Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin was born in Sandpoint, Idaho, United States on February 11th, 1964 and is the Politician. At the age of 60, Sarah Palin biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
At 60 years old, Sarah Palin has this physical status:
Early career
She worked as a sports reporter for the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman after graduation and as a sports reporter for KTUU-TV and KTVA-TV in Anchorage.
Political career
Palin was elected to the Wasilla City Council in 1992, receiving 530 votes to 310. Palin has been a Republican since being registered in 1982 as a member of the city council and the remainder of her political career.
Palin ran for mayor of Wasilla in 1996, defeating incumbent mayor John Stein 651 to 440 votes, fearing that funds from a new Wasilla sales tax would not be spent properly. Her biographer characterized her campaign as targeting unnecessary spending and high taxes; her rival, Stein, said Palin introduced abortions, gun rights, and term limits as campaign issues. The election was nonpartisan, but Palin's state Republican Party ran ads for Palin. She ran for reelection against Stein in 1999 and gained 909 votes to 292. She served her second term in 2002 as the city charter's second straight three-year terms. In 1999, she was elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors.
Palin reduced property taxes by 75% and eliminated personal property and business inventory taxes from the proceeds earned by a 2% sales tax that had been approved by Wasilla voters in October 1992. She made improvements to the roads and sewers, as well as increased funding for the police department by using municipal bonds. She oversaw the development of new bike paths and secured federal funding for storm-water restoration to safeguard freshwater resources. At the same time, she reduced the budget of the local museum and postponed discussions about a new library and city hall, which some of the council deemed necessary.
Palin rescheduled the position of museum director shortly after taking office in October 1996. Despite the mayor's office being viewed as a non-partisan position, she asked for updated resumes and resignation letters from "city department heads who had been loyal to Stein." They included the city's chief, public works chief, finance chief, and librarian. Palin said that this request was to find out their intentions and if they agreed with her. According to reporters, she temporarily required department heads to get their permission before speaking to reporters, who said they should learn her administration's policies. She took on the role of city administrator and cut her own $68,000 salary by 10%. The city council had changed the decision by mid 1998.
Palin asked library director Mary Ellen Emmons if she would object to a book removal from the library if people wanted to have the book deleted in October 1996. Emmons replied that she would, as well as others. Palin said she had not been suggesting censorship but that her staff had been discussing several topics that were "both rhetorical and realistic in character." During Palin's time as mayor, there was no attempt to delete books from the library.
Palin said she dismissed Police Chief Irl Stambaugh because he did not fully endorse her attempts to rule the area. Stambaugh has filed a lawsuit alleging unlawful dismissal and violation of his fundamental rights. The judge dismissed Stambaugh's complaint, finding that the police chief served at the mayor's discretion and could be terminated for almost every reason, even a political one, and that Stambaugh was ordered to pay Palin's legal fees.
Palin suggested and promoted the construction of a municipal sports center during her second term as mayor, with a 0.5% sales tax increase and a $14.7 million bond issue. The initiative was approved by a 20-vote margin, and the Wasilla Multi-Use Sports Complex (later named the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center) was completed on time and under budget. However, the city spent an additional $1.3 million as a result of the city's inability to obtain a clear title to the property prior to beginning construction. The city's long-term debt increased from $11 million to $25 million as a result of spending $16 million on the sports complex, $5.5 million for street improvements, and $3 million for water improvement projects. The Wall Street Journal characterized the project as a "financial disaster." A member of the city council defended the increases as being necessitated by the city's expansion during that time.
Palin has also joined communities in recruiting Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh, a national advocacy company, to lobby for federal funding. The company raised nearly $8 million in earmarks for the Wasilla city government, including $500,000 for a youth shelter, $1.9 million for a transportation hub, and $900,000 for sewer repair. Wasilla's new mayor praised Palin's 75 percent property tax cuts and infrastructure upgrades for bringing "big box stores" and 50,000 shoppers per day to Wasilla in 2008.
Palin ran for lieutenant governor of the United States in 2002, finishing second to Loren Leman in a five-way Republican primary. Following her loss, she ran around the state for Frank Murkowski and Leman's nominated Republican governor-lieutenant governor ticket. Murkowski and Leman defeated them, and Murkowski resigned from his long-served Senate seat in December 2002 to take the governorship. Palin was supposed to be on the "short list" of potential replacements for Murkowski's Senate seat, but Murkowski later appointed State Representative Lisa Murkowski as his successor in the Senate.
Governor Murkowski referred to Palin for other positions, but she accepted an appointment to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which regulates Alaska's oil and gas fields for safety and efficiency. Although she had no experience in the industry, she said she wanted to learn more about the oil industry and was appointed chair of the commission and ethics supervisor. She was filing nonpublic ethics charges against a fellow commission member, Randy Ruedrich, a former petroleum engineer and at the time the chair of the state Republican Party, by November 2003. In November 2003, he was compelled to resign. Palin resigned in January 2004 and brought Ruedrich's "lack of ethics" into the public arena by filing a public complaint against Ruedrich, who was fined $12,000. Gregg Renkes, then the attorney general of Alaska, had a financial conflict of interest in negotiating a coal exporting trade deal, joined Democratic Senator Eric Croft in expressing her displeasure. Renkes had resigned from his position earlier this year.
Palin served as one of three founders of "Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.," a 527 group that sought to provide political education for Republican women in Alaska from 2003 to 2005. Palin told the Anchorage Daily News that she had decided not to run for the Senate this year because her teenage son opposed it. "How could I be the team mother if I were a United States citizen," Palin said.