Sean Parnell

At 61 years old, Sean Parnell physical status not available right now. We will update Sean Parnell's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

He is admitted to the bar in both Alaska and Washington D.C. Parnell worked as an attorney in the private sector from 1987 to 2003, 2005 to 2006, and in 2015 after his term as governor. For nine years of the time he owned his own law practice.

In the 1990s, he continued in private practice while he served in the Alaska House and the Alaska Senate.

When Parnell left the Alaska Senate, he became director of government relations in Alaska for Phillips Petroleum, which later became ConocoPhillips. In 2005, he joined the law firm Patton Boggs and practiced law. Patton Boggs represented ExxonMobil in the Exxon Valdez oil spill litigation, though Parnell had no role in that representation or litigation. Parnell left Patton Boggs less than two years later on December 3, 2006.

Parnell was first elected to the Alaska House of Representatives, in 1992 at the age of twenty-nine. He represented a district in Anchorage that included at that time, Independence Park, Dimond Blvd., and the Southport/Bayshore areas of Anchorage. After his first year in the state house, Parnell was named the "Most Effective Freshman Legislator" by his colleagues and those who worked in the State Capitol. This recognition arose because Parnell was known for taking the time to help other legislators hone and pass their legislation and in doing so, learned the legislative process and developed relationships with his colleagues. In 1994, Parnell was re-elected to represent South Anchorage in the Alaska House. Throughout his four years in the Alaska House of Representatives, Parnell was known for his work on the House Finance Committee and in the fight against domestic violence and sexual assault in Alaska. During those years he sponsored and passed seminal legislation known as the Domestic Violence Prevention Act of 1996 that was Alaska's first consistent, comprehensive statewide policy on this issue.

In 1996, Parnell ran for and was elected to a seat in the Alaska Senate and became a member of the Energy Council and served on the powerful Senate Finance Committee. In 1999 and 2000, he became a member of the Senate Republican Majority's Leadership when his Senate colleagues chose him to serve as the co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee.

In 2000, Parnell finished his first and only term in the state senate, choosing not to seek re-election. He cited his commitment to his family as his reason and returned to work in the private sector.

Six years later, in 2006, Parnell was elected lieutenant governor of Alaska, along with Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. In July 2009, when Governor Palin resigned her position, Parnell became governor and finished the term of office. In 2010, Parnell won a four-year term as governor in his own right.

In 2005, Parnell ran and won in the Republican primary to become lieutenant governor. Afterward, in the general election, he was paired with Sarah Palin as her running mate. In Alaska, the lieutenant governor candidates run separately from the governor candidates in the primary election race, but after the primaries, the nominees for governor and lieutenant governor run together as a slate. Palin and Parnell were elected with 48.33% of the vote over former governor Tony Knowles and State Representative Ethan Berkowitz's 40.97% share of the vote.

On March 14, 2008, Parnell began his campaign to take on embattled 18-term member of Congress Don Young in the August 26 Republican primary.

Parnell was endorsed by Sarah Palin, National Review magazine, and the fiscally conservative 501(c)4 organization Club for Growth.

On July 31, 2008, Parnell told Roll Call he would not drop out of his race against Young to run against U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, who had been indicted.

Parnell lost the primary for the U.S. House seat. The margin between incumbent Young and Parnell was narrow, and the winner was not immediately clear. The result released on September 18 showed Young winning by 304 votes. Parnell said he trusted the integrity of the work of the Division of Elections, an agency he oversaw as Alaska's lieutenant governor. He said in a statement, "While a recount could change the outcome of this exceedingly close election – normal human error being what it is – such a result is unlikely. As such, I do not believe it justifies an expenditure of taxpayer funds."

On July 26, 2009, halfway through her term as governor, Palin resigned. Parnell replaced her, becoming Alaska's tenth governor, in accordance with the Alaska Constitution. Craig Campbell, commissioner of Alaska's Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, succeeded Parnell as lieutenant governor after Palin first named Joe Schmidt, commissioner of corrections, as a replacement for Parnell, and Schmidt resigned from the second-in-line position on July 6, 2009.

Parnell ran for a full term as governor in 2010. In the primary he faced off against Bill Walker, a former mayor of Valdez, Alaska and aide to former governor Walter J. Hickel, and Ralph Samuels, a retiring member of the Alaska House of Representatives. Although Walker seemed to gain traction towards the end based on the issue of building a natural gas pipeline, Samuels and Walker split the anti-Parnell vote and Parnell won the nomination. He and Mead Treadwell, who had won the August primary for lieutenant governor, faced off against the Democratic ticket of former House majority leader and 2008 congressional nominee Ethan Berkowitz and Diane Benson. Parnell-Treadwell eventually defeated Berkowitz-Benson by over ten points.

Parnell ran for re-election in 2014. Former Republican Bill Walker challenged Parnell as an independent politician, and merged his campaign with Democratic Party gubernatorial nominee Byron Mallott, who became Walker's running mate as an independent. Parnell conceded the election to Bill Walker on November 15, 2014.

Parnell drew criticism during his re-election campaign over his support of billions in tax reductions for the petrochemical industry as well scandals regarding accusations of coverups of sexual abuse scandals, cronyism, corruption and whistleblower suppression, within the Alaska National Guard.

Out of 19 incumbent Republican governors running for re-election, Parnell and Pennsylvania's Tom Corbett were the only ones who lost the 2014 elections.

Source