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Sarah
Palin
is best known for her role as Alaska's
first female governor and as John McCain's
choice for running mate for the Republican
Party for the 2008 presidential election.
Sarah
Palin was born on February 11, 1964 as
Sarah Louise Heath in Sandpoint Idaho.
At the age of three months, Palin's parents,
Charles, a science teacher, and Sarah,
a school secretary, moved her to Alaska
where she spent her childhood hunting
moose before school and running small
races with her family.
As
a young adult, Palin attended Wasilla
High School where she helped lead the
school basketball team to a championship
in 1982. Her intensity on the team and
focused discipline earned her the nickname
"Sarah Barracuda". Two years
after her championship match, Palin entered
and won the Miss Wasilla beauty contest,
allowing her to enter into the Miss Alaska
pageant where she won second place and
a college scholarship. Palin used the
scholarship to attend the University of
Idaho where she majored in communications
and journalism and minored in political
science.
After
graduating with her bachelors in 1987,
Sarah Palin returned to Alaska and married
her high school sweetheart, Todd Palin.
Shortly thereafter, Palin began working
as a sports reporter for an Anchorage
television station before diving into
politics by joining the Wasilla city council
in 1992. She served on the council until
1996 when she challenged the incumbent
mayor of the city and won.
After
swearing in as mayor, Palin began making
radical changes to the city. She fired
the police chief and library director,
cut her own salary, cut property taxes
by 40%, and increased sales taxes in order
to pay for a new hockey rink and sports
arena. While some citizens were stunned
by her actions, she managed to win over
voters and was re-elected as mayor in
1999 and later became president of the
Alaska Conference of Mayors.
Sarah
Palin unsuccessfully ran for lieutenant
governor of Alaska in 2002 and lost to
senator Frank Murkowski who later appointed
Palin to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation
Committee. She served on the committee
until 2004 when she resigned to protest
the "lack of ethics" within
the committee and filed former complaints
against two high-ranking Republican officials.
In
2006 Palin decided to run for governor
on a platform of education, public safety,
and transportation. She won by less than
8% of the vote. At the age of 42, Palin
became Alaska's first woman governor and
the youngest in the state's history. She
consistently held high approval ratings
among voters, as high as 90% according
to some polls.
Palin's
environmental focus has ranged from oil
and gas resource development and higher
taxes for oil companies to creating a
group of advisors to determine the best
steps to reduce greenhouse gases in Alaska.
She has created new laws to allow a natural
gas pipeline in the state's North Slope
which negated previous laws and she has
proposed giving some of Alaska's surplus
oil revenue back to the consumers to offset
rising energy costs. Sarah Palin has also
spoken against the idea of listing polar
bears on the endangered species list,
siting the conflicts with gas and oil
development in the region.
While
in office as governor, Palin has taken
steps to limit spending, increase oil
and gas development, and reduce corruption
in the Alaskan government. She has become
well known for firing and replacing individuals
who have expressed corrupt behavior.
In
August of 2008 John McCain, the Republican
Presidential nominee, announced Palin
as his running mate for the upcoming election.
Sarah
Palin and her husband have five children,
the youngest born only four months prior
to Palin's acceptance of vice presidential
running mate.
This Sarah Palin biography may
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