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Shunning can be the act of social rejection, or mental rejection. Social rejection is when a person or group deliberately avoids association with, and habitually keeps away from an individual or group. This can be a formal decision by a group, or a less formal group action which will spread to all members of the group as a form of solidarity. It is a sanction against association, often associated with religious groups and other tightly knit organizations and communities. Targets of shunning can include persons who have been labeled as, apostates, whistleblowers, dissidents, strikebreakers, or anyone the group perceives as a threat or source of conflict. Social rejection has been established to cause psychological damage and has been categorized as torture.^[1] Mental rejection is a more individual action, where a person subconsciously or willfully ignores an idea, or a set of information related to particular viewpoint. Some groups are made up of people who shun the same ideas.^[2]

Social rejection was and is a punishment used by many customary legal systems. Such sanctions include the ostracism of ancient Athens and the still-used kasepekang in Balinese society.

Overview[link]

Shunning[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2010)

Shunning can be broken down into behaviours and practices that seek to accomplish either or both of two primary goals.

1. To modify the behaviour of a member. This approach seeks to influence, encourage, or coerce normative behaviours from members, and may seek to dissuade, provide disincentives for, or to compel avoidance of certain behaviours. Shunning may include disassociating from a member by other members of the community who are in good standing. It may include more antagonistic psychological behaviours (described below). This approach may be seen as either corrective or punitive (or both) by the group membership or leadership, and may also be intended as a deterrent.
2. To remove or limit the influence of a member (or former member) over other members in a community. This approach may seek to isolate, to discredit, or otherwise dis-empower such a member, often in the context of actions or positions advocated by that member. For groups with defined membership criteria, especially based on key behaviours or ideological precepts, this approach may be seen as limiting damage to the community or its leadership. This is often paired with some form of excommunication.

Some less often practiced variants may seek to:

• Remove a specific member from general external influence to provide an ideological or psychological buffer against external views or behaviour. The amount can vary from severing ties to opponents of the group up to and including severing all non-group-affiliated intercourse.

Shunning is usually approved of (if sometimes with regret) by the group engaging in the shunning, and usually highly disapproved of by the target of the shunning, resulting in a polarization of views. Those subject to the practice respond differently, usually depending both on the circumstances of the event, and the nature of the practices being applied. Extreme forms of shunning have damaged some individuals' psychological and relational health. Responses to the practice have developed, mostly around anti-shunning advocacy; such advocates highlight the detrimental effects of many of such behaviors, and seek to limit the practice through pressure or law. Such groups often operate supportive organizations or institutions to help victims of shunning to recover from damaging effects, and sometimes to attack the organizations practicing shunning, as a part of their advocacy.

In many civil societies, kinds of shunning are practiced de-facto or de-jure, to coerce or avert behaviours or associations deemed unhealthy. This can include:

• restraining orders or peace bonds (to avoid abusive relationships)
• court injunctions to disassociate (to avoid criminal association or temptation)
• medical or psychological instructing to avoid associating (to avoid hazardous relations, i.e. alcoholics being instructed to avoid friendship with non-recovering alcoholics, or asthmatics being medically instructed to keep to smoke-free environs)
• using background checks to avoid hiring people who have criminal records (to avoid association with felons, even when the crimes have nothing to do with the job description)

Stealth shunning[link]

Stealth shunning is a practice where a person or an action is silently banned. When a person is silently banned, the group they have been banned from doesn't interact with them. This can be done by secretly announcing the policy to all except the banned individual, or it can happen informally when all people in a group or email list each conclude that they do not want to interact with the person. When an action is silently banned, requests for that action are either ignored or turned down with faked explanations.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8]}

Effects[link]

Shunning is often used as a pejorative term to describe any organizationally mandated disassociation, and has acquired a connotation of abuse and relational aggression. This is due to the sometimes extreme damage caused by its disruption to normal relationships between individuals, such as friendships and family relations. Disruption of established relationships certainly causes pain, which is at least an unintended consequence of the practices described here, though it may also in many cases be an intended, coercive consequence. This pain, especially when seen as unjustly inflicted, can have secondary general psychological effects on self-worth and self-confidence, trust and trustworthiness, and can, as with other types of trauma, impair psychological function.

Shunning often involves implicit or explicit shame for a member who commits acts seen as wrong by the group or its leadership. Such shame may not be psychologically damaging if the membership is voluntary and the rules of behavior were clear before the person joined. However, if the rules are arbitrary, if the group membership is seen as essential for personal security, safety, or health, or if the application of the rules is inconsistent, such shame can be highly destructive. This can be especially damaging if perceptions are attacked or controlled, or various tools of psychological pressure applied. Extremes of this cross over the line into psychological torture and can be permanently scarring.

A key detrimental effect of some of the practices associated with shunning relate to their effect on relationships, especially family relationships. At its extremes, the practices may destroy marriages, break up families, and separate children and their parents. The effect of shunning can be very dramatic or even devastating on the shunned, as it can damage or destroy the shunned member's closest familial, spousal, social, emotional, and economic bonds.

Shunning contains aspects of what is known as relational aggression in psychological literature. When used by church members and member-spouse parents against excommunicant parents it contains elements of what psychologists call parental alienation. Extreme shunning may cause traumas to the shunned (and to their dependents) similar to what is studied in the psychology of torture.

Civil rights implications[link]

Some aspects of shunning may also be seen as being at odds with civil rights or human rights, especially those behaviours that coerce and attack. When a group seeks to have an effect through such practices outside its own membership, for instance when a group seeks to cause financial harm through isolation and disassociation, they can come at odds with their surrounding civil society, if such a society enshrines rights such as freedom of association, conscience, or belief. Many civil societies do not extend such protections to the internal operations of communities or organizations so long as an ex-member has the same rights, prerogatives, and power as any other member of the civil society.

In cases where a group or religion is state-sanctioned, a key power, or in the majority (Singapore), a shunned former member may face severe social, political, and/or financial costs.

In religious practice[link]

Christianity[link]

Early Christianity[link]

This article or section may contain previously unpublished synthesis of published material that conveys ideas not attributable to the original sources. See the talk page for details. (December 2010)

Passages in the New Testament, such as 1_Corinthians 5:11-13. and Matthew 18:15–17, suggest shunning as a practice of early Christians,^{[citation needed]} and are cited as such by its modern-day practitioners within Christianity. However, not all Christian scholars or denominations agree on this interpretation of these verses.

