Palin endorses ‘unity’ ticket over her embattled GOP successor

Sarah Palin made a rare foray into her home state politics Wednesday, endorsing a “unity ticket” of an independent and a Democrat in hopes of ousting embattled Republican Gov. Sean Parnell.

Parnell was Palin’s runningmate in her whirlwind rise to become Alaska’s governor in 2006, but the pair have since become opponents on one of Alaska’s biggest political issues: How much to tax the oil companies that bankroll the state government. Parnell is a former oil industry lobbyst and has sought to reduce taxes in hopes of spurring new development.

Independent gubernatorial candidate Bill Walker announced the endorsement late in the day.

Palin told a crowd at her lakeside Wasilla home that she supports Walker and runningmate Byron Mallott, a Democrat, because she “"trust[s] them to develop our God-given resources responsibly and to the maximum benefit of Alaskans,” according to the Walker campaign.

It's unclear whether the endorsement will boost Walker's campaign momentum or alienate some Democrats who reluctantly asked their own candidate to take a back seat as lieutenant governor in a successful Walker administration. The combined ticket of Walker and Democrat Byron Mallott led Parnell by 9 points in recent polls, and with less than two weeks to the election Parnell’s energy has been spent fending off accusations that his administration allowed sexual abuse and other misconduct to go unpunished within the Alaska National Guard.

A National Guard Bureau review [PDF], requested by Parnell, found examples of fraud committed by Guard members and leaders, that Guard members who reported sexual assaults did not trust their commanders to take action, favoritism, “ethical misconduct” and other problems. The Office of Complex Investigations published the review in September.

A pair of Anchorage Press newspaper stories this month revealed an internal investigation that found reports of sexual assaults by Alaska National Guard recruiters, forcing Parnell to play defense at a key moment in the campaign.

“The National Guard scandal is disturbing to us all. It didn’t start with with this governor, but this is where it ends,” Parnell’s wife, Sandy Parnell, says in campaign ad released Tuesday.

On Wednesday, a political action committee created in support of the Walker campaign released an ad of its own, featuring a woman who says she was raped while a member of the Alaska National Guard and that her superiors ignored the attack.

Enter Sarah Palin. The former Wasilla mayor and Republican vice presidential nominee has had little to say publicly about Alaska politics since handing the governor job to Parnell in 2009. She signaled her support of Walker in a rock station radio interview in May, but more recently made headlines in-state when members of the Palin family were involved in a fight or argument outside an Anchorage party.

“We need a fighter. We need somebody who’s got the guts to stand up to Obama, to the far left, to those who want to a) lock up our lands, b) engage in crony capitalism on the national level,” Palin told KWHL radio at the time.

Walker is a former Republican who is conservative on many social issues. In an unusual twist, he teamed up with Democratic primary election nominee Mallott in order to avoid splitting the vote against Parnell and to offer the pair their best shot at the governor’s mansion.

While Palin’s endorsement of Walker has rattled some Democrats, the Walker campaign has portrayed the former Alaska governor as one support among many.

"The Unity Ticket has received wide ranging support from across Alaska's political spectrum,” Walker spokeswoman Lindsay Hobson said in an emailed statement to reporters. "Sarah Palin is the most recent to join a long line of Alaskans eager for an administration that puts Alaska's interests above all else."

A Parnell spokesman has declined to comment on Palin backing his opponent, but retweeted news of the endorsement. 

Correction: A previous version of this story attributed an ad about the Alaska National Guard sexual assault scandal to the Walker campaign. The ad referenced was produced by a political action committee not affiliated with the campaign. The story has been edited to reflect this.