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Home: About Sarah Palin
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Sarah Louise Heath Palin (born on February 11, 1964) is the current governeor of the State of Alaska and also the Republican vice-presidential nominee in the 2008 United States presidential election.
Sarah Palin was a member of the Wasilla, Alaska, city council from 1992 to 1996 and mayor from 1996 to 2002. |
After she ran an unsuccessful campaign to become the lieutenant governor of Alaska in 2002, she turned her attention to the environment and chaired the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission from 2003 to 2004. After this term, she was then elected governor of Alaska in November 2006 by defeating the incumbent governor in the Republican primary and a former two-term Democratic governor in the general election. Sarah Palin then made history by becoming the youngest and first female governor of the state of Alaska. |
In 2006, running on a clean-government platform, Palin defeated incumbent Governor Frank Murkowski in the Republican gubernatorial primary with running mate State Senator Sean Parnell. Despite being outspent and outgunned by her Democratic opponent, she won the gubernatorial election in November by defeating former governor Tony Knowles 48.3% to 40.9%. Palin became Alaska's first female governor and at 42 had also become the youngest governor in Alaskan history. She is 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 has been very popular with Alaska voters. Polls taken in 2007 early in her term showed her with a 93% and 89% popularity among all voters. A poll taken in September 2008 shows her popularity at 68%. 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.
Palin 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" declaring that she remains determined to clean up Alaska politics.
On August 29, 2008, in Dayton, Ohio, Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, announced that he had chosen Palin as his running mate for the 2008 United States presidential election. John McCain met Palin in a February National Governors Association and she obviously made a favorable impression on McCain. He called Palin on August 24 to discuss the possibility of having her join him on the ticket and, on August 27, Palin 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, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, United States Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, and former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge.
For more information on Sarah Palin, please visit the following links:
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