Policies governing the use of shunning vary from one organization to another.

Catholicism[link]

Prior to the Code of Canon Law of 1983^{[citation needed]}, the Catholic Church expected in rare cases (known as excommunication vitandi) the faithful to shun an excommunicated member in secular matters.^[9] In 1983, the distinction between vitandi and others (tolerandi) was abolished, and thus the expectation is not made any more^{[citation needed]}.

Anabaptism[link]

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Shunning occurs in Old Order Amish and some Mennonite churches.^{[citation needed]} Shunning can be particularly painful for the shunned individuals in these denominations, which are generally very close-knit, as the shunned person may have no significant social contact with anyone other than those in their denomination.

Upon taking instruction classes, each applicant must make a confession to uphold shunning of all excommunicated adult members, and also submit to being shunned if they are excommunicated. The stated intention is not to punish, but to be used in love to win the member back by showing them their error. (Ref Johns Hopkins Press, below).

The Amish call shunning Meidung, the German word for avoidance. Shunning was a key issue of disagreement in the Amish-Mennonite split. Former Amish Ruth Irene Garrett provides an account of Amish shunning in her community from perspective of shunned individuals in Crossing Over: One Woman's Escape from Amish Life. Amish shunning is also the subject of popular fiction novels about shunning. Different Amish communities vary in the severity and strictness of shunning employed.

The Mennonite ban does not usually involve shunning, but excommunicated members are banned from participation in communion. A few Mennonite groups do practice shunning, or have in the past. Mainstream and progressive Mennonites either do not shun, or employ less extreme forms of shunning. Some very conservative Mennonite churches use shunning to exclude, punish, and shame excommunicated members. In its extreme form, Mennonites who practice shunning do so by condemning, snubbing, and shaming excommunicated individuals in all social, spousal, and familial contexts without regard for family ties. When a member is excommunicated, shunning continues until the individual's death unless they repent.^{[citation needed]}

Jehovah's Witnesses[link]

Jehovah's Witnesses practise a form of shunning which they refer to as "disfellowshipping".^[10] A disfellowshipped person is not to be greeted either socially or at their meetings. Disfellowshipping follows a decision of a judicial committee established by a local congregation that a member is guilty of a "serious sin", including "fornication, adultery, homosexuality, greed, extortion, thievery, lying, drunkenness, reviling, spiritism, murder, idolatry, apostasy, and the causing of divisions in the congregation";^[11] Watch Tower publications cite sexual immorality as the most common reason.^[12][13]

The Watch Tower Society directs that those who voluntarily renounce membership of the religion ("disassociation") are also to be shunned.^[14][15] The organization cites their interpretation of various passages in the Bible, such as 1 Corinthians 5:11-13, and 2 John 10-11 to support their practice of shunning. Total shunning is not enforced in the case of disfellowshipped members living in the same household, although in this case the remaining members will not usually discuss spiritual matters with the disfellowshipped person. Parents are still expected to give Bible instruction to a disfellowshipped minor.^[16][17] Contact with family members not living in the family home is to be kept to a minimum.^[18] Sociologist Andrew Holden claims his research indicated many Witnesses who would otherwise defect because of disillusionment with the organization and its teachings retain affiliation out of fear of being shunned and losing contact with friends and family members.^[19]

Other Protestant groups[link]

In some Protestant groups or churches^[who?], shunning goes by other terms^{[citation needed]}, such as disfellowshipping or "marking," based on the King James Version of Romans 16:17, which says to "... mark them which cause divisions ...." Some^[who?] groups perceive any disagreement with their teachings or leadership as being divisive, or even having a "demonic" influence and use shunning as a means of ensuring all church members' absolute submission to church leadership. Some^[who?] use what they call the "Moses Principle" as a justification to shun any dissenters.^{[citation needed]} It is estimated that 10% to 15% of Protestant evangelical churches practice shunning.^[20]

Judaism[link]

Cherem is the highest ecclesiastical censure in the Jewish community. It is the total exclusion of a person from the Jewish community. Except in rare cases in the Ultra-Orthodox and Chassidic community, the practice of cherem ceased in the Age of Enlightenment, when local Jewish communities lost their political autonomy and Jews were legally enfranchised into the Gentile nations in which they lived.

Bahá'í faith[link]

Members of the Bahá'í Faith are expected to shun those that have been declared Covenant-breakers, and expelled from the religion,^[21] by the head of their faith.^[22] Covenant-breakers are defined as leaders of schismatic groups that resulted from challenges to legitimacy of Bahá'í leadership, as well as those who follow or refuse to shun them.^[22] Unity is considered the highest value in the Bahá'í Faith, and any attempt at schism by a Bahá'í is considered a spiritual sickness, and a negation of that for which the religion stands.^[22]

Church of Scientology[link]

The Church of Scientology asks its members to quit all communication with Suppressive Persons (those whom the Church deems antagonistic to Scientology). The practice of shunning in Scientology is termed disconnection. Members can disconnect from any person they already know, including existing family members. Many examples of this policy's application have been established in court.^[23][24][25] It used to be customary to write a "disconnection letter" to the person being disconnected from, and to write a public disconnection notice, but these practices have not continued.^[26][27] The Church states that typically only people with "false data" about Scientology are antagonistic, so it encourages members to first attempt to provide "true data" to these people. According to official Church statements, disconnection is only used as a last resort and only lasts until the antagonism ceases.^[28] Failure to disconnect from a Suppressive Person is itself labelled a Suppressive act.^[29] In the United States, the Church has tried to argue in court that disconnection is a constitutionally-protected religious practice. However, this argument was rejected because the pressure put on individual Scientologists to disconnect means it is not voluntary.^[30]

See also[link]

• Al Wala' Wal Bara': Islamic concept of friendship toward fellow Muslims, and distance from non-Muslims.
• Anathema
• Apostasy in Islam
• Disconnection
• Excommunication: An often related practice of community expulsion.
• Marginalization
• Parental alienation
• Passive-aggressive behaviour
• Persona non grata
• Mark and Avoid: A practice of The Way International
• Social rejection

References[link]

• Scott, Stephen (1996), An Introduction to Old Order and Conservative Mennonite Groups, Good Books: Intercourse, Pennsylvania.
• Encyclopedia of American Religions, by J. Gordon Melton ISBN 0-8103-6904-4
• Friesen, Patrick, The Shunning (Mennonite fiction), 1980, ISBN 0-88801-038-9
• Kraybill, Donald (2001), "On the Backroad to Heaven", Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland".

