Palin's bio

Palin was born as Sarah Louise Heath in Sandpoint, Idaho, U.S.A., the daughter of Charles and Sally (Sheeran) Heath.[2] The family moved to Alaska when Sarah was an infant.[3] Charles Heath was a popular science teacher and coached track.[3] The Heaths were avid outdoors enthusiasts; Sarah and her father would sometimes wake at 3 a.m. to hunt moose before school, and the family would regularly run 5k and 10k races.[3]

Palin was the point guard and captain for the Wasilla High School Warriors when they won the Alaska small-school basketball championship in 1982; she earned the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" because of her intense play.[3] [4] She played the championship game despite a stress fracture in her ankle, hitting a critical free throw in the last seconds.[3] Palin, who was also the head of the school Fellowship of Christian Athletes, would lead the team in prayer before games.[3]

In 1984, Palin was first runner-up in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant after winning the Miss Wasilla contest earlier that year, winning a scholarship to help pay her way through college.[3][5] In the Wasilla pageant, she played the flute and also won Miss Congeniality.

Details of Palin's personal life have contributed to her political image. She hunts, eats moose burgers, ice fishes, rides snowmobiles, and owns a float plane.[6][7] Palin holds a lifetime membership with the National Rifle Association. She admits that she used marijuana when it was legal in Alaska, but says that she did not like it.[8]

Palin holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Idaho where she also minored in politics. She briefly worked as a sports reporter for local Anchorage television stations while also working as a commercial fisherman with her husband, Todd, her high school sweetheart.[3] One summer when she was working on Todd's fishing boat, the boat collided with a tender while she was holding onto the railing; Palin broke several fingers.[3] Outside the fishing season, Todd works for BP at an oil field on the North Slope[9] and is a champion snowmobiler, winning the 2000-mile "Iron Dog" race four times.[3] The two eloped shortly after Palin graduated college; when they learned they needed witnesses for the civil ceremony, they recruited two residents from the old-age home down the street.[3] Todd is a Native Yup'ik Eskimo.[3] The Palin family lives in Wasilla, about 40 miles (64 km) north of Anchorage.[10]

On September 11, 2007, the Palins' son Track joined the Army. Eighteen years old at the time, he is the eldest of Palin's five children.[10] Track now serves in an infantry brigade and will be deployed to Iraq in September. She also has three daughters: Bristol, 17, Willow, 13, and Piper, 7.[11] On April 18, 2008, Palin gave birth to her second son, Trig Paxson Van Palin, who has Down syndrome.[12] (Sarah returned to the office three days after giving birth.[13]) Palin refused to let the results of prenatal genetic testing change her decision to have the baby. "I'm looking at him right now, and I see perfection," Palin said. "Yeah, he has an extra chromosome. I keep thinking, in our world, what is normal and what is perfect?"[13]


[edit] Pre-gubernatorial political experience
Palin served two terms on the Wasilla, Alaska City Council from 1992 to 1996. In 1996, she challenged the incumbent mayor, criticizing wasteful spending and high taxes.[3] The ex-mayor and sheriff tried to organize a recall campaign, but failed.[3] Palin kept her campaign promises, reducing her own salary, as well as reducing property taxes 60%.[3] She ran for reelection against the former mayor in 1999, winning by an even larger margin.[3][14] Palin was also elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors.[11]

In 2002, Palin made an unsuccessful bid for Lieutenant Governor, coming in second to Loren Leman in a four-way race. After Frank Murkowski became governor (resigning his long-held U.S. Senate seat in mid-term), Palin interviewed to be his possible successor, but Murkowski appointed his daughter, then-Alaska State Representative Lisa Murkowski.[3]

Then-Governor Murkowski appointed Palin Ethics Commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission[15], where she served from 2003 to 2004 -- until resigning in protest over what she called the "lack of ethics" of fellow Alaskan Republican leaders, who ignored her whistleblowing complaints of legal violations and conflicts of interest.[3] After she resigned, she exposed the state Republican party's chairman, Randy Ruedrich, one of her fellow Oil & Gas commissioners (who was accused of doing work for the party on public time, and supplying a lobbyist with a sensitive e-mail).[16] Palin filed formal complaints against both Ruedrich and former Alaska Attorney General Gregg Renkes, who both resigned; Ruedrich paid a record $12,000 fine.[3]


[edit] Governorship

Governor Palin with Alaska's At-large U.S. Representative Don YoungIn 2006, Palin, running on a clean-government campaign, executed an upset victory over then-Gov. Murkowski in the Republican gubernatorial primary.[3] Despite the lack of support from party leaders and being outspent by her Democratic opponent, she went on to win the general election in November 2006, defeating former Governor Tony Knowles.[3] Palin said in 2006 that education, public safety, and transportation would be three cornerstones of her administration.[8]

When elected, Palin became the youngest governor in Alaskan history (42 years old upon taking office), and the first woman to be Alaska's governor. Palin was also the first Alaskan governor born after Alaska achieved U.S. statehood. She was also the first Alaskan governor not to be inaugurated in Juneau, instead choosing to hold her inauguration ceremony in Fairbanks. She took office on December 4, 2006.

Highlights of Governor Palin's tenure include a successful push for an ethics bill, and also shelving pork-barrel projects supported by fellow Republicans. Palin successfully killed the Bridge to Nowhere project that had become a nationwide symbol of wasteful earmark spending.[13][17] "Alaska needs to be self-sufficient, she says, instead of relying heavily on 'federal dollars,' as the state does today."[6]

She has challenged the state's Republican leaders, helping to launch a campaign by Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell to unseat U.S. Congressman Don Young[18] and publicly challenging Senator Ted Stevens to come clean about the federal investigation into his financial dealings.[13] Palin supports holding occasional legislative sessions outside the state capital, and municipal revenue sharing to help local governments.[citation needed]