in Wasilla. She also chose not to use the former
governor's private chef. Republicans and Democrats have criticized
Palin for taking the
per diem and $43,490 in travel
expenses for the times her family accompanied her on state
business. In response, the governor's staffers said that these
practices were in line with state policy, that Palin's
gubernatorial expenses are 80% below those of her predecessor,
Frank Murkowski, and that "many of the hundreds of invitations
Palin receives include requests for her to bring her family,
placing the definition of 'state business' with the party extending
the invitation." In February 2009, the State of Alaska, reversing a
policy that had treated the payments as legitimate business
expenses under the Internal Revenue Code, decided that per diems
paid to state employees for stays in their own homes will be
treated as taxable income and will be included in employees' gross
income on their
W-2 forms. Palin herself
had ordered the review of the tax policy.
In December 2008, an Alaska state commission recommended increasing
the Governor's annual salary from $125,000 to $150,000. Palin
stated that she would not accept the pay raise. In response, the
commission dropped the recommendation.
Federal funding
In her
State of the State
Address on January 17, 2008, Palin declared that the people of
Alaska "can and must continue to develop our economy, because we
cannot and must not rely so heavily on federal government
[funding]." Alaska's federal congressional representatives cut back
on
pork-barrel project requests during
Palin's time as governor; despite this, in 2008 Alaska was still
the largest per-capita recipient of federal
earmarks, requesting nearly $750 million
in special federal spending over a period of two years.
While there is no sales tax or income tax in Alaska, state revenues
doubled to $10 billion in 2008. For the 2009 budget, Palin gave a
list of 31 proposed federal earmarks or requests for funding,
totaling $197 million, to Alaska Senator
Ted
Stevens. Palin’s decreasing support for federal funding has
been a leading source of friction between herself and the state's
congressional delegation; Palin has requested less in federal
funding each year than her predecessor Frank Murkowski requested in
his last year.
Bridge to Nowhere
In 2005, before Palin was elected governor, Congress passed a
$442-million
earmark for
constructing two Alaska bridges as part of an
omnibus spending bill. The Gravina
Island Bridge received nationwide attention as a symbol of
pork-barrel spending, following news reports
that the bridge would cost $233 million in Federal funds. Because
Gravina Island, the site of the Ketchikan airport, has a population
of 50, the bridge became known nationally as the "Bridge to
Nowhere". Following an outcry by the public and some members of the
US Senate, Congress eliminated the bridge
earmark from the spending bill but gave the allotted funds to
Alaska as part of its general transportation fund.
In 2006, Palin ran for governor with a "build-the-bridge" plank in
her platform, saying she would "not allow the spinmeisters to turn
this project [...] into something that's so negative." Palin
criticized the use of the word "nowhere" as insulting to local
residents NB: "Editor's note: This story was originally published
October 22, 2006. This is an except from a longer article that
presented the views of the various candidates for governor." and
urged speedy work on building the infrastructure "while our
congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist."
As governor, Palin canceled the Gravina Island Bridge in September
2007, saying that Congress had "little interest in spending any
more money" due to what she called "inaccurate portrayals of the
projects."Alaska chose not to return the $442 million in federal
transportation funds.
In 2008, as a vice-presidential candidate, Palin characterized her
position as having told Congress "thanks, but no thanks, on that
bridge to nowhere." This angered some Alaskans in Ketchikan, who
said that the claim was false and a betrayal of Palin's previous
support for their community. Some critics complained that this
statement was misleading, since she had expressed support for the
spending project and kept the Federal money after the project was
canceled. Palin received criticism for allowing construction of a
3-mile access road, built with $25 million in Federal
transportation funds set aside as part of the original bridge
project, to continue. A spokesman for Alaska's Department of
Transportation made a statement that it was within Palin's power to
cancel the road project, but also noted that the state was still
considering cheaper designs to complete the bridge project, and
that in any case the road would open up the surrounding lands for
development.
