Webloggin » Sarah Palin VP Announcement Upstages Obama: Plus Excerpts From 2006 Gov. Campaign

She used to work on a fishing boat, is a lifelong member of the NRA, has rock solid conservative credentials and has more executive experience than Barack Obama. Meet Sarah Palin, the 44 year old Governor of Alaska, mother of 5 and former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.

She trounced incumbent Gov. Frank Murkowski in the state’s primaries. Her platform was an ethics first campaign that took advantage of anti-incumbent, anti-good ol’ boy sentiment (i.e. she is not a Washington insider as is Joe Biden).

Rather than go over all the talking points that most people will be bloggin’ (get it, Webloggin’?) about today I will discuss how she ran in a campaign that won her the governorship.

The Alaska Journal published an interview with Palin in 2006.

Palin underscored her theme on ethics in an opening statement in a recent interview with the Journal of Commerce editorial department:

“There are a lot of good things on the horizon for Alaska, but the only way the state can make these things happen is to have leadership in our state government that people can trust. With our current governor, we have an atmosphere of distrust and this has been aggravated by the recent FBI raids on legislators’ offices and anti-industry sentiment in our state,” she said. “We can get this trust and transparency back, and we must start within our own Republican party. There are a lot of good things on our Republican party agenda, and this is all the more reason to move to re-establish trust in the political system.”

On specific issues she showed an open mind toward mining, drilling for Oil, reforming government, challenging earmarks and strengthening education. The following are excerpted responses to the interview questions. You can read the full responses here in their original order. (all emphasis mine). Note that these are not issues she came up with yesterday in the hopes of becoming McCain’s VP, this interview is from over 2 years ago.

Q: Where do you stand with the oil industry?

I’m not anti-industry. As a former mayor of the fastest-growing area in Alaska and a former regulator of oil and gas, I understand and appreciate the contributions that industry provides to our state economy and the U.S. economy. My husband started his job on the Slope 18 years ago. He’s a blue collar union man up there, and I appreciate the job opportunities provided him. He’s from Dillingham, from Bristol Bay. He’s got good skills, a good work ethic and he has been rewarded for that work ethic, materially, if you will, with a good job on the North Slope. He’s the kind of Alaskan I want to see more of employed on the Slope.

I also have a great understanding of industry’s motivation. Industry’s motivation … unfortunately for us … is that they take as much possible and leave as little behind, but that’s what the CEOs of these producing companies are supposed to do; that’s what they are tasked to do by their shareholders. It’s all the more reason for us to understand what our relationship with the industry needs to be; that the state’s CEO works just as hard for the shareholders in this state, who are fellow Alaskans.

Q: What are your concerns for the region?

I have a lot of concern for the Bristol Bay area. So much of my family lives out there. The cost of living out there is very high, and it impedes progress in the area. We know that people must work, and most folks in Western Alaska feel they don’t have a lot of job opportunities. It is a very sad situation. A lot of young people feel they don’t have hope living in their communities. They don’t see job prospects. This results in a lot of societal problems. Government does have a role to provide the tools and job opportunities in these areas. It is so important.

We also know there is hope for revitalization of the fisheries there. Our resource out there is a given. It’s a known. What we have to do is allow value-added industry out there, and for regulations in our fisheries to provide for more competition. We need to create an environment out there where folks will know that the resources are there, and they are owned collectively. It is important that we have access to these resources, that they should be developed and developed for the purpose of providing work for the people who live in the area.

Q: What are your concerns with ethics, including within the legislative branch?

The Legislature must also work to re-establish public trust. If a legislator works as a consultant, he or she should describe in some detail what he or she does. We do have the (Alaska Public Offices Commission), but many things are being done that violate the spirit of our conflict-of-interest disclosure laws.

Q: A revision of the state’s school foundation program is needed but a change to the revenue distribution formula is bogged down in the Legislature. How can we solve this? Our state government has few mandated services, but education is one of them. There is no excuse for the problems and disagreements that have led to the current impasse on the foundation formula. There has been a contentious atmosphere about this, and we need to bring people together on a resolution. That’s why we need an atmosphere of trust in our system. If you don’t have that, you’ll have these kind of gridlocks in the system.

Q: What concerns do you have with the gas pipeline?

I am concerned with the idea of the state being a part owner of the project and to be a regulator at the same time. I am still not comfortable with this. I would also not have the state take its gas in-kind for the long term, unless I can see a compelling reason. I have had some opportunities to speak to the administration on this and with the three producer companies, but there is still a lot of information that I need. I know that I don’t like the idea of a long-term lockup on oil production taxes. ……

Q: How do you feel about congressional earmarks placed in federal funds to the State Transportation Improvement Plan (STIP)?

When I was a municipal mayor I was very frustrated at times with the state’s STIP process. I’m all about local control because people at the local level are the best able to make judgments on projects that affect them. Given that, I’d like to minimize the earmark process in federal funding. Alaska is not seen in a very favorable light in Congress. We’re going to have to find a more mature way to go about how we request federal funds.

Q: How would you handle the state’s $7 billion liability to the public employee retirement funds?

A pension is a promise, and we have to make sure that public employee retirement benefits are fully funded. I would take part of any future revenue surplus and start whittling away at this liability. An important thing, however, is to look back at how we got into this, so that something like it doesn’t happen again. How did this get started, and then fester for so long? How did the liability get to $7 billion? When Gov. Murkowski took office in 2002, it was already a liability of $4.4 billion. Next year it may be $9 billion.

Nice. She is a very good speaker and is knowledgeable on all the issues.

Strategically the McCain camp made a brilliant move. Despite the MSM narrative all Hillary women are not united on Obama. Yes the hard core Democrats will still vote for their own but there was certainly a good portion of women that felt slighted that Obama didn’t even vet Hillary Clinton. Women in the middle will be even less likely to chose an Obama-Biden ticket when introduced to such a successful Conservative woman and family person.