Dear Family & Friends,
Because I have received e-mails from many of you asking for any information and insight into the newly-selected Republican VP candidate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, I thought I’d put some of my personal knowledge and observations together and send it out en masse. It’s information I’d like to get out as quickly as possible, and invite you to share with your own network of family and friends who might also find it useful. Warning: It is a long e-mail, but my intent is to give you specific details that will hopefully help give you a better idea of Gov. Palin’s background, history, and character.
I have lived in Alaska for 15 years. I arrived as a member of the U.S. Air Force, stati oned at Elmendorf Air Force Base (on the outskirts of Anchorage), and 6 years later I retired from the service. My husband, also an Air Force retiree, and I decided to stay in Alaska to raise our family and take advantage of the nearly unlimited opportunities we saw here. Our first 9 years were spent living in Anchorage and its suburbs – a city of about 275,000 people – and for the last 6 years we have lived in Wasilla, the home town of Gov. Palin. Wasilla city limits encompass about 7,000 residents, but Wasilla is an integral and centrally-located part of a much larger area known as the Matanuska- Susitna (Mat-Su) Borough, which is by far the fastest growing area of the state. Mat-Su is approximately the size of West Virginia, and it currently has just over 80,000 residents. Mat-Su’s population is growing at a rate of about 10 people per day. Wasilla itself is located about 40 miles northeast of Anchorage.
Sarah Palin attended Wasilla High School, the same school my 2 older children attended and the one my youngest will attend in 2 years. It has about 600 students total in grades 9-12. In 1982, the year Sarah Palin graduated, she was a point guard on the girls’ basketball team, which won the state championship that year. While she left the state to attend college, she returned when finished and married and settled right here in Wasilla. Her house is about 3 miles from mine, on a beautiful lake, but it’s nothing fancy (I would guess about 3-4 bedrooms, 2-3 baths). It is not a new or luxurious home, but one that has been there for many years, with a nice yard that even includes some weeds occasionally (just like mine).
After her children reached school age, she became involved in the local Iditarod Elementary School PTA. Her community involvement made her a well-known local, and she was elected to Wasilla City Council in 1994. She was elected mayor in 1996, and served two 3-year terms. She was unable to run for a third term due to term limits. She brought organization and fiscal responsibility to Wasilla, which was no easy task. She instituted a 2% city sales tax which allowed Wasilla to have its own police force. Previously, law and order was maintained by a few state troopers who happened to be in the area. She enabled the building and improvement of much of Wasilla’s infrastructure. All this she was able to do without increasing property taxes.
Since we moved to Wasilla in late 2002, we didn’t see her perform as mayor first-hand. However, we reaped the results of her time in office in the form of better infrastructure, new community facilities, and low property taxes (about 50% lower than in Anchorage). During the next 4 years, her political life evidently took a back seat to family. I discovered that her youngest (at that time) child attended the same elementary school as my youngest, and I often saw her at school events. She attended Christmas concerts, award assemblies, conferences, sporting events and potlucks just like other parents. It was hard to find her in a crowd; she was wearing jeans or sweatpants and sweatshirts and snow boots, mittens and a parka, just like the rest of us. I saw her occasionally at the grocery20store, again, always in jeans and a t-shirt, sneakers and a smile. She was always friendly and at ease in a group, and had no trouble or hesitation with discussing common parental issues with the rest of us: growing kids, curfews, video game obsessions, etc. Her husband, Todd, is almost as much a local celebrity as Sarah is, because he participates in and once won the Iron Dog Race, a local snowmobile racing event that takes participants over several hundred miles of rugged winter terrain – kind of an Iditarod for snowmachines instead of dogs. Their older kids played local and high school hockey, and the Palins were always seen at the games, cheering on their kids, always from the “cheap seats;” no special privileges.