Gas pipeline
In August
2008, Palin signed a bill authorizing the State of Alaska to award
TransCanada Pipelines—the sole
bidder to meet the state's requirements—a license to build and
operate a pipeline to transport natural gas from the North Slope to the Continental United States through
Canada
. The
governor also pledged $500 million in seed money to support the
project. It is estimated that the project will cost $26 billion.
Newsweek described the project as
"the principal achievement of Sarah Palin's term as Alaska's
governor."The pipeline faces legal challenges from Canadian
First Nations.
Predator control
In 2007, Palin supported a 2003
Alaska Department of Fish and
Game policy allowing the
hunting of
wolves from the air as part of a predator control program
intended to increase
moose and
caribou populations for subsistence-food gatherers
and other hunters.In March 2007, Palin's office announced that a
bounty of $150 per wolf would be
paid to the 180 volunteer pilots and gunners, to offset fuel costs,
in five areas of Alaska. Six-hundred-and-seven wolves had been
killed in the prior four years. State biologists wanted 382 to 664
wolves killed by the end of the predator-control season in April
2007. Wildlife activists sued the state, and a state judge declared
the bounty illegal on the basis that a bounty would have to be
offered by the Board of Game and not by the Department of Fish and
Game.
Public Safety Commissioner dismissal
Palin dismissed Public Safety Commissioner
Walt Monegan on July 11, 2008, citing
performance-related issues, such as not being "a team player on
budgeting issues" and "egregious rogue behavior." Palin attorney
Van Flein said that the "last straw" was Monegan's planned trip to
Washington, D.C., to seek funding for a new, multimillion-dollar
sexual assault initiative the governor hadn't yet approved.Monegan
said that he had resisted persistent pressure from the Governor,
her husband, and her staff, including State Attorney General
Talis Colberg, to fire Palin’s
ex-brother-in-law,
state
trooper Mike Wooten; Wooten was involved in a child custody
battle with Palin’s sister after a bitter divorce that included an
alleged
death threat against Palin's
father. At one point Sarah and Todd Palin hired a private
investigator to get Wooten disciplined. Monegan stated that he
learned an internal investigation had found all but two of the
allegations to be unsubstantiated, and Wooten had been disciplined
for the others—an illegal moose killing and the
tasering of an 11-year-old (the child asked to be
Tasered). He told the Palins that there was nothing he could do
because the matter was closed. When contacted by the press for
comment, Monegan first acknowledged pressure to fire Wooten but
said that he could not be certain that his own firing was connected
to that issue; he later asserted that the dispute over Wooten was a
major reason for his firing. Palin stated on July 17 that Monegan
was not pressured to fire Wooten, nor dismissed for not doing
so.
Monegan said the subject of Wooten came up when he invited Palin to
a birthday party for his cousin, state senator Lyman Hoffman, in
February 2007 during the legislative session in Juneau. "As we were
walking down the stairs in the capitol building she wanted to talk
to me about her former brother-in-law," Monegan said. "I said,
'Ma'am, I need to keep you at arm's length with this. I can't deal
about him with you." "She said, 'OK, that's a good idea.' "
Governor Palin said there was "absolutely no pressure ever put on
Commissioner Monegan to hire or fire anybody, at any time. I did
not abuse my office powers. And I don't know how to be more blunt
and candid and honest, but to tell you that truth. To tell you that
no pressure was ever put on anybody to fire anybody." "Never
putting any pressure on him," added Todd Palin. But on August 13
she acknowledged that a half dozen members of her administration
had made more than two dozen calls on the matter to various state
officials. "I do now have to tell Alaskans that such pressure could
have been perceived to exist, although I have only now become aware
of it," she said. Palin said, "Many of these inquiries were
completely appropriate. However, the serial nature of the contacts
could be perceived as some kind of pressure, presumably at my
direction."
Chuck Kopp, who Palin had appointed to replace Monegan as public
safety commissioner, received a $10,000 state severance package
after he resigned following just two weeks on the job. Kopp, the
former Kenai chief of police, resigned July 25 following disclosure
of a 2005 sexual harassment complaint and letter of reprimand
against him. Monegan said that he didn't get any severance package
from the state.
