Media

Sarah Palin ’87 is a rising star. She was featured in a Newsweek article about women in state government and interviewed on Charlie Rose’s national PBS program. She is mentioned as possible candidate for Congress and there’s even a Web site promoting her for vice president in 2008.

The youngest governor in Alaska’s history and the first born since statehood, Palin is a 1987 graduate of the University of Idaho.

Combining her curiosity with her love of writing, she decided to pursue a degree in journalism. “I was always asking everyone the questions, and I still am today,” Palin says.

Palin first got into politics running for city council in Wasilla, Alaska. Palin says her youth was more of an issue to voters than her gender, but that didn’t stop her from running for mayor of Wasilla and winning when she was only 32.

“We accomplished a lot in the fastest growing area of the state, we reduced a bunch of taxes,” Palin says. “Our agenda worked.”

In early 2006, Palin sensed dissatisfaction with some of Alaska’s long-time political figures and decided to run for governor.

“Knowing that former Governor Frank Murkowski’s term was about to end, and seeing that it was the same old people wanting to run, I said to myself, ‘Let’s get way out there and take a stand for things that weren’t right and had to be changed.’”

As governor, Palin has two major goals: restoring Alaska’s reputation after a series of political scandals and making the state less reliant on federal funding. “I feel like that is a reason that we are here – to show that we can be trustworthy, and we can run a clean government which will allow us to convince the rest of the nation that we are capable of being responsible resource developers to supply the U.S.”

With five offices located across Alaska, Palin is constantly traveling while trying to send as much time as possible with her husband and four children.

Palin’s approval rating among voters hovers between 80 and 90 percent. Some Alaskans have suggested her as a candidate for U.S. Senate or for Alaska’s single seat in the House of Representatives. Palin’s father, Chuck Heath, says his daughter isn’t interested in higher office – for now. “She’s here to stay,” he says. “Her honesty has gotten her through everything in her political career, and we’re proud of the effects her honesty has had on the state.”

Author: Jennifer Castro, Senior in radio-television-digital media.