Gov. Sarah Palin (R)
	U.S. Governor from Alaska
	Workers' Rights Trade Health Care Good Jobs Retirement Security Education

Sarah Palin was elected as the governor of Alaska in 2006. Prior to that, she was the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, population 10,000, between 1996 and 2002.

As mayor, she hired high-priced lobbyists to secure more than $27 million in federal earmarks for the town and raised the local sales tax to pay for a hockey rink that resulted in a costly botched land deal. By the end of her tenure as mayor, the small town had racked up $20 million in debt. During her short term as governor, Palin hired a Washington, D.C., lobbyist to assist her in bringing $198 million in earmarks to the state.

In her 2006 campaign, Palin supported a controversial earmark project commonly referred to as the “Bridge to Nowhere.” After her nomination for vice president, she has repeatedly claimed she opposed the project. Palin has been an ally of now-indicted Sen. Ted Stevens, serving as the chairman of a campaign organization supporting him and accepting his endorsement in 2006. Palin currently is under investigation into whether she abused her power by firing the state’s public safety commissioner.

Palin has a thin record on key issues of national importance, and her positions and expertise on these issues are unclear. She received minimal vetting by John McCain’s campaign and, shortly before being named his vice presidential nominee, admitted that she wasn’t sure what the day-to-day role of a vice president was.

WORKERS’ RIGHTS

Palin has not said publicly where she stands on the Employee Free Choice Act.

GOOD JOBS

Palin has not said where she stands on the minimum wage, equal pay for equal work, family and medical leave, unemployment benefits, the outsourcing and privatization of jobs, or investing in school building and infrastructure to create jobs.

HEALTH CARE

Palin’s record on health care is not extensive. In her run for governor, she supported “flexibility in government regulations” in health care policy, according to her website. And, in a January statement to the The Wall Street Journal, Palin said health care must be “market driven.”

Leaving health care to the market, without adequate oversight, means that fewer people get adequate health care coverage and the cost of health care skyrockets. As health care costs get shifted onto workers, health care gets more expensive for everyone and many people are left without any insurance at all.

Palin’s positions follow the McCain campaign’s emphasis on pushing families into the private market and minimizing consumer protections. This approach would make our health care system worse.

TRADE

Palin has not said publicly where she stands on trade and manufacturing.

RETIREMENT SECURITY

Palin has a poor record on public employee pension funds. As governor, she proposed a $42 million reduction in the general fund for state employee pensions. As mayor, she left the city pension at only 73 percent funding when she left office—even though it was fully funded when she entered.

EDUCATION

In her 2006 campaign, Palin refused to promise a raise in per-student allocation funding for schools. She opposed funding for a state preschool program and said she would oppose a bill to limit class sizes.