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So who is Sarah Palin?
For the answer, consider the following information.
Palin was elected Alaska's governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous
office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage, population 7,000.
She faces accusations of firing public safety commissioner Walt Monegan in what amounts to a messy Palin family drama dating back to her pre-gubernatorial days. Monegan had refused to terminate a state trooper who'd gone through a messy divorce from Palin's sister. The governor has no foreign affairs or national security experience.
She is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.
She supported ultraconservative Pat Buchanan for president in 2000.
Palin thinks creationism (intelligent design) should be taught in public schools.
She's doesn't believe human beings are a major cause of climate change.
Palin is solidly in line with John McCain's "Big Oil first" energy policy.
She has pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won't be ready for years.
Palin sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species
(she was worried they would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska).
So how closely did John McCain vet his running mate choice? Not much, apparently.
He met Sarah Palin for the first time in February. They got together again just before
the Republican convention. McCain then offered her the vice president slot.
On September 1, 2008, the press reported that her unmarried teenage daughter was
pregnant, a condition McCain claimed he knew about before making Palin his VP pick.
A strict abortion foe, Palin also believes in abstinence which begs the question, "If she
can't inspire her children to abstain from premarital sex, how can Palin lead our nation
if, God forbid, President McCain should die in office?"
On September 4, 2008, one day after Palin's GOP convention acceptance speech,
the progressive Internet organization, MoveOn.org, sent out a mass email that listed
things voters should consider before supporting her. Points similar to those listed
above were not repeated. Here is the revised MoveOn list:
Palin recently said that the war in Iraq is "God's task." She even admitted she hasn't
thought about the war much—just last year she was quoted saying, "I've been so
focused on state government, I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq." Palin has actively sought support from the fringe Alaska Independence Party. Six
months ago, she told members of the group (who advocate for a vote on secession
from the union) to "keep up the good work" and wished the party luck on what she
called its "inspiring convention." Palin opposes comprehensive sex education in public schools and has said she will
only support total abstinence programs. As mayor, Palin tried to ban books from the city's public library. When she asked
how to go about prohibiting publications with "inappropriate" language in them,
the librarian, Mary Ellen Baker, was shocked. According to Time magazine, "News
reports show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving 'full support' to
the mayor." Contrary to her latest assertions, Palin supported the infamous Bridge to Nowhere
before she opposed it. Palin claimed that she said "thanks, but no thanks" to the
proposed construction. But in 2006, Palin repeatedly supported the project,
saying that Alaska should take advantage of earmarks "while our congressional
delegation is in a strong position to assist." MoveOn.org ended its email with the following conclusion: "The plain fact of the
matter is that Sarah Palin did a bang-up job delivering a Karl Rove-style political
attack speech last night. That makes her a skilled politician but it doesn't make her
views any more palatable for voters. Most Americans don't want another far-right,
anti-science ideologue in the White House."
Testimony against Sarah Palin
ABOUT SARAH PALIN: A letter from Anne Kilkenny, dated August 31, 2008
I’m 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.
Sarah 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 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, so borrowed money was needed, too. Sarah inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million.
What did she encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure Palin
said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked or a new library? No. $1 million went for a park, $15 million-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 years 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 $5.5 million for road projects that could have been done in
5-7 yrs without any borrowing. Also, while she served as 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 crude has created a budget surplus in Alaska.
Rather than invest the extra cash in technology that would make us energy independent,
Governor Palin proposed distribution of the surplus to every individual in the state.
In a time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, Sarah 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 to Wasilla? A new set of "old boys." Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. As a mayor and 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.
While 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 two 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. Palin had no background in oil & gas
issues.
Within months of scoring a job thatpaid $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, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this Commission
(who was also the State Chair of the GOP) 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, 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."
Sarah 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 question d 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 (a) protected
salmon streams from pollution from mines, or (b) tied up in the courts all mining
in the state, depending on who you listen to. 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 lots of
people who have underestimated her and are regretting it.
SO 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.
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 her 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 two 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 information 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 election
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
August 31, 2008
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