Further reading[link]

• McCowan, Karen, The Oregon Register-Guard, Cast Out: Religious Shunning Provides an Unusual Background in the Longo and Bryant Slayings, March 2, 2003.
• D'anna, Lynnette, Post-Mennonite Women Congregate to Discuss Abuse, Herizons, 3/01/93.
• Esua, Alvin J., and Esau Alvin A.J., The Courts and the Colonies: The Litigation of Hutterite Church Disputes, Univ of British Columbia Press, 2004.
• Crossing Over: One Woman's Escape from Amish Life, Ruth Irene Garret, Rick Farrant
• Delivered Unto Satan (Mennonite), Robert L. Bear, 1974, (ASIN B0006CKXQI)
• Children Held Hostage: Dealing with Programmed and Brainwashed Children, Stanley S. Clawar, Brynne Valerie Rivlin, 2003.
• Deviance, Agency, and the Social Control of Women's Bodies in a Mennonite Community, Linda B. Arthur, NWSA Journal, v10.n2 (Summer 1998): pp75(25).

External links[link]

• Disfellowshipping amongst Jehovah's Witnesses
• What Shall We Tell the Children
• Spiritual Shunning
• Article on "Avoidance"/Shunning in Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online
• The Amish: Technology Practice and Technological Change, (see shunning)
• Stress and Conflict in an International Religious Movement: The Case of the Bruderhof (Hutterite)
• Ritual and the Social Meaning and Meaninglessness of Religion (Mennonite)
• Rituals, Communication, and Social Systems: The Case of the Old Order Mennonites
• Ex-Jehovah's Witness Forum and Recovery Site A support and recovery group for former Jehovah's Witnesses, where by leaving the JWs, have lost any contact with family or friends to due policies of the JW organization.

Sherry Lea Stringfield (born June 24, 1967) is an American actress. She is best known for playing the role of Dr. Susan Lewis on the medical television drama ER, a role for which she received three Emmy Award nominations. Stringfield was a member of ER's original cast, but she quit the show during its third season, despite being contractually tied to appear in five. She returned to the role in 2001, but quit once again in 2005. She is also known for her regular roles on NYPD Blue and Guiding Light.

She has acted mainly on television, but she has also played various parts in films.

Early life[link]

The eldest of three children, Stringfield was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Her family briefly relocated to Albuquerque, New Mexico, before settling in Spring, Texas, a sister community of Houston, where Stringfield grew up.^[1]

She developed a penchant for acting while attending Klein High School, where she starred in various musicals and plays including Oklahoma, Mother Courage, and Fiddler on the Roof. At 18 she attended the Acting Conservatory of SUNY at Purchase — rooming with fellow actress and student Parker Posey.^[2] During that time, she appeared in numerous off-Broadway productions and learned to control and alter her Texan accent with the help of a college speech teacher.^[3] Stringfield graduated in 1989 with a Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts.^[1]

Career[link]

Early career[link]

She got her first role on the CBS Daytime soap opera Guiding Light, playing Christina "Blake" Thorpe from 1989 until 1992. After three years she left the show to spend a year traveling Europe, but soon returned to television on the ABC drama, NYPD Blue. She played Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Laura Kelly, the ex-wife of officer John Kelly (David Caruso) during the first season (1993–94) of the series. Unsatisfied, she was released early from her contract.^[4]

[edit] ER

Stringfield became one of the original cast members of NBC's medical drama, ER. Her personal success mirrored the show's success — she was nominated for an Emmy Award for lead actress during each of her first three seasons of the show. Stringfield was contractually tied to appear in five seasons of ER; however, a desire for a "normal life" and to escape ER's grueling filming schedule prompted her to leave the drama early in its third season.^[4] In order to be released from her contract, Stringfield was forced to sign a no-work agreement, which blocked her from working on television for the remainder of her original contract. Stringfield's decision to quit reportedly angered the show's executive producer, John Wells, because she left just as Dr. Lewis got embroiled in a budding romance with Anthony Edwards' Dr. Mark Greene.^[4] Stringfield has commented: "I wouldn't describe the situation as pleasant. The producers were in shock. They tried to talk me out of it. It took a long time to get out of my contract."^[5]

Stringfield's much publicised departure reportedly "sent a small shock wave through Hollywood"^[6] and her exit episode in November 1996 attracted 37 million viewers, the biggest night of the season for the NBC network.^[7] Stringfield quit just as television executive Dick Robertson was closing a deal that guaranteed the ER cast millions in future earnings from sales to cable and syndication, meaning she effectively "walked away from a fortune."^[8]

Stringfield claims she was asked to reprise the role of Susan Lewis in ER several times, but turned each offer down.^[9] However, following the birth of her first baby, she approached the producers of ER and then rejoined the cast in 2001, the show's eighth season.^[9] "I changed my mind," Stringfield commented, "I really want to work now. It just made sense for me to go back to ER."^[10] 26.7 million people watched Stringfield's return, placing the show at first place in the ratings and displacing the hugely popular Friends from the top spot.^[11]

During her second stint in ER, Stringfield's character was featured in a special 'crossover' with NBC's New York City based police drama, Third Watch, which aired in 2002. She remained in the role for four additional seasons, however in August 2005, Stringfield announced that she would be leaving the show again as the 12th season came underway. "I am extremely grateful for the time I spent on ER," Stringfield explained. "It is a wonderful show, and there are so many people I will miss. But I'm ready for new roles and new challenges."^[12] In 2009, Stringfield returned to ER for the series finale, "And in the End...".^[13]

Other work[link]

After leaving ER in 1996, Stringfield taught a script analysis class and directed several plays at her alma mater. She took roles in films such as 54 (1998) and Autumn in New York (2000) and appeared in the television movies Border Line (1999) — produced by her ER co-star Anthony Edwards — and Going Home (2000), in which she starred opposite Jason Robards. She also guest-starred in the CBS drama Touched by an Angel in 1999.