Legislative investigation
On August 1, 2008 the
Alaska
Legislature hired an investigator, Stephen Branchflower, to
review the Monegan dismissal. Legislators stated that Palin had the
legal authority to fire Monegan, but they wanted to know whether
her action had been motivated by anger at Monegan for not firing
Wooten. The atmosphere was bipartisan and Palin pledged to
cooperate. Wooten remained employed as a state trooper. She placed
an aide on paid leave due to one tape-recorded phone conversation
that she deemed improper, in which the aide appeared to be acting
on her behalf and complained to a trooper that Wooten had not been
fired.
Several weeks after the start of what the media referred to as
"
troopergate",
Palin was chosen as John McCain's running mate. On September 1,
Palin asked the legislature to drop its investigation, saying that
the state Personnel Board had jurisdiction over ethics issues.The
Personnel Board's three members were first appointed by Palin’s
predecessor, and Palin reappointed one member in 2008. On September
19, the
Governor's husband and several
state employees refused to honor
subpoenas,
the validity of which were disputed by
Talis Colberg, Palin's appointee as Alaska's
Attorney General.On October 2, a court rejected Colberg's challenge
to the subpoenas,and seven of the witnesses, not including Sarah
and Todd Palin, eventually testified.
Branchflower Report
On October 10, 2008, the
Alaska Legislative Council
unanimously voted to release, without endorsing, the Branchflower
Report, in which investigator Stephen Branchflower found that
firing Monegan "was a proper and lawful exercise of her
constitutional and statutory authority," but that Palin abused her
power as governor and violated the state's Executive Branch Ethics
Act when her office pressured Monegan to fire Wooten . The report
stated that "Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to
continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several
subordinates to advance a personal agenda, to wit: to get Trooper
Michael Wooten fired." The report also said that Palin "permitted
Todd Palin to use the Governor's office [...] to continue to
contact subordinate state employees in an effort to find some way
to get Trooper Wooten fired."
On October 11, Palin's attorneys responded, condemning the
Branchflower Report as "misleading and wrong on the law". One of
Palin's attorneys, Thomas Van Flein, said that it was an attempt to
"smear the governor by innuendo." Later that day, Governor Palin
did a conference call interview with various Alaskan reporters,
where she stated, "Well, I’m very, very pleased to be cleared of
any legal wrongdoing… Any hint of any kind of unethical activity
there. Very pleased to be cleared of any of that."
State Personnel Board investigation
The State Personnel Board (SPB) reviewed the matter at Palin's
request. On September 15, the Anchorage law firm of Clapp,
Peterson, Van Flein, Tiemessen & Thorsness filed arguments of
"no probable cause" with the SPB on behalf of Palin.The SPB hired
independent counsel Timothy Petumenos as an investigator.
On
October 24, Palin gave three hours of depositions with the Board in
St. Louis,
Missouri
. On November 3, Petumenos found that there
was no probable cause to believe Palin or any other state official
had violated state ethical standards.
Approval ratings
As governor of Alaska, Palin's approval rating ranged from a high
of 93% in June 2007 to 54% in May 2009.
| Date |
Approval |
Disapproval |
| May 30, 2007 |
89% |
? |
| June 21, 2007 |
93% |
? |
| November 4, 2007 |
83% |
11% |
| April 10, 2008 |
73% |
7% |
| May 17, 2008 |
69% |
9% |
| August 29, 2008 |
64% |
14% |
| October 7, 2008 |
63% |
37% |
| March 24-25, 2009 |
59.8% |
34.9% |
| May 5, 2009 |
54% |
41.6% |
| June 14-18, 2009 |
56% |
35% |
Resignation
On July 3, 2009, Palin announced at a press conference that she
would not run for reelection in the 2010 Alaska gubernatorial
election and would resign before the end of July. Palin gave a
speech offering reasons for her departure. She argued that both she
and the state have been expending an "insane" amount of time and
money to address "frivolous" ethics complaints filed against her.
She also said that her decision not to seek reelection would make
her a
lame duck governor. Palin
did not take questions at the press conference. A Palin aide was
quoted as saying Palin was "no longer able to do the job she had
been elected to do. Essentially, the taxpayers were paying for
Sarah to go to work every day and defend herself."
