SARAH Thank God!!
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YouTube: Sarah Palin Biography
Saturday Night Live! Very Funny! http://www.usmagazine.com/news/tina-fey-returns-as-sarah-palin
· SARAH'S Life and Education
Palin was born in Sandpoint, Idaho, the third of four children of Sarah Heath (née Sheeran), a school secretary, and Charles R. Heath, a science teacher and track coach. Palin has English, German, and Irish ancestry.[] Her family moved to
Palin attended Wasilla High School in Wasilla, then a small town, located 29 miles (47 km) north of the city of Anchorage. She was the head of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter at the school and the point guard and captain of the school's girls' basketball team. She helped the team win the
In 1982, Palin enrolled at Hawaii Pacific College but left after her first semester. From there she transferred to North Idaho College, where she spent two semesters as a general studies major. From the community college she then transferred to the much larger University of Idaho for two semesters. During this time Palin won the Miss Wasilla Pageant beauty contest, then finished third (second runner-up) in the Miss Alaska pageant, at which she won a college scholarship and the "Miss Congeniality" award. She then left the
In 1988, she worked as a sports reporter for KTUU-TV in Anchorage, Alaska, and for the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman as a sports reporter. She also helped in her husband’s commercial fishing family business.
City council of Wasilla
See also: Electoral history of Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin was elected twice to the city council of Wasilla, in 1992 and 1995. Palin says she entered politics because she was concerned that revenue from a new Wasilla sales tax would not be spent wisely.
She ran for Wasilla city council in 1992, at age 28, against John Hartrick, a local telephone company worker, on a promise to bring "my progressive, competitive attitude" to the government. She won 530 votes to John Hartrick’s 310. On the council, she successfully opposed a measure to curtail the hours at Wasilla's bars by two hours, which surprised Hartrick because she was then a member of a church that advocated abstinence from alcohol. After serving on the city council for three years, she ran for reelection against R’nita Rogers in 1995, winning 413 votes to
Palin did not complete her second term on the city council because she ran for mayor in 1996. Throughout her tenure on the city council and the rest of her career, Palin has been a registered Republican.
· Mayor of Wasilla
Main article: Mayoralty of Sarah Palin
Palin served two terms (1996–2002) as mayor of Wasilla. At the conclusion of Palin's tenure as mayor in 2002, the town had
about 6,300 residents, and it is now the fifth-largest population center in the state.
In 1996, Palin defeated three-term incumbent mayor John Stein, on a platform targeting wasteful spending and high taxes and introducing abortion, gun rights, and term limits as campaign issues. Although the election was a nonpartisan blanket primary, the state Republican Party ran advertisements on her behalf.
· First term
Shortly after taking office in October 1996, Palin eliminated the position of museum director and asked for updated resumes and resignation letters from top officials, including the police chief, public works director, finance director and librarian. Palin stated this request was to find out their intentions and whether they supported her. She temporarily required department heads to get her approval before talking to reporters, saying that they first needed to become acquainted with her administration's policies. She created the position of city administrator, and reduced her own $68,000 salary by 10%, although by mid-1998 this was reversed by the city council.
According to city librarian Mary Ellen Emmons, Palin inquired in October 1996 as to whether Emmons would object to library censorship. Palin later spoke publicly about the issue, saying she had no particular books or other material in mind for removal. No books were removed from the library.
Four months later, in January 1997, Palin fired Emmons and Police Chief Irl Stambaugh, stating that she did not feel they fully supported her efforts to govern the city. Following expressions of public support for Emmons and a personal meeting, Palin rescinded the firing of Emmons the next day, stating that her concerns had been alleviated, and also stating that Emmons agreed to support Palin's plan to merge the town's library and museum operations. Stambaugh, who along with Emmons had supported Palin's opponent in the election, filed a wrongful termination lawsuit alleging contract violation, wrongful termination and gender discrimination. The court dismissed his case, ruling that the mayor had the right to fire city employees for any reason, including a political one, or for no reason at all.
Despite a turbulent first year, Palin gained broad favor with Wasilla voters. She kept a jar with the names of Wasilla residents on her desk, and once a week she pulled a name from it and picked up the phone; she would ask: "How's the city doing?" Using income generated by a 2% sales tax that was enacted before she was on the city council, Palin cut property taxes by 75% and eliminated personal property and business inventory taxes. Tapping municipal bonds, she made improvements to the roads and sewers and increased funding to the Police Department. She also oversaw new bike paths and procured funding for storm-water treatment to protect freshwater resources. At the same time, she reduced spending on the town museum and blocked construction of a new library and city hall. Palin ran for re-election against Stein in 1999 and won, with a majority of 74%. Palin was also elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors.
Second term
During her second term as mayor, Palin introduced a ballot measure proposing the construction of a municipal sports center to be financed by a 0.5% sales tax increase. The $14.7 million Wasilla Multi-Use Sports Complex was built on time and under budget, but the city spent an additional $1.3 million because of an eminent domain lawsuit caused by the failure to obtain clear title to the property before beginning construction. The city's long-term debt grew from approximately $1 million to $25 million through voter-approved indebtedness of $15 million for the sports complex, $5.5 million for street projects, and $3 million for water improvement projects. A city council member defended the spending increases as being caused by the city's growth during that time.
She also hired the Anchorage-based lobbying firm of Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh to lobby for earmarks for Wasilla. The effort was led by Steven Silver, a former chief of staff for Senator Ted Stevens, and it secured nearly $27 million in funds. 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 linking Wasilla and the ski resort community of Girdwood. Earmark requests that Palin requested were criticized by Senator John McCain on three occasions, when she was mayor of Wasilla.
Term limits prevented Palin from running for a third term as mayor in 2002.
