Professional & Political Career: Sarah has worked ...

2008-10-06T23:36:00.000-07:00

Professional & Political Career:
Sarah has worked as a TV sportcaster in Achorage and as a commercial fisherman, helping her husband with the family business.
She first ran for public office in 1992 and won a spot on the Wasilla city council at age 28. In 1996, she became mayor of Wasilla, unseating a three-term incumbent. In 2002, she sought the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor and experienced her first political defeat. In 2003 she was appointed to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, but resigned, concerned over ethics violations. Running as an outsider on an ethics reform platform, she was elected governor in 2006.
Personal:
Sarah Palin is pro-life, pro-marriage, pro-gun and supports oil drilling both offshore and in ANWR. She has publicly questioned whether global warming is man-made.
Her husband, Todd Palin, is an Alaska native whose grandmother was raised in a traditional Yup'ik Eskimo house. Employed for two decades in the oil industry, Todd is a production operator, a member of the United Steelworkers, a commercial fisherman, and a four-time winner of the Iron Dog snowmachine race (along the famous Iditarod Trail.) His wife has been known to call him "first dude."
Sarah's political views are consistent with her conservative Christian beliefs. The mother of four when she became governor in 2006, in December 2007 she was pregnant with her fifth child when prenatal testing revealed Down syndrome.
A member of Feminists for Life, Sarah did not consider abortion. She gave birth to Trig Paxson Van Palin on April 18, 2008; Trig is Norse and means "true" and "brave victory," and Paxson is a region in Alaska the couple favors. (Van Palin is a nod to the rock group Van Halen.)

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Professional & Political Career: Sarah has worked ...