In 2005, Stringfield was cast alongside Michael Michele, Blair Underwood, Esai Morales, Gary Cole and Catherine Bell in the pilot episode of the CBS drama Company Town (created by Elwood Reid;^[14] directed by Thomas Carter), playing Angie Amberson, a mother of teenagers and a whistle-blower on the investment firm where she works. Company Town failed to get picked up for the 2006 fall season. The series was produced by Jack Clements and Larry Sanitsky. In 2007 Stringfield starred in the Andrew Shea film Forfeit. She played the role of Karen, the ex-girlfriend of a clinical sociopath who schemes and plots to stage a massive robbery and sets Karen up to take the rap.^[15]

In 2007, Stringfield guest-starred as attorney Nora March in the CBS drama Shark. She also played a recurring role in the HBO drama Tell Me You Love Me (previously known as Sexlife), which also aired in 2007.^[16] In 2009, she appeared in The Stepfather, a remake of the 1987 American thriller film of the same name.

She appeared in an episode of the USA Network drama In Plain Sight. Stringfield also guest-starred on Law & Order in late 2008 as a ruthless court clerk and Michael Cutter's love interest. She most recently played Mary Jane Porter, an old girlfriend of Larry David's who runs into and then goes on a date with him in an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm that aired on October 11, 2009.

In 2010, Stringfield appeared in Who Is Clark Rockefeller? playing the role of Sandra Boss.

In addition to acting, Stringfield has done voice-over work, including the voice of Eyeleen in the children's television show Blue's Clues and voicing her ER character for the PC game ER: The Game. Stringfield was also featured in the U.S. Got Milk? advertising campaign, despite being lactose intolerant.^{[citation needed]}

In 2012, Stringfield was expected to star in The Confession, a Hallmark Channel movie and a sequel to The Shunning.^[17]

Awards/nominations[link]

In 1991 and 1993, Stringfield was nominated in the "Outstanding Villain/Villainess" category at the Soap Opera Digest Awards for her role in Guiding Light. She has also received multiple awards and award-nominations for her role as Susan Lewis in ER, including three separate Emmy Award nominations in the category "Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series" in 1995, 1996 and 1997. In 1995 she was nominated in the category "Favorite Female Performer" at the People's Choice Awards and in 1995 and 1996 she was nominated in the "Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series -Drama" category at the Golden Globe Awards.

In 1996 she won a Q Award for "Best Actress in a Quality Drama Series" and in 1997 she, along with several of her ER cast-mates, won a Screen Actors Guild Award for "Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series". In addition Stringfield was voted one of the "100 Sexiest Women in the World" by readers of FHM Magazine in 1997.

Personal life[link]

In the early 1990s Stringfield dated British businessman Paul Goldstein (chairman of Nevica skiwear) for nearly three years, but the pressures of a long-distance romance eventually ended the relationship.^[18]

Stringfield married journalist Larry E. Joseph in October 1998. Stringfield and Joseph divorced in January 2006 after seven years of marriage. They have two children together: daughter Phoebe, born in March 2001; and son Milo, born April 12, 2004. Stringfield currently resides in Los Angeles.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Sherry Stringfield at the Internet Movie Database
• Her NBC ER biography
• THR: Back -2009 Pilot

Catherine Austin Fitts is the president of Solari, Inc., the publisher of The Solari Report, managing member of Solari Investment Advisory Services, LLC., and managing member of Sea Lane Advisory Services, LLC.

Background[link]

Fitts served as managing director and member of the board of directors of the Wall Street investment bank Dillon, Read & Co. Inc., as Assistant Secretary of Housing and Federal Housing^[1] Commissioner at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development in the first Bush Administration, and was the president of Hamilton Securities Group, Inc., an investment bank and financial software developer.

Fitts has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, an MBA from the Wharton School and studied Mandarin at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She publishes a column, "Mapping the Real Deal," in Scoop in New Zealand.

See also[link]

• Popsicle index, a quality of life measurement she devised

References[link]

External links[link]

• Fitts' Bio from Solari
• http://solari.com/00archive/doc/caf/Business_Week-27Nov1989.pdf

• http://solari.com/00archive/doc/caf/Business_Week_Wonder_Woman_of_Muni_Bonds.pdf

This article about a United States businessperson is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Sarah Steelman (born May 3, 1958) is an American politician from Missouri affiliated with the Republican party, serving as State Treasurer from 2005 to 2009. She did not run for re-election as State Treasurer in 2008, having run for Governor, and was succeeded in office by Democrat Clint Zweifel on January 12, 2009. She was cited by the New York Times to be among the seventeen women most likely to become the first female President of the United States.^[1] On November 29, 2010, Steelman announced she will run for the U.S. Senate in 2012.^[2]

Early life, education, and economics career[link]

Sarah Steelman is the second wife of David Steelman, former Republican Leader in the Missouri House. Her father, John Hearne, is a senior partner in the Jefferson City law firm of Hearne and Green.^[3] Her father-in-law is the late Dorman Steelman, a former chairman of the Missouri Republican Party.

She attended Jefferson City public schools before attending University of Missouri,^[4] from where she holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and a Master of Arts degree in Economics. Prior to her election in 1998, Steelman served as deputy director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. She also worked as an economist for the Missouri Department of Revenue and as an adjunct professor of Economics at Lincoln University of Missouri in Jefferson City.

Political career[link]

State Senate[link]

In 1998, Steelman ran against incumbent Democratic State Senator Mike Lybyer, a popular incumbent who was running for a fifth term. In his previous re-election campaign in 1994, Lybyer defeated State Representative Merrill Townley with 55% of the vote, despite the national Republican wave that year.^[5] However in 1998, Steelman defeated Lybyer by a 58% to 42% margin.^[6]. Steelman represented Callaway, Osage, Gasconade, Maries, Phelps, Crawford, Texas, and Dent counties. In 2002, she won re-election with 71% of the vote.^[7]

Steelman endorsed John McCain for president in 2000, and briefly considered running for the U.S. Senate in November 2002 against Senator Jean Carnahan, but instead she opted to run for re-election to her seat in the state Senate.

State Treasurer[link]

In 2004, Steelman ran for Treasurer of Missouri. In the Republican primary, she won a plurality of vote (39%) and defeated U.S. Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer, businessman Tom Klein, State Senator Anita Yeckel, Chaplain Al Hanson, businessman Will Pundmann, and former State Representative Chet Boeke.^[8] In the general election, she defeated Democrat Mark Powell, Mayor of Arnold, Missouri, with 51% of the vote.^[9] She became the second woman elected to that post, succeeding Nancy Farmer.