2008 vice-presidential campaign
On August 24, 2008, during a general strategy meeting at the
Phoenix Ritz-Carlton with
Steve
Schmidt and a few other senior advisers to the
McCain Campaign,
potential vice presidential picks were discussed. Consensus began
to settle around Palin; the following day, the strategists advised
McCain of their conclusions and he personally called Palin who was
at the
Alaska State
Fair.
On August
27, she visited McCain's vacation home near Sedona,
Arizona
, where she was offered the position of
vice-presidential candidate. Palin was the only prospective
running mate who had a face-to-face interview with McCain to
discuss joining the ticket that week.
Nonetheless, Palin's
selection was a surprise to many as speculation had centered on
other candidates, such as Minnesota
Governor Tim Pawlenty,
Louisiana
Governor Bobby Jindal,
former Massachusetts
Governor Mitt Romney,
United States Senator Joe Lieberman of
Connecticut
, and former Pennsylvania
Governor Tom
Ridge.
On August
29, in Dayton,
Ohio
, Republican presidential candidate
John McCain announced that he had chosen
Palin as his running mate.
According to Jill Hazelbaker, a spokeswoman for John McCain, he
first met Palin at the
National Governors
Association meeting in Washington in February 2008 and came
away "extraordinarily impressed."
Palin is the first Alaskan and the second woman to run on a major
U.S. party ticket. The first woman was
Geraldine Ferraro, the Democratic
vice-presidential nominee in
1984, who ran with
former vice-president
Walter
Mondale.On September 3, 2008, Palin delivered a 40-minute
acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention that was
well-received and watched by more than 40 million viewers.
Several conservative commentators met Palin in the summer of
2007.Some of them, such as
Bill
Kristol, urged McCain to pick Palin, arguing that her presence
on the ticket would provide a boost in enthusiasm among the
religious right wing of the Republican party, while her status as
an unknown on the national scene would also be a positive factor
for McCain's campaign.
Since Palin was largely unknown outside Alaska before her selection
by McCain, her personal life, positions, and political record drew
intense media attention and scrutiny. On September 1, 2008, Palin
announced that her daughter Bristol was pregnant and that she would
marry the father, a young man named
Levi. During this period, some Republicans
felt that Palin was being subjected to unreasonable media coverage,
a sentiment Palin noted in her acceptance speech. A poll taken
immediately after the Republican convention found that slightly
more than half of Americans believed that the media was "trying to
hurt" Palin with negative coverage.
During the campaign, controversy erupted over alleged differences
between Palin's positions as a gubernatorial candidate and her
position as a vice-presidential candidate. After McCain announced
Palin as his running mate,
Newsweek and
Time put Palin on their magazine
covers, as some of the media alleged that McCain's campaign was
restricting press access to Palin by allowing only three one-on-one
interviews and no press conferences with her. Palin's first major
interview, with
Charles Gibson of
ABC News, met with mixed reviews. Her
interview five days later with
Fox News's
Sean Hannity focused on many of the
same questions from Gibson's interview.
Palin's performance in
her third interview, with
Katie
Couric of
CBS News, was widely
criticized; her poll numbers declined, Republicans expressed
concern that she was becoming a political liability, and some
conservative commentators called for Palin to resign from the
Presidential ticket. Other conservatives remained ardent in their
support for Palin, accusing the columnists of
elitism. Following this interview, some Republicans,
including
Mitt Romney and
Bill Kristol, questioned the McCain campaign's
strategy of sheltering Palin from unscripted encounters with the
press.
Palin was
reported to have prepared intensively for the October 2 vice-presidential
debate with Democratic
vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden at
Washington University in St.
Louis
. Some Republicans suggested that Palin's
performance in the interviews would improve public perceptions of
her debate performance by lowering expectations. Polling from
CNN,
Fox and
CBS found that while Palin exceeded most voters'
expectations, they felt that Biden had won the debate.
