Alaska Governor Shows Fearlessness
Published: 12/26/07, 2:05 PM EDT
By STEVE QUINN
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - In her first year as governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin has plunged ahead with the fearlessness of a polar explorer.
The populist Republican has raised taxes on the powerful oil industry. She has pushed through ethics legislation amid a burgeoning corruption investigation of Alaska lawmakers. She has bucked her party's old guard. And she has ordered her administration to seek fewer congressional earmarks after Alaska's "Bridge to Nowhere" became a national symbol of piggish pork-barrel spending.The 43-year-old governor has also emerged as a national figure and a media darling, posing recently for Vogue magazine.
Alaska's first female governor, a former Miss Wasilla with swept-up light-brown hair, says it is her responsibility to be available even to fashion magazines if it can help change the state's reputation for graft and gluttony at the public trough.
"We've got to make sure the rest of the United States doesn't believe the only thing going on in Alaska is FBI probes and corruption trials," Palin said.
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