Although several leaders in the Missouri Republican Party (including former Governor Matt Blunt, Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, former House Speaker Rod Jetton, and former U.S. Senator Jim Talent) had indicated their support for Mitt Romney in 2008, Steelman reportedly was "leaning toward McCain again in 2008."^{[citation needed]}

Steelman was the first major convert^[10] to "Divest Terror", a Terror-free investing strategy of the Center for Security Policy that enjoys some national following. As Steelman implements it, the program invests in funds that divest assets in North Korea, Iran, Syria, and Sudan.^[11] In her capacity as an ex-officio board member of a pension system for Missouri government workers, she requested similar divestments from countries on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list.^[12] However, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Steelman's personal investments failed to comply with this policy.^[13]

2008 run for Governor[link]

On the morning of January 22, 2008, Steelman announced that she would seek a second term as State Treasurer, but changed her mind when Governor Matt Blunt announced he would not seek reelection later that same afternoon. Following Blunt's announcement, Steelman announced she would run for Governor.

Steelman ran against Republicans Kenny Hulshof, Scott Long and Jen Sievers, losing to Hulshof's 194,616 votes with her 176,847.^[14] Had she won the primary and won in the general election, she would have been Missouri's first female governor.

Steelman taught one class titled "Leadership and Changing Public Policy" in the Fall semester of 2009 at Missouri State University^[15]

2012 run for U.S. Senate[link]

Steelman wasthe first Republican to file. The incumbent is Democrat Claire McCaskill, who is running for her second term. Steelman will face U.S. 2nd district Congressman Todd Akin and St. Louis businessman John Brunner in the August 2012 primary. Akin officially declared his candidacy May 17, 2011. Minor candidates include Mark Memoly is an Author, ATB Executive, and Retired Ford Motor Company Manager, and Mark Lodes. ^[16]

References[link]

1. ^ Zernike, Kate (2008-05-18). "She Just Might Be President Someday". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/weekinreview/18zernike.html. 
2. ^ "Sarah Steelman for U.S. Senate 2012". sarahsteelman.com. November 29, 2010. http://sarahsteelman.com/component/content/article/34-annoucements/52-steelman-for-us-sentate.html. Retrieved December 1, 2010. 
3. ^ "Website Disabled". Hearnegreen.com. http://www.hearnegreen.com/DynamicAttorneys.shtml?wldpid=2365265_1&mailpagename=ObfuscatedForm&p=yes. Retrieved 2011-06-28. 
4. ^ Official Manual State of Missouri 2001-2002. Matt Blunt, Secretary of State. p. 136. 
5. ^ http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=383831
6. ^ http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=339460
7. ^ http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=6762
8. ^ http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=50839
9. ^ http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=50842
10. ^ Jonathan Alter. "Before We Bomb Iran...". Newsweek, October 22, 2007.
11. ^ Sue Asci. "'Terror-free' investing draws public pension plans". InvestmentNews, October 15, 2007.
12. ^ Jason Rosenbaum. "50 Years of Investing". Columbia Tribune, October 6, 2007.
13. ^ Jake Wagman. "Steelman owned stocks she spurned". St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 19, 2010.
14. ^ "Official Election Returns, State of Missouri August 2008 Primary Election, Tuesday, August 05, 2008". Missouri Secretary of State. August 21, 2008. http://www.sos.mo.gov/enrweb/statewideresults.asp?arc=1&eid=195. Retrieved October 21, 2010. 
15. ^ [1]^{[dead link]}
16. ^ "Todd Akin announces Missouri Senate bid". RollCall.com. 2011-05-17. http://www.rollcall.com/news/todd_akin_announces_missouri_senate_bid-205681-1.html. Retrieved 2011-05-28. 

External links[link]

• Mark Memoly for U.S. Senate 2012
• Sarah Steelman for U.S. Senate 2012 – current campaign website
• Sarah Steelman for Governor archived campaign website
• Project Vote Smart - Sarah Steelman (MO) profile
• Follow the Money - Sarah Steelman
  • 2008 Governor campaign contributions
  • 2006 2004 State Treasurer campaign contributions
  • 2002 2000 1998 U.S. Senate campaign contributions

v t e Treasurers of Missouri Didier • Simonds • Earickson • Walker • McClellan • Glover • Morrison • Bingham • Bishop • Dallmeyer • Hays • Salmon • Mercer • Gates • Chappell • Seibert • Noland • L. Stephens • Pitts • Williams • Gmelich • Cowgill • Deal • Middelkamp • Thompson • C. Stephens • Brunk • Nacy • Winn • Bell • Winn • Nacy • Morris • Bates • Morris • Carpenter • Morris • Robinson • Spainhower • Carnahan • Bailey • Holden • Farmer • Steelman • Zweifel

Sarah Palin
Palin speaking at the 2012 CPAC in Washington, D.C.
9th Governor of Alaska
In office December 4, 2006 – July 26, 2009
Lieutenant	Sean Parnell
Preceded by	Frank Murkowski
Succeeded by	Sean Parnell
Chairperson of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission
In office February 19, 2003 – January 23, 2004
Governor	Frank Murkowski
Preceded by	Camille Oechsli Taylor[1]
Succeeded by	John K. Norman[1]
Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska
In office October 14, 1996 – October 14, 2002
Preceded by	John Stein
Succeeded by	Dianne M. Keller
Member of the Wasilla City Council from Seat E
In office October 19, 1992 – October 14, 1996
Preceded by	Dorothy Smith
Succeeded by	Colleen Cottle
Personal details
Born	Sarah Louise Heath (1964-02-11) February 11, 1964 (age 48)[2] Sandpoint, Idaho, U.S.
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Todd Palin (m. August 29, 1988)
Children	Track (b. 1989) Bristol (b. 1990) Willow (b. 1994) Piper (b. 2001) Trig (b. 2008)[3]
Residence	Wasilla, Alaska
Alma mater	University of Idaho - (B.S., 1987)[4]
Occupation	Local news sportscaster Commercial fisherman Politician Author Political commentator[5]
Religion	Non-denominational Christian[6][7]
Signature

	This article is part of a series about Sarah Palin	Sarah Palin
McCain–Palin campaign, 2008 Governorship of Alaska, 2006–2009 Early political career of Sarah Palin, 1992–2005 Political positions · Electoral history Public image · Saturday Night Live parodies Resignation of Sarah Palin Going Rogue: An American Life Sarah Palin's Alaska

Sarah Louise Palin ⁱ/ˈpeɪlɨn/ (née Heath; born February 11, 1964) is an American politician, commentator and author. As the Republican Party nominee for Vice President in the 2008 presidential election, she was the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major party and first Republican woman nominated for the vice presidency. Her book Going Rogue has sold more than two million copies. Since January 2010, she has provided political commentary for Fox News, and hosted a television show, Sarah Palin's Alaska. Five million viewers tuned in for the first episode, a record for The Learning Channel.

