Sarah Palin, McCain’s pick, forged maverick political path in Alaska

Sarah Palin, McCain’s pick, forged maverick political path in Alaska

The GOP's surprise vice-presidential nominee brings a fresh face to the '08 race.
By Peter Grier | Staff writer / August 29, 2008 edition

The young Sarah Heath once won the title “Miss Congeniality” in a local Alaska beauty contest. But her high school basketball teammates had another nickname for her, one that belied her genial surface: “Sarah Barracuda”.
Those monikers may sum up the contradictory political appeal of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, John McCain’s surprise choice to be his vice-presidential nominee.

She’s young, a fresh face, and a self-described “hockey mom” who eloped with her high school boyfriend after college. At the same time, she’s made a career of running against, through, and over Alaska’s old boy political network.

To win the governor’s mansion in 2006, she had to defeat the incumbent, scandal-weakened Gov. Frank Murkowski, in the primary. In the general election, she faced a former governor, Democrat Tony Knowles – and beat him handily.

“Her experience in shaking up the status quo is exactly what is needed in Washington today,” said the McCain campaign in a news release announcing the Palin pick.

Governor Palin is energetic, staunchly antiabortion, pro-gun, and a maverick who has at times angered the Alaskan Republican Party. In that sense she might be seen as a mirror image of Senator McCain himself.

Like former Navy aviator McCain, her initial career ambitions had nothing to do with politics. An avid athlete as a girl, Palin in high school listed her career ambition as sitting in a booth with Howard Cosell, broadcasting basketball games in which her then-boyfriend (and future husband) Todd Palin was playing.

In fact, Palin graduated from the University of Idaho in 1987 with a degree in journalism. She did occasionally fill in as a television sports announcer for a few years thereafter.

But in other ways, Palin is a direct contrast to McCain and could help counter some of his weaknesses. She is decades younger than the Arizona Senator, for one. It may be tough for opponents to tie her in any way to the troubles of the Bush administration. And as a woman, she might attract some disaffected former supporters of Hillary Clinton from the Democratic camp.

Sarah Heath was born in Idaho in 1964. Her parents moved to Skagway, Alaska, when she was three months old. Eventually they settled in Wasilla, where her father, Chuck Heath, became a well-known local science teacher and track coach.
In high school she led a chapter of Fellowship of Christian Athletes and led the Wasilla Warriors to a small-school state championship. She hit a crucial free three in the final minutes despite playing with a stress fracture in her ankle.
In 1988, she eloped with Todd Palin to save her parents the cost of paying for the wedding, according to a 2006 profile in the Anchorage Daily News. Discovering that they needed witnesses for the ceremony, they recruited two senior citizens from a home across the street from the county courthouse.

Todd Palin is a commercial fisherman, oil worker, and an avid snowmobile racer. The couple have five children. Their eldest son, Track, has joined the Army and is due soon to be deployed to Iraq. Their youngest child, Trig, born this past April, has Down syndrome.

Palin’s political career began when she won a seat on the Wasilla City Council in 1992. After reelection, she challenged and defeated the town’s sitting mayor in 1996, saying that the three terms he had served were enough. She clashed at times with the city’s staff, as she fired department heads who had been loyal to the defeated incumbent.

Booming sales-tax revenue allowed her to cut property taxes as Wasilla grew, according to the Almanac of American Politics. State GOP leaders took notice and began grooming her for higher office.

In 2002, she made an unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor. A year later, Governor Murkowski appointed her ethics commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

But in 2003, she broke with the Republican hierarchy. The reason, she said at the time, was ethics. She charged that insiders in state government were involved in conflicts of interest and outright corruption and that state officials had ignored her complaints about it.

One of Palin’s particular targets was state Republican Party Chairman Randy Ruedrich, whom she accused of leaking sensitive state documents to an energy lobbyist, among other things. Mr. Ruedrich later admitted to violations of ethics rules and paid a $12,000 civil fine.

In October 2005, Palin entered the Alaskan gubernatorial race. Murkowski had been weakened by the backlash to his appointment of his daughter to his old seat in the US Senate, which had become open when he was elected governor in 2002. Some Alaskans also believed that a natural-gas pipeline deal brokered by Murkowski was too favorable to oil companies.

Upon her election, Palin became Alaska’s first female governor as well as the first to be born after Alaska achieved statehood. She remains popular in the state and has maintained an image of independence from energy producers – but, unlike McCain, she does favor drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Palin eats mooseburgers, fishes with her family, and still runs competitively in organized road races.

Appearing for the first time as McCain’s running mate at an Aug. 29 rally, Palin wasted no time making a direct play for Hillary voters.

“It turns out the women of America aren’t finished yet and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all.”

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Comments
1. Trad | 08.29.08

She seems like a nice person, but I’m afraid we could be witnessing a Harriet Miers redux. I guess we’ll see.
2. Moderate | 08.29.08

Woman or not, she’s still an extreme right-winger who knows more about commercial fishing, snowmachine races and basketball than representing the real issues of middle America.
3. Don | 08.29.08

She may make the two Dem Senators look like total crooks who never ran anything but their Senate offices in Cesspool, DC.

Very interesting choice. I can see the steam coming out of Pelosi’s ears.