Upon returning to the campaign trail after her debate preparation,
Palin stepped up her attacks on the Democratic candidate for
President, Senator
Barack Obama. At a
fundraising event, Palin explained her new aggressiveness, saying,
"There does come a time when you have to take the gloves off and
that time is right now."
Palin appeared on the television show
Saturday Night Live on October 18.
Prior to her appearance on the show,
she had been
parodied several times by
Tina Fey, who
was noted for her physical resemblance to the candidate. In the
weeks leading up to the election, Palin had also been the subject
of numerous other parodies.
The election took place on November 4, and Obama was projected as
the winner at 11:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. In his concession
speech McCain thanked Palin, calling her "one of the best
campaigners I've ever seen, and an impressive new voice in our
party for reform and the principles that have always been our
greatest strength." While aides were preparing the teleprompter for
McCain's speech, they found a concession speech written for Palin
by Bush speechwriter
Matthew Scully.
Two members of McCain's staff,
Steve
Schmidt and
Mark Salter, told Palin
that there was no tradition of Election Night speeches by running
mates, and that she would not be speaking. Palin appealed to
McCain, who agreed with his staff.
After the 2008 election
Palin was selected as one of America’s "Top 10 Most Fascinating
People" of 2008 for a
Barbara
Walters ABC
special on December 4, 2008. She was the first guest on commentator
Glenn Beck's
Fox
News television show on January 19, 2009, commenting on
President
Barack Obama that he was her
president and that she would assist in any way to bring progress to
the nation without abandoning her conservative views.
On January 27, 2009, Palin formed the
political action committee,
SarahPAC. The organization which describes itself as an advocate of
“energy independence,” supports candidates for federal and state
office. Following her resignation as Governor, Palin announced her
intention to campaign "on behalf of candidates who believe in the
right things, regardless of their party label or affiliation." It
was reported that the SarahPAC had raised nearly $1,000,000 by July
13, 2009, and that only 28 of the 709 donations over $200 had come
from Alaska residents. A legal defense fund has also been set up to
help Gov. Palin challenge ethics complaints, and it had collected
approximately $250,000 as of mid July 2009.
Going Rogue
The book cover to
Going Rogue: An
American Life
In November 2009, Palin released
Going Rogue: An American
Life, which became a
bestseller.
Palin made a number of media appearances to promote the book,
including a widely publicized interview on November 16, 2009 with
Oprah Winfrey.
2012 speculation
Palin's high profile in the 2008 presidential campaign fueled
speculation that she may run for the Republican presidential
nomination in 2012, and as of November 2008, there is an active
"Draft Palin" movement. In December 2008, she campaigned for Sen.
Saxby Chambliss of Georgia in his
bid to be re-elected to the Senate in the
run-off
election. Chambliss went on to win by a larger than expected
margin, and he credited Palin with drumming up support from the
conservative base of the Republican Party. This fueled mounting
speculation that Palin may run for president herself in 2012.
On the question of seeking the Presidency, Palin told
CNN that, "right now I cannot even imagine running for
national office in 2012." She has, however, left the door open for
a future presidential run, whether it be in 2012 or at a later
date.
A few polls were taken after the 2008 election on the subject of
Palin's future as a presidential candidate. At the
Conservative Political
Action Conference in February 2009, a straw poll was held to
determine who conservatives would be most likely to support for
president in 2012. Palin came in third, with 13%, tying Texas
Congressman
Ron Paul. Former Massachusetts
Governor
Mitt Romney came in first with
20%, followed by Louisiana Governor
Bobby
Jindal with 14%. A June 2009
CNN/
Opinion Research Corporation
national poll showed Palin as the 2012 presidential co-favorite of
the Republican electorate along with Romney and
Mike Huckabee. The same month, a
Pew Research Center poll found that
equal amounts of the general public viewed Palin favorably versus
unfavorably, with few having no opinion. This was roughly
consistent with her ratings during the vice-presidential campaign.
Among Republicans, however, her favorability ratings were very
high, and greater than those for several other Republican political
figures.
After Palin's July 3 announcement that she would be resigning as
Governor, more polls were taken.