She was elected to Wasilla City Council in 1992 and became mayor of Wasilla in 1996. In 2003, after an unsuccessful run for lieutenant governor, she was appointed Chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, responsible for overseeing the state's oil and gas fields for safety and efficiency. The youngest person and first woman to be elected Governor of Alaska, Palin held the office from December 2006 until her resignation in July 2009. She has since endorsed and campaigned for the Tea Party movement, as well as several candidates in the 2010 midterm elections. From the time of her Vice Presidential nomination in 2008, Palin was considered a potential candidate for the 2012 presidential election until she announced in October 2011 that she would not run.

Early life and family[link]

Palin was born in Sandpoint, Idaho. She is the third of four children (three daughters, one son) born to Charles R. "Chuck" Heath, a science teacher and track and field coach, and Sarah "Sally" (née Sheeran), a school secretary. Palin's siblings are Chuck Jr., Heather, and Molly.^{[8][9][10][11][12]} Palin is of English, Irish, and German ancestry.^[13]

When Palin was a few months old, the family moved to Skagway, Alaska,^[14] where her father received his teaching job.^[15] They relocated to Eagle River in 1969, and finally settled to Wasilla in 1972.^[16][17]

Palin played flute in the junior high band, then attended Wasilla High School where she was the head of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes,^[7] and a member of the girls' basketball and cross country running teams.^[18] During her senior year, she was co-captain and point guard of the basketball team that won the 1982 Alaska state championship, earning the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" for her competitive streak.^[19][20][21]

College[link]

After graduating from high school, Palin enrolled at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.^[22] Shortly after arriving in Hawaii, Palin transferred to Hawaii Pacific University in Honolulu for a semester in the fall of 1982, and then to North Idaho College, a community college in Coeur d'Alene, for the spring and fall semesters of 1983.^[23] (In June 2008, the Alumni Association of NIC gave her its Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award.)^[23][24]

In 1984, Palin won the Miss Wasilla beauty pageant.^[25][26] She finished third in the Miss Alaska pageant,^[27][28] playing flute in the talent portion of the contest,^[29] and receiving both the Miss Congeniality award and a college scholarship.^[19]

She attended the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho, in late 1984 and early 1985, and Matanuska-Susitna College in Alaska in late 1985. Palin returned to the University of Idaho in the spring of 1986, and received her bachelor's degree in communications with an emphasis in journalism in 1987.^{[23][30][31][32]}

Early career and marriage[link]

After graduation, she worked as a sportscaster for KTUU-TV and KTVA-TV in Anchorage,^[33][34] and as a sports reporter for the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman,^[35][36] fulfilling an early ambition.^[37]

On August 29, 1988, she eloped at age 24 with her high school sweetheart, Todd Palin. Following the birth of their first child, she helped in her husband's commercial fishing business.^[38]

Early political career[link]

City council[link]

Palin was elected to the Wasilla City Council in 1992 winning 530 votes to 310.^[39][40] Throughout her tenure on the city council and the rest of her political career, Palin has been a Republican since registering in 1982.^[41]

Mayor of Wasilla[link]

Concerned that revenue from a new Wasilla sales tax would not be spent wisely,^[42] Palin ran for mayor of Wasilla in 1996, defeating incumbent mayor John Stein^[43] 651 to 440 votes.^[44] Her biographer described her campaign as targeting wasteful spending and high taxes;^[19] her opponent, Stein, said that Palin introduced abortion, gun rights, and term limits as campaign issues.^[45] The election was nonpartisan, though the state Republican Party ran advertisements for Palin.^[45] Palin ran for re-election against Stein in 1999 and won, 909 votes to 292.^[46] In 2002, she completed the second of the two consecutive three-year terms allowed by the city charter.^[47] She was elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors^[48] in 1999.^[49]

First term[link]

Palin had a contretemps with the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman, a local newspaper, and became involved in personnel challenges and "a thwarted attempt to pack the City Council" during her first year in office.^[50] Using income generated by a 2% sales tax that had been approved by Wasilla voters in October 1992,^[51] Palin cut property taxes by 75% and eliminated personal property and business inventory taxes.^[43][52] Using municipal bonds, she made improvements to the roads and sewers, and increased funding to the Police Department.^[45] She also oversaw new bike paths and procured funding for storm-water treatment to protect freshwater resources.^[43] At the same time, she shrank the local museum's budget and deterred talk of a new library and city hall.^[43]

Soon after taking office in October 1996, Palin eliminated the position of museum director^[53] and asked for updated resumes and resignation letters from "city department heads who had been loyal to Stein,"^[54] including the police chief, public works director, finance director, and librarian.^[55] Palin stated this request was to find out their intentions and whether they supported her.^[55] She temporarily required department heads to get her approval before talking to reporters, saying that they first needed to become acquainted with her administration's policies.^[55] She created the position of city administrator,^[45] and reduced her own $68,000 salary by 10%, although by mid-1998 this was reversed by the city council.^[56]

In October 1996, Palin asked library director Mary Ellen Emmons if she would object to the removal of a book from the library if people were picketing to have the book removed.^[57] Emmons responded that she would, and others as well.^[57] Palin explained that she not been proposing censorship but had been discussing many issues with her staff that were "both rhetorical and realistic in nature."^[57] No attempt was made to remove books from the library during Palin's tenure as mayor.^[58]

