Palin, Sarah

Palin, Sarah
▪ 2009

born Feb. 11, 1964, Sandpoint, Idaho

 In 2008 Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was chosen by U.S. Sen. John McCain (q.v.) of Arizona, the Republican candidate in the November presidential election, to be his vice presidential running mate. Palin, who had served as Alaska's governor since 2006, was the first woman to appear on a Republican presidential ticket.

      Sarah Louise Heath was less than a year old when her family relocated from Idaho to Skagway, Alaska. She was athletic as a youth, earning the nickname “Sarah Barracuda” with her tenacious play on Wasilla High School's 1982 state championship basketball team. She also competed in cross-country and often accompanied her father on hunting trips. She completed (1987) a degree in journalism at the University of Idaho before returning to Alaska to work as a sports reporter at an Anchorage television station. She married Todd Palin, a commercial fisherman and North Slope oil-field worker, in 1988 and four years later entered politics, winning a seat on the Wasilla city council. In 1996 she launched a successful campaign to become Wasilla's mayor. During her six years in office as mayor, she ushered through a series of infrastructure improvements funded by a sales-tax increase, and the city's operating budget soared.

      In 2002 Palin campaigned for the Republican nomination for the office of lieutenant governor of Alaska. Although she was ultimately unsuccessful, Palin elevated her profile within the party, and she was appointed to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission by newly elected Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski. Palin's time on the commission was short-lived, however. She resigned after encountering resistance to her investigation of Randy Ruedrich, the state Republican Party chair and a fellow commissioner; Ruedrich later admitted to ethics violations. In 2004 Palin further distanced herself from the party when she joined Democratic lawmakers in their call for an investigation of the Alaska attorney general, who had close ties to Murkowski. This and other issues hurt Murkowski politically, and Palin challenged him for the Republican nomination for governor in August 2006. She defeated him handily, winning 51% of the vote in a three-way race, before moving on to a comfortable victory in the general election three months later. Palin became the youngest governor in Alaska's history, as well as the first woman to hold that post.

      On August 29 Palin made her debut on the national stage when McCain selected her from among a field of higher-profile candidates to be his running mate. She quickly energized her party's conservative base. The mother of five children—including an infant, born in April, with Down syndrome—Palin drew particular support from right-to-life activists. She delivered an acceptance speech that was enthusiastically received at the Republican national convention in early September, during which she cast herself as “just your average hockey mom” and touted her reformist credentials. Critics, however, questioned her readiness to assume the office of the vice presidency. Her shaky performances in some primetime interviews were famously lampooned by comedienne Tina Fey (q.v.) on Saturday Night Live. Reports that the Republican Party had spent some $150,000 on designer clothing and other accessories for Palin also provided fodder for her critics, although Palin insisted that she had not shopped for the clothes herself and that they would be donated to charity after the campaign. On November 4 the McCain-Palin ticket was defeated by Barack Obama (q.v.) and his running mate, Joe Biden (q.v.).

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