Rasmussen Reports's Poll (published on
July 7) found that her approval by Republican voters had remained
stable. A USA Today/
Gallup Poll
(published on July 8) found that her approval by Republican voters
had increased slightly.
CBS's poll (published
July 13) indicated that 22% of all Americans and 33% of Republicans
believe Palin has the ability to be an effective candidate. In
contrast, 65% of all Americans and 51% of Republicans do not
believe that Palin has the ability to be an effective candidate. In
a
Gallup Poll (published on July 16) on
potential Republican candidates for 2012, Palin came in second with
21%, while former Massachusetts Governor
Mitt Romney came in first with 26%.
Mike Huckabee came in third with 19% and
Newt Gingrich came in fourth with 14%.
Opinion of Palin among all Americans was 43% favorable and 45%
unfavorable. Public Policy Polling, a
Democratic research firm,
indicated in results published on July 20 that in the "Base"
category, 47% had a favorable view of Palin and 45% unfavorable. In
an
ABC News -
Washington Post poll (published on July 23),
40% of Americans had a "favorable opinion of Palin" while 53% "view
her unfavorably."
Family and religion
Palin describes herself as a
hockey mom.
The Palins have five children: sons Track (b. 1989) and Trig Paxson
Van (b. 2008), and daughters
Bristol
Sheeran Marie (b. 1990), Willow (b. 1995), and Piper (b. 2001).
Track enlisted in the
U.S. Army on September 11, 2007, and was subsequently
assigned to an
infantry brigade. He and his
unit deployed to Iraq in September 2008 for 12 months. Palin's
youngest child, Trig, was prenatally diagnosed with
Down syndrome. Palin has one grandchild, a boy
named Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston, who was born to her eldest
daughter Bristol, in 2008. Her husband Todd works for the British
oil company
BP as an oil-field production
operator and owns a
commercial
fishing business.
Palin was born into a
Roman Catholic
family.
Later, her family joined the Wasilla
Assembly of God
, a Pentecostal
church, which she attended until 2002. Palin then switched
to the Wasilla Bible Church because, she said, she preferred the
children's ministries offered there. When in Juneau, she attends
the Juneau Christian Center. Palin described herself in an
interview as a "
Bible-believing
Christian." After the Republican National Convention, a
spokesperson for the McCain campaign told CNN that Palin "doesn't
consider herself Pentecostal" and has "deep religious
convictions."
In keeping with her religious background, Palin talked in a PBS
interview of how her favorite writer is
C. S. Lewis. In the interview, Palin stated, "I love
C. S. Lewis – very, very deep. Very intriguing. I love
anything by C. S. Lewis."
Political positions
Palin has been a registered Republican since 1982, and has
described the Republican Party platform as "the right agenda for
America".
- Palin is a social
conservative. Palin opposes same-sex marriage. Palin opposes embryonic stem cell research,
and abortion, calling herself "as pro-life
as any candidate can be." She has referred to abortion as an "atrocity," but
opposes sanctions against women who obtain an abortion. She
supports laws requiring parental
consent for minors seeking an abortion. Palin supports allowing
the discussion of creationism in public
schools, but is not in favor of teaching it as part of the
curriculum.
- Palin supports sex education in public schools that encourages
abstinence but also discusses birth control.
- A
lifetime member of the National Rifle Association
(NRA), Palin believes the right to bear arms includes
handgun possession, is against a ban on semi-automatic assault weapons. and supports gun safety education for youth. She
supports capital punishment for
adults who murder children and other innocent people.
- Palin
has promoted oil and natural gas resource exploration in Alaska,
including in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge.
- Palin has expressed skepticism about the causes of global warming, but agrees that "man's
activities certainly can be contributing to the issue" and that
action should be taken. She is opposed to cap-and-trade proposals such as the American Clean
Energy and Security Act.
- On
foreign policy,
Palin supported the Bush Administration's policies in Iraq, but is
concerned that "dependence on foreign energy" may be obstructing
efforts to "have an exit plan in place". Palin supports
preemptive military action in the face of an imminent threat, and
supports U.S. military operations in Pakistan
. Palin supports NATO
membership
for Ukraine
and Georgia
, and affirms that if Russia invaded a NATO member,
the United States should meet its treaty obligations.
