August 31, 2008
Sunday

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Sarah Palin was a hockey mom, small-town mayor and rising young Republican star in Alaska in 2003 when she ran afoul of her party's establishment over ethics reform and was cast into the political wilderness.

But she came charging back as an ethics crusader to win the governor's office in 2006 (including a landslide primary victory over the incumbent Republican governor) and has remained one of the most popular local politicians in America even as she continued to take on such powerful figures as the oil companies and the leaders of her own state party.

Palin, 44, has been the Joan of Arc of Alaska politics, charging into battle against long odds on such big local issues as oil taxes and construction of a natural gas pipeline -- only to see her opposition crumble. Just days after her 2006 primary victory, an FBI investigation into political corruption involving the oil industry and Republican legislator burst into view with surprise raids of legislative offices. As criminal indictments and convictions followed, Palin's outsider status helped her maintain consistently sky-high approval ratings.

Though fearless in choosing the difficult outsider's path in politics, she remains relatively untested as a campaigner, a politician and as a two-year governor. And even as she drew increasing attention nationally as a potential vice presidential nominee in recent months, she has come under withering criticism at home from business-minded Republicans who consider her a misguided populist and an intellectual lightweight.

In one-on-one settings, her relaxed, no-bull manner has contributed to her popularity -- in a state of 650,000 residents, where such contacts are not only possible but essential for political success. And voters here have also warmed to the outlines of her all-Alaskan biography.

She was born in Idaho and came to Alaska when she was three months old. She grew up in the town of Wasilla, a now-sprawling small town an hour north of Anchorage, where her father, Chuck Heath, was a local teacher and coach. One of her most formative experiences, she has said, was leading her high school basketball team to the 1982 state championship. Palin played point guard, and got the nickname from her teammates of Sarah Barracuda.

Palin went on to study journalism and political science in college, graduating form the University of Idaho in 1987. Along the way she competed in the Miss Alaska contest after being chosen Miss Wasilla 1984. In the Wasilla contest, she played the flute and also won the title of Miss Congeniality.

She grew up hunting with her father, whose living room wall is densely populated with trophies and antlers. Her favorite meal, she said during her gubernatorial race, is moose-meat stew after a day of snowmachining.

She eloped in 1988 with her high school sweetheart, Todd Palin, who expands the family biography considerably. He is a commercial fisherman, an oil field worker, a member of the United Steelworkers, and an Alaska Native. Todd's grandmother grew up in a traditional Yup'ik Eskimo house in Bristol Bay and accompanied Sarah in her race for governor as she sought support from Native voters. Sarah Palin has joined her family fishing a commercial set-net site on the Nushagak River in Bristol Bay every summer.

Todd Palin has worked 18 years on Alaska's North Slope for BP, though he backed away from the job after his wife was elected governor. He is also a repeat winner of the Iron Dog snowmachine race from Anchorage to Nome and back along the Iditarod Trail.

Sarah Palin made her way into local politics on the city council in 1992 and then ran for mayor as an agent of change. Though she established a reputation as a tax-fighter, she actually increased infrastructure spending on roads and sewers for the town, helped by the increase in sales tax revenues coming to the booming commercial hub.

Palin finished a strong second in the 2002 primary for lieutenant governor and was being groomed by the party for higher office when she ran afoul of state Republican Party chairman Randy Ruedrich. They both had seats on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission -- appointed by Gov. Frank Murkowski, the Republican she would later depose. She accused Ruedrich of political chicanery and eventually resigned in frustration. Ruedrich was forced to resign as well.

She later took on Murkowski's attorney general in a conflict-of-interest scandal that forced his resignation.

In 2006, she knocked off Murkowski and then Democratic former Gov. Tony Knowles in a campaign that drew on grass-roots support, relying on neighbors and friends for staff rather than veterans of big-time campaigns.

She had strong support from social conservatives and often speaks of her religious faith. The Palins have five children, including Trigg, who was born three months ago after a pregnancy that Gov. Palin managed to keep secret for seven months.

But as governor, she has not pushed any big agenda items of social conservatives. Her focus has been on raising oil taxes -- long suppressed by oil-friendly legislators, the taxes seemed ridiculously low once oil prices started rising -- and on launching construction of a $40 billion natural gas pipeline from North Slope oilfields. Palin took on the oil producers there, saying they had been dragging their feet on a gas pipeline, and she pushed the legislature to pass a bill authorizing an independent company to build the line.

The ongoing corruption scandal in the legislature over influence of the former oilfield services company Veco helped Palin force change in the Juneau state capitol. That scandal has now spread to include Alaska's two longtime powers in Congress, Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young. Palin has kept distance between herself and those Republican icons and backed ethics-reform measures that passed the Legislature.

Palin's clean image has lately taken a shot, however, over charges that she tried to use her office to get rid of an Alaska state trooper who had gone through a messy divorce with one of Palin's sisters. Palin denied any involvement but has conceded a staff member made inappropriate calls. The legislature has hired a special investigator, with the strongest criticism coming from Republicans antagonized by Palin during the oil and gas battles of the past two years.

She was already under steady criticism from some quarters, including conservative radio talk show hosts in Anchorage and rental car executive Andrew Halcro, a former state representative who ran as an independent in the last governor's race and features almost-daily criticism of her on his blog. Critics call her naive, a panderer in her economic populism, and reckless in her dealing with the vital oil industry.

But at a time when state coffers are spilling over with new oil revenues, Palin has remained popular with voters, recently pushing through a $1,200 per person "rebate" to help with high fuel costs.

SitNews ©2008
Stories In The News
Ketchikan, Alaska

Articles & photographs that appear in SitNews may be protected by copyright and may not be reprinted without written permission from and payment of any required fees to the proper sources.