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By <http://www.adn.com/contact/tkizzia/index.html>TOM KIZZIA <mailto:tkizzia@adn.com>tkizzia@adn.com Published: August 29th, 2008 06:15 PM Last Modified: August 29th, 2008 02:53 AM Sarah Palin was a hockey mom, small-town mayor and rising young Republican star in Alaska in 2003 when she ran afoul of her party’s establishment as a whistleblower and was cast into the political wilderness. Story tools But she came charging back as an ethics crusader to win the governor’s office in 2006 (including a landslide primary victory over incumbent Republican governor Frank Murkowski) and has remained one of the most popular local politicians in America even as she continued to take on such powerful figures as the oil companies and the leaders of her own state party. Palin, 44, has been the Joan of Arc of Alaska politics, marching into battle against long odds on such big local issues as oil taxes and construction of a natural gas pipeline only to see her opposition crumble. Days after her 2006 primary victory, an FBI investigation into political corruption involving the oil industry and Republican legislators burst into view with surprise raids of legislative offices. Criminal indictments and convictions followed, often just in time for the headlines to help her win another contest in Juneau. Though fearless in choosing the outsider’s path in politics, she remains relatively untested as a campaigner, a politician and as a governor who has held office less than two years. And even as she drew increasing attention nationally as a potential vice presidential nominee in recent months, she has come under withering criticism at home from business-minded Republicans who consider her a misguided populist and an intellectual lightweight. ADVERTISEMENT <http://ad.doubleclick.net/click;h=v8/372c/0/0/%2a/d;202257762;1-0;1;17655469;4307-300/250;26360882/26378736/1;;~sscs=%3fhttp://jobs.adn.com> Her criticism of congressional earmarks, for instance, seemed out-of-touch to Alaska political veterans who saw them as essential to getting money to a small-population state. But her rejection of Ketchikan’s "Bridge to Nowhere" funding was one of the first thing’s John McCain mentioned Friday. In one-on-one settings, Palin’s relaxed, no-bull manner has contributed to her popularity in a state of 670,000 residents, where such contacts are not only possible but essential for political success. Voters here also warmed to the outlines of her all-Alaska biography. THE HOOPS HERO She was born in Idaho and came to Alaska when she was 3 months old. She grew up in Wasilla, where her father, Chuck Heath, was a teacher and coach, her mother, Sally, a school secretary. One of her most formative experiences, she has said, was helping to lead her high school basketball team to the 1982 state championship. Palin played point guard and got the nickname from her teammates of Sarah Barracuda. Palin went on to study journalism and political science in college, graduating from the University of Idaho in 1987. Along the way she competed in the Miss Alaska contest after being chosen Miss Wasilla 1984. In both contests, she played the flute and won the title of Miss Congeniality. As runner-up in the state contest, she lost to the first African-American Miss Alaska, Marilyne Blackburn. She grew up hunting with her father, whose living room wall is densely populated with trophies and antlers. Her favorite meal, she said during her gubernatorial race, is moose meat stew after a day of snowmachining. She eloped in 1988 with her high school sweetheart, Todd Palin, who expands the family biography considerably. He is a commercial fisherman, an oil field worker, a member of the United Steelworkers and an Alaska Native. Todd’s grandmother grew up in a traditional Yup’ik Eskimo house in Bristol Bay and accompanied Sarah in her race for governor as she sought support from Alaska Native voters. Sarah Palin has joined her family in fishing a commercial setnet site on the Nushagak River in Bristol Bay every summer. Todd Palin has worked 20 years on Alaska’s North Slope for BP, where he has continued to work as a production operator. He is also a four-time winner of the Iron Dog, the 2,000-mile snowmachine race from Big Lake to Nome along the Iditarod Trail and then on to Fairbanks. Since Sarah was elected governor, Todd has remained in the background as a close political confidante and "First Dude," an expression his wife sometimes uses. Sarah Palin made her way into local politics on the Wasilla City Council in 1992 and then ran for mayor as an agent of change. Though she established a reputation as a tax fighter, she actually increased the budget and spending on roads and sewers, reducing property taxes at the same time thanks to a huge increase in sales tax revenues coming to the booming commercial hub. She’s had the same luck as governor -- a fiscal conservative in charge of a wealthy government, this time because of high oil prices. BUILDING AN ETHICS BASE Palin finished a strong second in the 2002 primary for lieutenant governor and was being groomed by the party for higher office when she clashed with state Republican Party chairman Randy Ruederich. They both had seats on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, appointed by Gov. Frank Murkowski, the Republican she would later depose. She accused Ruederich of misusing the job for political chicanery and eventually resigned in frustration. Ruederich was forced to resign the job as well, though he remains head of the state party. Palin later took on Murkowski’s attorney general in a conflict-of-interest scandal that forced his resignation. And when state Sen. Ben Stevens, the son of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, was caught making a dismissive remark about the Wasilla area, Palin appeared in a rebuttal ad wearing a "Valley Trash" T-shirt. In 2006, she knocked off Murkowski and then Democratic former Gov. Tony Knowles in a campaign that drew on grassroots support, relying on neighbors and friends for staff rather than the party and veterans of big-time campaigns. She had strong support from social conservatives and often speaks of her religious faith. The Palins have five