Palin said she fired Police Chief Irl Stambaugh because he did not fully support her efforts to govern the city.^[59] Stambaugh filed a lawsuit alleging wrongful termination and violation of his free speech rights.^[60] The judge dismissed Stambaugh's lawsuit, holding that the police chief served at the discretion of the mayor, and could be terminated for nearly any reason, even a political one,^[61][62] and ordered Stambaugh to pay Palin's legal fees.^[61]

Wasilla City Hall

Location of Wasilla, Alaska

Second term[link]

During her second term as mayor, Palin proposed and promoted the construction of a municipal sports center to be financed by a 0.5%^[45] sales tax increase and $14.7  million bond issue.^[63] Voters approved the measure by a 20 vote margin and the Wasilla Multi-Use Sports Complex (later named the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center) was built on time and under budget. However, the city spent an additional $1.3 million because of an eminent domain lawsuit caused by the failure to obtain clear title to the property before beginning construction.^[63] The city's long-term debt grew from about $1 million to $25 million due to $15 million for the sports complex, $5.5 million for street projects, and $3 million for water improvement projects. The Wall Street Journal characterized the project as a "financial mess."^[63] A city council member defended the spending increases as being caused by the city's growth during that time.^[64]

Palin also joined with nearby communities in hiring the Anchorage-based lobbying firm of Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh to lobby for federal funds. The firm secured nearly $8 million in earmarks for the Wasilla city government,^[65] including $500,000 for a youth shelter, $1.9 million for a transportation hub, and $900,000 for sewer repairs.^[66]

In 2008, Wasilla's current mayor credited Palin's 75 percent property tax cuts and infrastructure improvements with bringing "big-box stores" and 50,000 shoppers per day to Wasilla.^[39]

State-level politics[link]

In 2002, Palin ran for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor, coming in second to Loren Leman in a five-way Republican primary.^[67] Following her defeat, she campaigned throughout the state for the nominated Republican governor-lieutenant governor ticket of Frank Murkowski and Leman.^[68] Murkowski and Leman won, Murkowski resigned from his long-held U.S. Senate seat in December 2002 to assume the governorship. Palin was said to be on the "short list" of possible appointees to Murkowski's U.S. Senate seat,^[68] but Murkowski ultimately appointed his daughter, State Representative Lisa Murkowski, as his successor in the Senate.^[69]

Governor Murkowski offered other jobs to Palin, and in February 2003, she accepted an appointment to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which oversees Alaska's oil and gas fields for safety and efficiency.^[68] While she had little background in the area, she said she wanted to learn more about the oil industry, and was named chair of the commission and ethics supervisor.^[1][68][70] By November 2003 she was filing non-public ethics complaints with the state attorney general and the governor against a fellow commission member, Randy Ruedrich, a former petroleum engineer and at the time the chair of the state Republican Party.^[68] He was forced to resign in November 2003.^[68] Palin resigned in January 2004 and put her protests against Ruedrich's "lack of ethics" into the public arena^[19][68] by filing a public complaint against Ruedrich,^[71] who was then fined $12,000. She also joined with Democratic legislator Eric Croft^[72] in complaining that Gregg Renkes, then the attorney general of Alaska,^[73] had a financial conflict of interest in negotiating a coal exporting trade agreement.^[74][75] Renkes also resigned his post.^[19][70]

From 2003 to June 2005, Palin served as one of three directors of "Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.," a 527 group designed to provide political training for Republican women in Alaska.^[76] In 2004, Palin told the Anchorage Daily News that she had decided not to run for the U.S. Senate that year against the Republican incumbent Lisa Murkowski because her teenage son opposed it. Palin said, "How could I be the team mom if I was a U.S. Senator?"^[77]

Governor of Alaska[link]

Palin visits soldiers of the Alaska National Guard, July 24, 2007.

In 2006, running on a clean-government platform, Palin defeated incumbent Governor Frank Murkowski in the Republican gubernatorial primary.^[78][79] Her running mate was Sean Parnell, who since leaving the state senate in 2001 had worked as a corporate lobbyist.^{[citation needed]}

In the November election, Palin was outspent but victorious, defeating former Democratic governor Tony Knowles by a margin of 48.3% to 40.9%.^[19] She became Alaska's first female governor, and, at the age of 42, the youngest governor in Alaskan history, the state's first governor to have been born after Alaska achieved U.S. statehood, and the first not to be inaugurated in Juneau (she chose to have the ceremony held in Fairbanks instead). She took office on December 4, 2006, and for most of her term was very popular with Alaska voters. Polls taken in 2007 showed her with 93% and 89% popularity among all voters,^[80] which led some media outlets to call her "the most popular governor in America."^[72][80] A poll taken in late September 2008 after Palin was named to the national Republican ticket showed her popularity in Alaska at 68%.^[81] A poll taken in May 2009 showed Palin's popularity among Alaskans was at 54% positive and 41.6% negative.^[82]

Palin declared that top priorities of her administration would be resource development, education and workforce development, public health and safety, and transportation and infrastructure development. She had championed ethics reform throughout her election campaign. Her first legislative action after taking office was to push for a bipartisan ethics reform bill. She signed the resulting legislation in July 2007, calling it a "first step", and declaring that she remained determined to clean up Alaska politics.^[83]

Palin frequently broke with the Alaskan Republican establishment.^[84][85] For example, she endorsed Parnell's bid to unseat the state's longtime at-large U.S. Representative, Don Young,^[86] and she publicly challenged then-U.S. Senator Ted Stevens to come clean about the federal investigation into his financial dealings. Shortly before his July 2008 indictment, she held a joint news conference with Stevens, described by The Washington Post as intended to "make clear she had not abandoned him politically."^[76]

Palin promoted the development of oil and natural-gas resources in Alaska, including drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Proposals to drill for oil in ANWR have occasioned national debate.^[87]

In 2006, Palin obtained a passport^[88] and in 2007 traveled for the first time outside of North America on a trip to Kuwait. There she visited the Khabari Alawazem Crossing at the Kuwait–Iraq border and met with members of the Alaska National Guard at several bases.^[89] On her return journey she visited injured soldiers in Germany.^[90]

Budget, spending, and federal funds[link]

Palin in Germany, July 2007

In June 2007, Palin signed a record $6.6 billion operating budget into law.^[91] At the same time, she used her veto power to make the second-largest cuts of the capital budget in state history. The $237 million in cuts represented over 300 local projects, and reduced the capital budget to $1.6 billion.^[92]

