Alaska's first female governor ___________________________________________________________
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By MARY PEMBERTON
Associated Press Writer
Published: December 4, 2006
Last Modified: December 4, 2006 at 01:35 PM
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) - Sarah Palin was sworn into office Monday as Alaska's ninth governor, completing an unlikely journey for a relatively political unknown just months ago.
Palin took the oath shortly before noon with her husband, Todd, at her side.
The crowd began chanting "Sarah! Sarah! Sarah!" before Alaska musher and mistress of ceremonies Libby Riddles joked that the governor asked them to "cease and desist."
Palin is the state's first female governor and at age 42, also is the youngest person to hold the office. She also is the first not to be sworn in Juneau, the state capital.
She chose Fairbanks for the ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of the ratification of the Alaska Constitution, which was drafted in Fairbanks three years before statehood in 1959.
"To my family, our big family, I love you," she said.
"Y'all cleaned up real well today, I don't see a Carhartt in the bunch," she joked of the brand of heavy-duty work clothes favored by many Alaskans.
Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell also took the oath Monday, and said he was committed to working with Palin to realize the vision of safe homes and streets for all Alaskans - both by trying to end gang violence in the state's largest city and stemming the problems of youth suicide in the smallest villages.
Palin rose from relative obscurity - she's a former mayor of the small town of Wasilla - to win state's highest office.
She trounced incumbent Gov. Frank Murkowski in the GOP primary, and then handily defeated former two-term Gov. Tony Knowles, a Democrat, in the general election.
Palin is a Republican who has spent the last few years irritating state GOP leaders by blowing the whistle on the party chairman's violations of state ethics laws, then filing an ethics complaint together with a Democratic legislator against former Attorney General Gregg Renkes, a longtime Murkowski aide.
Palin also appealed to Alaskans because of her status as a political outsider. She described her profession the past few years as "hockey mom" and occasional commercial fisherman. That stood out against her opponents, both political insiders: First Murkowski, who was a U.S. senator for 22 years before becoming governor, then Knowles, who was seeking a political comeback after being Alaska's governor from 1994-2002.
In both cases, her opponents raised and spent more money than her campaign did. It didn't matter. |