children, including their first-born, Track, who enlisted in the Army on Sept. 11, 2007. Track Palin is 19 and stationed at Fort Wainwright with the Stryker Brigade, preparing for a deployment to Iraq in September. The Palins also have three daughters: Bristol, Willow and Piper. The newest member of the family, a son, Trig, was born in April ago after a pregnancy that Palin managed to keep secret for seven months. Trig was born with Down syndrome, which the Palins had discovered through testing. But as governor, she has not pushed any big-agenda items of social conservatives. She spoke favorably in her campaign of schools teaching the creationism debate with evolution, but lived up to her pledge to do nothing as governor to push the idea. Her first veto was of a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships -- she said she supported the idea but accepted legal advice that it was unconstitutional. This year, she declined to call a legislative special session on two abortion bills because they would have interfered with her top priority, a measure promoting a new natural gas pipeline. OIL AND GAS ISSUES Her focus has been on raising oil taxes -- long suppressed by oil-friendly legislators, the taxes seemed ridiculously low once oil prices started rising -- and on launching construction of a $40 billion gasline from North Slope oil fields. Palin took on the oil producers, especially Exxon Mobil, saying they had been dragging their feet on a gasline. She persuaded the Legislature to pass a bill authorizing an independent company to build the line with state subsidy. The ongoing corruption scandal in the Legislature over influence of the former oil field services company Veco helped Palin force change in the Juneau state capitol. That scandal has spread to include Alaska’s two longtime powers in Congress, Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young. Palin has kept distance between herself and those Republican icons and backed ethics reform measures that passed the Legislature. Palin’s clean image has lately taken a shot, however, over charges that she tried to use her office to get rid of an Alaska state trooper who had gone through a messy divorce with one of Palin’s sisters. Palin denied any involvement but has conceded a staff member made inappropriate calls. The Legislature has hired a special investigator, with the strongest criticism coming from Republicans antagonized by Palin during the oil and gas battles of the past two years. She was already under steady criticism from some quarters, including conservative radio talk show hosts in Anchorage and rental car executive Andrew Halcro, a former state representative who ran as an independent in the last governor’s race and features almost-daily criticism of her on his blog. Critics call her naive, a panderer in her economic populism and reckless in her dealing with the vital oil industry. But at a time when state coffers are spilling over with new oil revenues, Palin has remained popular with voters, recently pushing through a $1,200 per person "rebate" to help with high fuel costs. The first serious scandal in Gov. Sarah Palin’s administration has roots in a family feud. It erupted into public view with the July 11 firing of the state’s top public safety official. It’s not resolved even now as she becomes U.S. Sen. John McCain’s running mate. Some call it Troopergate. Palin’s abrupt dismissal of Monegan on July 11 is being investigated by a special counsel hired by the Alaska Legislature. At issue is whether Palin, her administration or family improperly pressured state Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan to fire a state trooper -- the ex-husband of Palin’s sister -- and whether Palin fired Monegan when that didn’t happen. Trooper Michael Wooten and Palin’s sister, Molly McCann, are divorced but still battling in court over custody and visitation. The McCain campaign says Palin "was never directly involved" and blamed the controversy on the campaign of the Democratic nominee, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama. "The Governor did nothing wrong and has nothing to hide. It’s outrageous that the Obama campaign is trying to attack her over a family issue. As a reformer and a leader on ethics reform, she has been happy to help out in the investigation of this matter, because she was never directly involved," the campaign said in a statement. Palin has repeatedly said she did not pressure Monegan and did not know until recently that anyone on her staff might have done so. The trooper controversy has been swirling around Palin for weeks, long before Palin was launched Friday into the bright lights of the national campaign. Monegan said Friday evening Palin was involved. The governor twice brought up Wooten to him -- once on the phone soon after she took office, and once in person not long after that, Monegan said. Plus, the governor’s husband, Todd, talked to him several times about Wooten, three top officials in her administration contacted him, and another Palin aide contacted a trooper lieutenant, Monegan said. Palin recently acknowledged, based on an internal inquiry, that a half dozen people in her administration had initiated contacts with the Department of Public Safety about Wooten. Monegan also disclosed for the first time Friday that Palin sent him two or three e-mails that referenced her ex-brother-in-law and his status with troopers but he wouldn’t provide them because of the ongoing investigation. Monegan said he believes his firing was directly related to the fact Wooten stayed on the job. "It was a significant factor if not the factor," Monegan said. No one from the McCain campaign ever contacted him to vet Palin as a candidate, Monegan said. Who did they contact? "We don’t talk about the vetting process," said Maria Comella, Palin’s vice president campaign press secretary. "BRING ME DOWN" The Legislature is spending up to $100,000 "to investigate the circumstances and events surrounding the termination of former Public Safety Commissioner Monegan, and potential abuses of power and/or improper actions by members of the executive branch." The investigation is supposed to wrap up by Oct. 31, just days before the general