ABOUT SARAH PALIN
I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since
1992. Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name
basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her father was my child's
favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a first name basis with her parents
and mother-in-law. I attended more City Council meetings during her
administration than about 99% of the residents of the city.
She is enormously popular; in every way she's like the most
popular girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and won't
vote for her can't quit smiling when talking about her because she is a
"babe".
It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret.
She kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for
seven months.
She is "pro-life". She recently gave birth to a Down's
syndrome baby. There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby.
She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at
the gym.
She is savvy. She doesn't take positions; she just "puts
things out there" and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit.
Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is
a champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin's kind of job is highly sought-after
because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his work schedule so he can
fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or so in summer, but by no stretch
of the imagination is fishing their major source of income. Nor has her
life-style ever been anything like that of native Alaskans.
Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters.
She's smart.
Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about
5,000 (at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about 670,000
residents.
During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of
running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed
to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself
into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall
campaign.
Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a "fiscal
conservative". During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general
government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of
taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation
(1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive
sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large
corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.
The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration
weren't enough to fund everything on her wish list though; borrowed money was
needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness
of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money
for?
- Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported?
- The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked?
- Or a new library?
NO:
$1M for a park. $15M-plus for construction of a multi-use
sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that
the City didn't even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs
later -- to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a
nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she
claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could
have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.
While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office
redecorated more than once.
These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.
As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget
surplus in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make
us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she proposed
distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.
In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she
recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while she
proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today's surplus, borrow
for needs.
She's not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside
ideas or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren't generated by her
or her staff. Ideas weren't evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who
proposed them.
While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly
respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing
from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied
to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's attempt at out-and-out
censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People
who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this
day.
Sarah complained about the "old boy's club" when
she first ran for Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of "old
boys". Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City
and as Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating
a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and
fiercely loyal -- loyal to the point of abusing their power to further her
personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the case of pressuring the
State's top cop (see below).
As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla's Police Chief because he "intimidated"
her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska's top cop has
the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every
legal right to fire him, but it's pretty clear that an important factor in her
decision to fire him was because he wouldn't fire her sister's ex-husband, a
State Trooper. Under investigation for abuse of power, she has had to admit
that more than 2 dozen contacts were made between her staff and family to the person
that she later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried
to replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for
sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her support.
She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to
her in help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town introducing
her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council became one of her
first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She abruptly fired her loyal
City Administrator; even people who didn't like the guy were stunned by this
ruthlessness.
Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying
anything publicly about her.
When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums,
Sarah got the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission:
one of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no background
in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job which paid
$122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the high salary. I was told
that she hated that job: the commute, the structured hours, and the work. Sarah
became aware that a member of this Commission (who was also the State Chair of
the Republican Party) engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move
which some undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved
all her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and garnered
gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a gutsy fighter
against the "old boys' club" when she dramatically quit, exposing
this man's ethics violations (for which he was fined).
As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork
from Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel politics
and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the "bridge to nowhere"
after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.
As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget
guidelines and then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects,
calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative action restored most
of these projects -- which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of
their importance -- but with the unobservant she had gained a reputation as
"anti-pork".
She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party
leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated them.
Other members of the party object to her self-description as a fiscal
conservative.
Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with
Sarah. They call her "Sarah Barracuda" because of her unbridled
ambition and predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly stories
circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made point guard on
the high school basketball team. When Sarah's mother-in-law, a highly respected
member of the community and experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused
to endorse her. As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of
package of legislation known as "AGIA" that forced the oil companies
to march to the beat of her drum.
Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to global
warming. She campaigned "as a private citizen" against a state initiative
that would have either (depending on who you listen to):
a) protected
salmon streams from pollution from mines, or
b) tied
up in the courts all mining in the state.
She has pushed the State's lawsuit against the Dept. of the
Interior's decision to list polar bears as threatened species.
McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah
will be a heartbeat away from being President. There has to be literally
millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than she. However,
there are a lot of people who have underestimated her and are regretting it.
CLAIM VS FACT
- "Hockey mom": true for a few years
- "PTA mom": true years ago when her first-born
was in elementary school, not since
- "NRA supporter": absolutely true
- Social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed
a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships
(said she did this because it was unconstitutional).
- Pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor
to promote it.
- "Pro-life": mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down's
syndrome baby BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life
legislation
- "Experienced": Some high schools have more
students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than
the state of Alaska. No legislative experience other than City Council.
Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a
city administrator to run town of about 5,000.
- Political maverick: not at all
- Gutsy: absolutely!
- Open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good
at explaining actions.
- Has a developed philosophy of public policy: no
- "A Greenie": no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland
of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore
and in ANWR.
- Fiscal conservative: not by my definition!
- Pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park
in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built
streets to early 20th century standards.
- Pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax
burden on residents
- Pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city
government in Wasilla's history.
- Pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works union
doesn't make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim that
she is pro-labor/pro-union.
WHY AM I WRITING THIS?
First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed
voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting programs in
the schools. If you Google my name (Anne Kilkenny + Alaska), you will find
references to my participation in local government, education, and PTA/parent
organizations.
Secondly, I've always operated in the belief that "Bad
things happen when good people stay silent". Few people know as much as I
do because few have gone to as many City Council meetings.
Third, I am just a housewife. I don't have a job she can
bump me out of. I don't belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am
no fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will cost me
somehow in the future: that's life.
Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of
the 100 or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah's attempt
at censorship.
Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid
to say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.
CAVEATS
I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase
in spending & taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor) from
information supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of Wasilla, and
I can't recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust for inflation? for
population increases? Right now, it is impossible for a private person to get
any info out of City Hall -- they are swamped. So I can't verify my numbers.
You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating
for the population of Wasilla, ranging from my "about 5,000", up to
9,000. The day Palin's selection was announced a city official told me that the
current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was 5,460. I
have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to 2002, and the city
was growing rapidly in the mid-90's.
Anne Kilkenny
annekilkenny@hotmail.com
August 31, 2008
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