Sarah Palin next VP?

Sarah Louise Heath Palin (pronounced /ˈpeɪlɪn/; born February 11, 1964) is the current governor of Alaska, and is the presumptive Republican vice presidential nominee in the 2008 United States presidential election.

Palin served two terms on the Wasilla, Alaska, city council from 1992 to 1996, then won two terms as mayor of Wasilla from 1996 to 2002. After an unsuccessful campaign for lieutenant governor of Alaska in 2002, she chaired the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission from 2003 to 2004 while also serving as Ethics Supervisor of the commission.

On December 2006, Palin was sworn in as the governor of Alaska, becoming the first woman and youngest person to hold the office. She defeated incumbent Republican governor Frank Murkowski in the Republican primary and former Democratic governor Tony Knowles in the general election.

On August 29, 2008, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain announced that he had chosen Palin as his running mate. The decision generated much publicity for the Republican campaign as pundits from both major parties publicly discussed their view on the choice. She is expected to be formally nominated at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. She would be the second woman to run for vice president on a major-party ticket[5] and the first Republican to do so.

Early political career

City council and mayorship

Palin began her political career in 1992 when she ran for Wasilla city council, supporting a controversial new sales tax and advocating "a safer, more progressive Wasilla".[16] She won and served two terms on the council from 1992 to 1996.

Since the 1990s, Palin has been close to the Alaska Independence Party whose platform advocates secession.[17][18][19] According to party officials Sarah Palin was a member in 1994,[18][20] although the McCain campaign has disputed this with documents showing she has been a Republican since she first registered to vote in 1982.[21] Palin would later give a welcome speech to the 2008 AIP Convention, saying, "Keep up the good work."[22]

In 1996 Palin challenged and defeated incumbent John Stein for the non-partisan office of mayor, criticizing wasteful spending and high taxes.[6] In October 1996, she asked the police chief, librarian, public works director, and finance director to resign, and she instituted a policy requiring department heads to get her approval before talking to reporters.[23] The librarian kept the job, despite a dispute over inquires by Palin on how to ban books including inappropriate language,[24] but in January 1997, Palin fired the police chief, citing a failure to support her administration.[25] Palin said in a letter that she wanted a change because she believed the two did not fully support her administration.[26] A court dismissed a suit subsequently filed by the police chief, finding that Palin had the right to fire city employees even for political reasons.[27]

As mayor, Palin reduced the mayoral salary, reduced property taxes by 40 percent,[6] and increased the city sales tax to pay for a new indoor ice rink and sports complex.[28] At this time, state Republican leaders began grooming her for higher office.[16] She ran for re-election against Stein in 1999[6][29] and was returned to office, getting over three times as many votes as he.[30] Palin was also elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors.[31]

The sports complex she helped build ended up costing the city more than expected. The city was outbid for the property initially and, after invoking eminent domain to take it from the new buyer, ended up having to pay over $1.7 million. [32]

During her last four-year term as mayor, Palin hired a Washington-connected lobbying firm, Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh, that undertook a lobbying effort on behalf of Wasilla. The Anchorage-based law was led by Steven Silver (a former chief of staff for Sen. Ted Stevens)[33], and it secured nearly $27 million in earmarked funds. According to the Washington Post, the earmarks included "$500,000 for a youth shelter, $1.9 million for a transportation hub, $900,000 for sewer repairs, and $15 million for a rail project." The largest earmark of $15 million was for a rail link between Wasilla and the ski resort community of Girdwood, home town of Senator Ted Stevens.[34]

In 2002, term limits prevented Palin from running for a third term as mayor.[35] Her mother-in-law, Faye Palin, ran for the office but lost the election to Dianne Keller.[36]

Activities from 2002 to 2005

In 2002, Palin made an unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor, coming in second to Loren Leman in a five-way race in the Republican primary.[37] After Frank Murkowski resigned from his long-held U.S. Senate seat in mid-term to become governor, he considered appointing Palin to replace him in the Senate, but instead chose his daughter, Alaska state representative Lisa Murkowski.[38]

Governor Murkowski appointed Palin to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, where she chaired the Commission from 2003 to 2004, and also served as Ethics Supervisor.[39] Palin resigned in January 2004 in protest over what she called the "lack of ethics" of fellow Republican members.[6][40][41]

After resigning, Palin filed formal complaints against the state Republican Party's chairman, Randy Ruedrich,[42] and former Alaska Attorney General Gregg Renkes.[43] She accused Ruedrich, one of her fellow commissioners, of doing work for the party on public time and working closely with a company he was supposed to be regulating. Ruedrich and Renkes both resigned and Ruedrich paid a record $12,000 fine.[6][39]

From 2003 to June 2005, Palin served as one of three directors of "Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.," a 527 group that was designed to serve as a political boot camp for Republican women in Alaska.[44]