In 2008, Palin vetoed $286 million, cutting or reducing funding for 350 projects from the FY09 capital budget.^[93]

Palin followed through on a campaign promise to sell the Westwind II jet, a purchase made by the Murkowski administration for $2.7 million in 2005 against the wishes of the legislature.^[94] In August 2007, the jet was listed on eBay, but the sale fell through, and the plane later sold for $2.1 million through a private brokerage firm.^[95]

Gubernatorial expenditures[link]

Palin lived in Juneau during the legislative session and lived in Wasilla and worked out of offices in Anchorage the rest of the year. Since the office in Anchorage is 565 miles from Juneau, while she worked there, state officials said she was permitted to claim a $58 per diem travel allowance, which she took (a total of $16,951), and to reimbursement for hotels, which she did not, choosing instead to drive about 50 miles to her home in Wasilla.^[96] She also chose not to use the former governor's private chef.^[97] Republicans and Democrats have criticized Palin for taking the per diem and $43,490 in travel expenses for the times her family accompanied her on state business.^[98][99] In response, Palin's staffers said that these practices were in line with state policy, that her gubernatorial expenses are 80% below those of Murkowski, her predecessor,^[98] and that "many of the hundreds of invitations Palin receives include requests for her to bring her family, placing the definition of 'state business' with the party extending the invitation."^[96] In February 2009, the State of Alaska, reversing a policy that had treated the payments as legitimate business expenses under the Internal Revenue Code, decided that per diems paid to state employees for stays in their own homes will be treated as taxable income and will be included in employees' gross income on their W-2 forms.^[100] Palin herself had ordered the review of the tax policy.^[101]

In December 2008, an Alaska state commission recommended increasing the Governor's annual salary from $125,000 to $150,000. Palin stated that she would not accept the pay raise.^[102] In response, the commission dropped the recommendation.^[103]

Federal funding[link]

In her State of the State address on January 17, 2008, Palin declared that the people of Alaska "can and must continue to develop our economy, because we cannot and must not rely so heavily on federal government [funding]."^[104] Alaska's federal congressional representatives cut back on pork-barrel project requests during Palin's time as governor; despite this, in 2008 Alaska was still the largest per-capita recipient of federal earmarks, requesting nearly $750 million in special federal spending over a period of two years.^[105]

While there is no state sales tax or income tax in Alaska, royalty revenues from the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field (consisting mostly of state-owned lands) have funded large state budgets since 1980, with the exact amounts largely dependent upon the prevailing price of petroleum. As a result, state revenues doubled to $10 billion in 2008. For the 2009 budget, Palin gave a list of 31 proposed federal earmarks or requests for funding, totaling $197 million, to Alaska's senior U.S. Senator Ted Stevens.^[106][107] Palin has stated that her decreasing support for federal funding was a source of friction between her and the state's congressional delegation; Palin requested less in federal funding each year than her predecessor Frank Murkowski requested in his last year.^[108]

Bridge to Nowhere[link]

In 2005, before Palin was elected governor, Congress passed an omnibus spending bill that contained a $442-million earmark for constructing two Alaska bridges. The Gravina Island Bridge, intended to provide a link between the Ketchikan airport on Gravina Island and the city of Ketchikan at a cost of $233 million in Federal grant money, received nationwide attention as a symbol of pork-barrel spending. As the island only has a population of 50, the bridge became known as the "Bridge to Nowhere." The public furor led to Congress removing the earmarks, but retaining the allotted funds to Alaska as part of its general transportation fund.^[109]

Palin holding a t-shirt while visiting Ketchikan during her Gubernatorial campaign in 2006; the ZIP code for the area is 99901.

In 2006, Palin ran for governor with a "build-the-bridge" plank in her platform,^[110] saying she would "not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project ... into something that's so negative."^[111] Palin criticized the use of the word "nowhere" as insulting to local residents^[110][112] and urged speedy work on building the infrastructure "while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist."^[112]

As governor, Palin canceled the Gravina Island Bridge in September 2007, saying that Congress had "little interest in spending any more money" due to "inaccurate portrayals of the projects."^[113] Alaska did not return the $442 million in federal transportation funds.^[114]

In 2008, as a vice-presidential candidate, Palin characterized her position as having told Congress "thanks, but no thanks, on that bridge to nowhere." A number of Ketchikan residents said that the claim was false and a betrayal of Palin's previous support for their community.^[114] Some critics said that her statement was misleading, as she had expressed support for the spending project and kept the federal money after the project was canceled.^[115] Palin was criticized for allowing construction of a 3-mile access road, built with $25 million in federal transportation funds set aside as part of the original bridge project, to continue. A spokesman for Alaska's Department of Transportation said that it was within Palin's power to cancel the road project, but noted that the state was still considering cheaper designs to complete the bridge project, and that in any case, the road would open up the surrounding lands for development.^[116][117]

Gas pipeline[link]

In August 2008, Palin signed a bill authorizing the State of Alaska to award TransCanada Pipelines — the sole bidder to meet the state's requirements — a license to build and operate a pipeline to transport natural gas from the Alaska North Slope to the continental United States through Canada.^[118] The governor also pledged $500 million in seed money to support the project.^[119] It is estimated that the project will cost $26 billion.^[118] Newsweek described the project as "the principal achievement of Sarah Palin's term as Alaska's governor."^[120] The pipeline faces legal challenges from Canadian First Nations.^[120]

Predator control[link]

In 2007, Palin supported a 2003 Alaska Department of Fish and Game policy allowing the hunting of wolves from the air as part of a predator control program intended to increase moose and caribou populations for subsistence-food gatherers and other hunters.^[121][122] In March 2007, Palin's office announced that a bounty of $150 per wolf would be paid to the 180 volunteer pilots and gunners, to offset fuel costs, in five areas of Alaska. 607 wolves had been killed in the prior four years. State biologists wanted 382 to 664 wolves to be killed by the end of the predator-control season in April 2007. Wildlife activists sued the state, and a state judge declared the bounty illegal on the basis that a bounty would have to be offered by the Board of Game and not by the Department of Fish and Game.^[121][123] On August 26, 2008, Alaskans voted against ending the state's predator control program.^[124]

Public Safety Commissioner dismissal[link]