election. Palin will be deposed along with others in the governor’s office and former administration officials, said state Sen. Hollis French, a Democrat and former state prosecutor from Anchorage who is serving as the project director for the investigation. The special counsel just this week was trying to arrange Palin’s deposition, French said. The investigation will continue, French said. "I think it raises the profile but it doesn’t really change the mission or the work," the senator said. Before she was governor, Palin pushed for a trooper investigation of Wooten over a number of matters, including using a Taser on his stepson, illegally shooting a moose, and accusations of driving drunk. At one point, Palin and her husband hired a private investigator. Troopers did investigate, and Wooten was suspended for 10 days, later reduced to five. That took care of it, Monegan said. But the Palin administration and Todd Palin wouldn’t let go, he said. Palin initially said that, after she took office in December 2006, she broached the subject of Wooten with Monegan just once, when they discussed her security detail. She said that she told Monegan that Wooten "had threatened to kill my dad and bring me down." She said she thought that was the end of it. Monegan said Palin called him on his cell phone one night in January 2007 about Wooten, but it wasn’t related to her security detail. He said he had already met with Todd Palin about Wooten, whom he hadn’t heard of before, and had looked into the family’s complaints only to learn they already had been investigated. Palin seemed frustrated that nothing more could be done, he said. "For the record, no one ever said fire Wooten. Not the governor. Not Todd. Not any of the other staff," Monegan said Friday from Portland. "What they said directly was more along the lines of ’this isn’t a person that we would want to be representing our state troopers.’" Palin again brought up Wooten in February 2007 as they were walking together to wish a state senator a happy birthday, Monegan said. He said he told Palin he had to keep her at arm’s distance on the matter and she agreed. WOOTEN’S TROUBLES A Palin political rival, Andrew Halcro, was the first to publicly mention the Wooten matter in connection with Monegan. He titled his blog post: "Why Walt Monegan got fired: Palin’s abuse of power." "This is a governor who really built her name by stepping on the back of sinners -- Randy Ruedrich, Greg Renkes, Frank Murkowski," Halcro said in an interview Friday, referring to the Republican Party chairman, the former attorney general and the former governor. "And now her administration seems to be taking the same approach as the people that she criticized." More of the story came out on July 17, when the Public Safety Employees Association, with Wooten’s permission, released the investigative file concerning the complaints brought against the trooper by the Palin family and others. The personnel investigation began in April 2005, long before Palin became governor and months before her October 2005 announcement that she was running. The investigation into Wooten wrapped up in March 2006, before she was elected. Troopers found four instances in which Wooten violated policy, broke the law, or both: • Wooten used a Taser on his stepson, to show him how it worked. • He shot a moose without a permit. At the time he was married to McCann, who won a highly coveted permit in a drawing but never intended to use it herself. • He drank beer in his patrol car on one occasion. • He told others that his father-in-law -- Palin’s father, Chuck Heath -- would "eat a f’ing lead bullet" if he helped his daughter get an attorney for the divorce. AN ETHICS COMPLAINT On July 28, the state Legislative Council, a bipartisan panel of senators and representatives, approved hiring an independent investigator to look into Monegan’s firing and any abuse of power. Retired prosecutor Steve Branchflower was named special counsel. "I’ve said all along you could come up with dust, you come up with no evidence of wrongdoing, or you could come up with clear evidence of wrongdoing. And it might be by the governor, it might be somebody else," French, the state senator, said Friday. Meanwhile, Palin also faces an ethics complaint filed by Andree McLeod, a former state employee and political activist. McLeod has accused the governor’s office of using its influence to get a Palin supporter a job. Complaints against the governor go before a three-person state personnel board. McLeod based her complaint on e-mails between members of the governor’s staff that are among four boxes of papers she got through a recent public records request. This month, as Palin’s administration gathered materials for the legislative investigation, the governor released a recording of a phone call in which one of her aides pressured a trooper lieutenant to fire Wooten. That contradicted her earlier claims that there had been no pressure. She said she was unaware of the conversation until then. In the Feb. 29 phone call, which was recorded by troopers as they do routinely, aide Frank Bailey told the trooper lieutenant that Palin and her husband wanted to know why Wooten still had a job. "Todd and Sarah are scratching their heads, ’Why on earth hasn’t this, why is this guy still representing the department?’ He’s a horrible recruiting tool, you know," Bailey told Lt. Rodney Dial. Palin has put Bailey on paid administrative leave during the investigation. She said she never asked Bailey to make that call. After Monegan’s dismissal, Palin’s pick for his replacement backfired. Charles Kopp, who had been police chief in Kenai, lasted just two weeks in the job, stepping down as public safety commissioner in July over revelations of sexual harassment while police chief. At a press conference to announce Kopp’s resignation, both Palin and Kopp read brief statements then, in an unusual move for Palin, dashed off without answering questions. Regarding Monegan, Palin has maintained that her decision to fire him had nothing to do with his refusal to dump Wooten. She said she wanted a "new direction" for the department. Palin has formed a committee to help her pick a new public safety commissioner.

TOM KIZZIA