- Via much reported Facebook notes, Palin asserted that Obama’s
plans
for health care reform include a "downright evil", "Orwellian",
"disturbing", "shocking" "death
panel" which would threaten handicapped people such as her son
Trig. Although Palin's 'death panel' charge was widely discredited
as inaccurate, The Atlantic
recognized its political effectiveness. Palin repeated her claims of euthanasia when
promoting her book Going Rogue and criticizing a November
2009 House vote on health care reform legislation. Palin said that
a mandate requiring people to buy health insurance is
"unconstitutional", and warned that "the bill also forces insurance
companies to cover everyone, regardless of pre-existing
conditions." She said, "health care would have to be rationed if it
were promised to everyone." In a Barbara
Walters interview Palin said that "No, death panel isn't there"
but added that Obama was "incorrect" and "disingenuous" when he
accused her of lying about death panels, and that the tea party
movement was "beautiful".
Public image
Prior to the Republican National Convention, a
Gallup poll found that most voters were
unfamiliar with Sarah Palin. During her campaign to become vice
president, 39% said Palin was ready to serve as president if
needed, 33% said Palin was not, and 29% had no opinion. This was
"the lowest vote of confidence in a running mate since the
elder George Bush chose then-Indiana
senator
Dan Quayle to join his ticket in
1988." Following the Convention, her image came under close media
scrutiny, particularly with regard to her religious perspective on
public life, her socially conservative views, and her perceived
lack of experience. Palin's experience in
foreign and
domestic politics came under criticism among
conservatives as well as
liberals following her nomination. At the same
time, Palin became more popular than John McCain among
Republicans.
During the campaign, Palin evoked a more strongly divided response
than Joe Biden among voters and was viewed both more favorably and
unfavorably when compared to her opponent. A plurality of the
television audience rated Biden's performance higher at the
2008
vice-presidential debate. Media outlets repeated Palin's
statement that she "stood up to
Big Oil"
when she resigned after 11 months as the head of the Alaska Oil and
Gas Conservation Commission, due to abuses she witnessed involving
other Republican commissioners and their ties to energy companies
and energy lobbyists, and again when she raised taxes on oil
companies as governor.
In turn, others have said that Palin is a
"friend of Big Oil" due to her advocacy of oil exploration and
development including drilling in the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge and the de-listing of the polar bear as an endangered species.The
National Organization for
Women, which endorsed Obama, made clear that it would not
support Palin, and made its support for her opponent publicly
known.
The National Rifle Association said nothing specific about Palin's position on gun
legislation, but concluded that she would be "one of the most
pro-gun vice-presidents in American history." Following the
presidential election, 69% of Republicans felt Palin had helped
John McCain's bid, while 20% felt Palin hurt. In the same poll, 71%
of Republicans stated Palin had been the right choice. An article
by Robert Jones & Daniel Cox, "Beyond the Spin", in
Religion Dispatches, uses a "post-election" survey to show
that McCain's choice of Palin split likely Republican voters. She
scored highly with White evangelicals but lost support for McCain
among White Roman Catholics.
References
- “Governor Palin Announces No Second Term, No Lame
Duck Session Either,” Press Release, Office of the Governor,
Via Anchorage Daily News
(2009-07-03).
- “Gov. Palin's resignation announcement,” Audiovideo
from MSNBC via
Anchorage Daily News.
- ; see also
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1837523_1837531_1837532,00.html
- Alumni Awards. North Idaho College Alumni
Association.
- {{cite news | url =
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/mccain-surprises-palin-pick/story.aspx?guid={BA5FEDF2-42BA-496B-A3ED-511268BD02A1}
| title = McCain surprises with Palin pick | accessdate =
2008-08-29 | date = August 29, 2008 | work = MarketWatch | publisher =
Wall Street Journal}}
- Davey, op. cit.,
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/us/politics/24palin.html.
- Boston globe cite
- City of Wasilla Document Central Links to
official announcements and budget items
- “Numbers right, context missing”, Politifact.com from
St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly (2008-08-31).