Sarah revived her political career in 2006 by announcing her intention to run, as a Republican, against the incumbent Republican governor who had made many very public faux pas involving potential misuse of public money and preferential treatment for special interest groups. Sarah campaigned on a platform of reform within Alaskan Republican Party, in which many of us had lost faith. She won the primary by a landslide, and defeated her Democrat challenger (a former Alaska governor) soundly in the general election. She won the popular vote in nearly all demographic categories, including women, Alaska Natives, small business owners, city, and rural dwellers. Since her election, she has kept her promises to clean up the Alaska Republican Party, and to govern by doing what she believes is right, regardless of “party lines” or political correctness. Believe me, she is giving the international energy companies (BP, Conoco Phillips, etc) a run for their money with her tough negotiating stances on their current oil field operations and also for the proposed natural gas pipeline. When the Democrats now say she won’t or can’t “stand up to big oil,” they haven’t done their homework, and they certainly don’t live in Alaska.
Sarah’s oldest child, her son Track, was in the same Wasilla High School Class of 2007 as my middle son. That year, both Wasilla High School boys’ and girls’ basketball teams won the state championship, the first time s ince the 1982 championship. Sarah was at the state championship games in Anchorage, and went wild with the rest of the Wasilla crowd when our teams won. It was at that event that my son was able to approach Sarah and ask her to speak at the Wasilla High School graduation ceremony, an invitation that she graciously accepted. Her speech was poignant, funny, and very engaging. She has a remarkable stage presence that seems to be absolutely genuine and true to her real character.
At unofficial events, Sarah likes to be called, “Sarah” or “Mrs. Palin.” As rare and unlikely as it may seem, she truly cares about the people she represents and about using her office for their benefit. And that’s what really draws me to Sarah – the fact that I know she DOES represent me, because many aspects of her life have been like mine. I’ve seen her enough to know that her world is (normally) my world, and that she looks at state and world events with the same concerns and mindset that I do. No, I can’t honestly say that Sarah is a smooth, suave, professional politician. But that’s a good thing. Look where all the “professional” politicians have taken us in the past. Sarah would be the first person to admit she’s not perfect, but then neither are any of the rest of us. I’m tired of being “represented” by people who have never stood in line at the grocery store, worn funny-colored homemade mittens to a local hockey game, or sat in the cheap seats. Maybe the best way to bring true integrity back into politics is to elect someone whose life hasn’t been so far removed from the experiences of the “ordinary” middle class American family, what I believe to be the great silent majority.
For those concerned about Sarah’s support of drilling in ANWR (Alaska National Wildlife Refuge), you must understand that NO ONE is more in love with Alaskan splendor, natural beauty and wildlife than Alaskans. It’s a big reason why we choose to live here. However, we – as represented by Sarah – realize the abundance of natural resources Alaska has been blessed with; resources that we want to share with the rest of the country, but we know there is a balance to be achieved. We can harvest and benefit from these natural resources without destroying the environment. Both the technology and the methodology do exist! The oil pipeline running through the state, including ANWR, has proved this for the past 30 years. We have enacted some of the strictest legislation in the country to protect our incredible and unique environment from damage resulting from the harvesting of natural resources. Alaskans do not think we know better than other states’ residents what those states should do to protect their own land and environment. We ask for the same consideration. No one will deal more with the consequences of environmental damage than those of us who live here. We have no intention of allowing our home to be maimed or destroyed. If we are satisfied with a balanced approach and plan to drill in ANWR, who is any non-Alaskan to say otherwise?
So I know this has been an excruciatingly long e-mail, but I do hope that now, at the end of it, you feel you know more a bout Sarah Palin than you did at the start. I know she won’t appeal to everyone, and perhaps all my perceived positive aspects of her will strike some as all negative. I do know that Sarah is a unique and compelling figure in politics, and especially in this particular election. As Alaskans, we could not be more proud of our Sarah, whether or not she becomes our next Vice President. With Sarah, like most Alaskans, what you see is what you get. If what you see in Sarah is to your liking, let her know with your vote in November. I feel privileged to be able to highly recommend her!
From a Friend in Alaska
She's for us!
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