But back home, she has cheered the work of a tiny party that long has pushed for a statewide vote on whether Alaska should secede from those same United States. And her husband, Todd, was a member of the party for seven years.
“Keep up the good work,” Sarah Palin told members of the Alaskan Independence Party in a videotaped speech to their convention six months ago in Fairbanks. She wished the party luck on what she called its “inspiring convention.”
The Alaskan Independence Party, founded in 1978, initially promoted “the Alaskan independence movement.” But now, according to its website, “its primary goal is merely a vote on secession.”
For all but two months from 1995 to 2002, the governor’s husband was registered as an Alaskan Independence Party member, according to the Alaska Division of Elections.
With McCain’s campaign emphasizing patriotism — his latest slogan is “Country First” — the Palins’ links to a party founded by the late secessionist gold miner Joe Vogler could prove awkward.
Leaders of the party say many of its 13,681 registered members have joined out of frustration over restrictions that the federal government has placed on the use of its vast land holdings in Alaska. Beyond the secession vote, the party also advocates gun rights, home schooling and abolition of property taxes.
A question-and-answer page on its website asks, “Aren’t most Alaskan Independence Party members a bunch of radicals and kooks?”
“The party has its share of individualists, in the grand Alaskan tradition,” the answer says. “No longer a fringe party, the AIP is a viable third party with a serious mission and qualified candidates for elected offices.”