- ADN precis of the decision
- See also:
- The Anchorage Daily News, January 20, 2008: Palin does
not use the governor's private chef, whom Palin transferred to the
Lounge of the State Legislature.
- See also:
- Bolstad, Erika. "Palin's Take On Earmarks Evolving" , Anchorage Daily
News, (2008-09-08)
- Kizzia, Tom. "Palin touts stance on 'Bridge to Nowhere,' doesn't note
flip-flop", Anchorage Daily News (2008-08-31)
- Dan Fagan, September 16, 2008, No one is above the truth, even
Palin, Anchorage Daily News, No
one is above the truth, even Palin
- Wesley Loy, September 16, 2008, Palin accuses Monegan of
insubordination, Anchorage Daily News, Palin accuses Monegan of insubordination
- (August 30, 2008), Monegan to Palin: 'Ma'am, I Need to Keep You at
Arm's Length'
- Matthew Simon (November 7, 2008) Monegan says Palin
administration and first gentleman used governor's office to
pressure firing first family's former brother-in-law
- See page 8 of Report for findings.
- The report further found that Colberg had failed to cooperate
fully with the investigation.
- Dobbs, Michael. “The Fact Checker: Four Pinocchios for Palin”,
Washington Post (2008-10-13).
- “Legal Bills Swayed Palin, Official Says,”
New York
Times (2009-07-05).
- Carlton, Jim. “Palin Confidante Cites Distraction of
Investigations,” Wall Street Journal (2009-07-06) *
- “Palin's Reasons for Stepping Down,”
Washington
Post (2009-07-03).
- Besides the perceived motive of protecting the Vice
Presidential nominee from media questions, the McCain campaign
sought to have her constantly at McCain's side because Palin drew
crowds.
- Bolstad, Erika, and Cockerham, Sean. collections reach nearly a million" Anchorage Daily
News, adn.com, July 14, 2009
- Palin's Legal Fund Faces Ethics Challenge
- " What next for Sarah Palin?" by Ali Reed; BBC
News, November 6, 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-07.
- [1]
- " Palin Returns To Alaska Politics, But What's
Ahead?" by Martin Kaste; All Things Considered, NPR,
November 6, 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-07.
- Accurint (Lexis/Nexis) public records search for Track Palin,
www.accurint.com
- [2] People Magazine | date = 2008-12-29 | accessdate =
2009-10-05
- Sarah Palin on her favourite authors. [3]
- "Social Conservative: Americans should understand
what Palin is offering" Anchorage Daily News, adn.com,
September 12, 2008.
- On the Issues "Sarah Palin on Civil Rights", OnTheIssues.org,
Source, 2008 Debate against Joe Biden.
- Sarah Palin, September 8, 2009, Facebook, Written Testimony Submitted to the New York State
Senate Aging Committee
- August 07, 2009 9:30 PM, from ABC News Senior White House
Correspondent Jake Tapper, Palin Paints Picture of 'Obama Death Panel' Giving
Thumbs Down to Trig Palin posted the following comments on the
web - "And who will suffer the most when they ration care?" Palin
asks. "The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The
America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby
with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s 'death
panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective
judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they
are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."
- James Fallows, The Atlantic, August 15, 2009, Why the "death panel" claim is working
- Jonathan Martin, November 7, 2009, Palin rallies thousands of abortion opponents
- Andy Barr, November 8, 2009, Palin returns to 'death panels'
- Andy Barr, November 12, 2009, Politico, Palin: Health bill should be DOA
- Alan B. Goldberg and Katie N. Thomson, November 16, 2009, ABC
News, Sarah Palin: I Want to Play a Major Role in
National Politics, 'If People Will Have Me'
- John F. Harris and Beth Frerking. "Clinton aides: Palin treatment sexist"; Politico,
Sept 11, 2008
- "Palin More Popular With GOP Voters Than
McCain". Rasmussen Reports. November 4,
2008.
- "Palin sought more taxes and more development from oil
companies"; Politifact, Saint Petersburg Times, Aug. 29,
2008
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