Sarah Louise Heath Palin (born February 11, 1964 in Sandpoint, Idaho) is the current Governor of Alaska. She is the youngest governor in Alaskan history (forty-two years old upon taking office), as well as the first woman to hold the office in Alaska. In addition to being Alaska's youngest governor, Palin is also the first who was born after Alaska achieved statehood. She is also the first Alaska governor not to be inaugurated in Juneau, instead choosing to hold her inauguration ceremony in Fairbanks. She took office on Monday, December 4, 2006. Her Lieutenant Governor is Sean Parnell. Palin is the former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.
Personal
Palin's husband, Todd, works on the North Slope and is a commercial fisherman. She also has four children: Bristol, Piper, Track, and Willow. They live in Wasilla, about 40 miles north of Anchorage.[1]
On September 11, 2007, Palin's son Track joined the Army. Aged 18 at the time, he is the eldest of her four children and the only son.[1]
Palin has been an athlete and a beauty queen. She was the point guard for the Wasilla High School Warriors when they won the state small school basketball championship in 1982. [2]
In 1984, Palin competed in the Miss Alaska contest after being chosen Miss Wasilla that year.[3] In the Wasilla contest, she played the flute and also won the title of Miss Congeniality. After she became governor, the nationally read and irreverent political blog, Wonkette, began covering Palin, often focusing on her physical attractiveness. [4]
Details of Palin's personal life have contributed to her political image. She eats moose burgers and rides snowmachines. [5] She admits that, when marijuana was legal in the state, she used it; however, she didn't like it. [6]
Palin's education includes a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Idaho. She briefly worked in the media and utility industry.
In the past, Palin was named one of Alaska's "Top 40 Under 40," Alaska's Public Works "Person of the Year," and was recently inducted into the Sigma Beta Delta Honor Society at Alaska Pacific University. She is also a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association.
Political Experience
Palin served two terms on the Wasilla City Council and became a two-term mayor and manager of Wasilla, one of Alaska's fastest-growing communities. She was also elected President of the Alaska Conference of Mayors.
In 2002, Palin made a failed bid to become the state's lieutenant governor, coming in second place behind Loren Leman in a four-way race, some say due to her inability to raise campaign contributions equal to that of her opponents. After Frank Murkowski became governor, resigning from his long-time U.S. Senate seat, Palin was considered by some to be a candidate for that job; however Murkowski appointed his daughter, then State Representative Lisa Murkowski.
Governor Murkowski did appoint Palin to serve as a commissioner on the state's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission which she served on during 2003-2004, but later resigned, in protest over what she perceived to be the "lack of ethics" of fellow Alaskan Republican leaders. This included the state party's chairman, Randy Ruedrich, a fellow commissioner, who was accused of doing work for the party on public time and providing a sensitive email to a lobbyist. She filed formal complaints against both Ruedrich and former state Attorney General Gregg Renkes, who was eventually found not guilty.
She also served an elected term on the Valley Hospital board.
Governorship
In 2006, Palin won the Republican primary for Governor, defeating then-Gov. Frank Murkowski; she went on to win the general election in November 2006, defeating former Gov. Tony Knowles.
While considered a maverick by many for filing accusations of some top Alaska Republican officials for ethical violations, Palin steadfastly maintains that she is a conservative.
Palin has said that education, public safety, and transportation will be three focuses of her administration. [2]
She also supports rotating legislative sessions, at least on occasion, out of the state capital, Juneau, and re-establishing the distribution of state wealth — municipal revenue sharing — to help local governments.
In July 2007, Gov. Palin was heralded in the media as being the most popular governor in the United States, with an approval rating often in the 90s.[3] An August 2007 poll had her approval rating at 84%, with 5% disapproving. [7]
Issues
Energy policies
Shortly after taking office, Palin rescinded the appointment of former chief of staff Jim Clark to the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority, reversing an appointment made in the closing days or hours of the prior Administration [8].
In April 2007, Palin announced plans to create a new sub-cabinet to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions within Alaska.
Recently, she joined efforts to promote an "all-Alaska" natural gas pipeline, which would have been built by a political subdivision of the State. Palin describes an all-Alaska pipeline as the only proposal which brings the maximum benefit to the people, and later softened her stand by claiming she is not opposed to the alternative of running the pipeline through Canada, to the Lower 48, if doing so represents the best deal for Alaska.
In June 2007, Palin signed her own legislation which passed the state legislature as the new legal vehicle to the building a natural gas pipeline from the state's North Slope. The Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA)[9] all but one legislator who voted on the legislation supported the measure[10][11].
[edit] Gay rights and abortion
She is strongly anti-abortion.[2]
She opposes same-sex marriage, but has otherwise been receptive to gays and lesbians concerns about discrimination. While the previous administration did not implement same-sex benefits, Palin followed an Alaska Supreme Court order and signed them into law. [12]. She supports a democratic advisory vote from the public on whether there should be a constitutional amendment on the matter [13]. Alaska was one of the first states to pass a constitutional ban on gay marriage, in 1998, along with Hawaii [14]. Her first veto was used on legislation that would have barred the state from granting benefits to gay state employees and their partners. In effect, her veto granted State benefits to same-sex couples. The veto occurred after Palin consulted with her attorney general on the constitutionality of the legislation [15].
[edit] Budget
In the first days of her administration, Palin tried to follow through on a campaign promise to try to sell the Westwind II jet purchased by the past administration, on state credit [16]. Since the election the state has put up the jet on eBay three times. In August of 2007, the jet was sold.
Shortly after becoming governor, Palin canceled an eleven-mile gravel road outside of Juneau to a mine [17], reversing a decision made in the closing days or hours of the prior Administration [18].
In June 2007, Palin signed into law the largest operating budget in the state's history, $6.6 billion,[19] and at the same time used her veto power to make the second largest cuts of the construction budget in the state history. The $237 million in cuts represented over 300 local projects and reduced the construction budget to nearly $1.6 billion. [20]
* This entry is to record the events prior to Palen being nominated as the Republican Vice President nominee.
