News and Politics | September 04, 2008 | 5 comments

Palin sought to ban books as mayor, brought wedge issues into local politics

source: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1837918,00.html

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...In the first major race of her career — the 1996 campaign for mayor of her hometown, Wasilla — Palin was a far more conventional politician. In fact, according to some who were involved in that fight, Palin was a highly polarizing political figure who brought partisan politics and hot-button social issues like abortion and gun control into a mayoral race that had traditionally been contested like a friendly intramural contest among neighbors.

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Vicki Naegele was the managing editor of the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman at the time. "[Stein] figured he was just going to run your average, friendly small-town race," she recalls, "but it turned into something much different than that." Naegele held the same conservative Christian beliefs as Palin but didn't think they had any place in local politics.

"I just thought, That's ridiculous, she should concentrate on roads, not abortion," says Naegele.

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Governing was no less contentious than campaigning... At some point in those fractious first days, Palin told the department heads they needed her permission to talk to reporters. "She put a gag order on those people, something that you'd expect to find in the big city, not here," says Naegele. "She flew in there like a big-city gal, which she's not. It was a strange time, and [the Frontiersman] came out very harshly against her."

Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor.
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    News and Politics,   Politics,   Election 2008,   Feminism
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    Politics,  News and Politics,  Election 2008,  Sarah Palin,  7 more
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5 comments // Palin sought to ban books as mayor, brought wedge issues into local politics

  • zeephile
    • 0
      zeephile  

    • I think conservatives want to take us back to the 1950s. Things are changing too fast for them to cope. And I think they want Sarah Palin to be president and use John McCain as a puppet.

    • 4 years ago
  • huntre
    • 0
      huntre  

    • From I've learned, so far, she is a hardcore right wing conservative with fundamentalist beliefs.
      I have this gut feeling that, like Tim Pawlenty, she was being groomed by the GOP for bigger things early on in her political career. Her sudden "VP" selection came due to changes in strategy that Karl Rove felt were more well suited to McCain's needs and Pawlenty, caught completely off guard, was left out in the Minnesota cold.
      Sarah Palin is an opportunistic person who will do as she is instructed in her continued desire for power and control.
      That's my take, anyway.

    • 4 years ago
  • BuddyP
    • 0
      BuddyP  

    • She is a savvy and yet soulless character, who plays on people's faith. There is a nice spot in hell for those using the word of God to benefit themselves.

    • 4 years ago
  • mcfunley
  • BuddyP
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