Sarah Palin and small town politics

I don't want to wade too far into national politics on the blog, particularly on as divisive a subject as Sarah Palin, but I thought a New York Times article today on her tenure as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska is a good read.

Basically, if the words of former city officials is to be believed, Palin did a lot of questionable things. Things that if they were done by a local mayor, would have us running a lot of front-page articles.

For example, officials say that Palin raised the possibility about banning books at the local library. Later in her tenure, the town's librarian was fired, perhaps for resisting the plan:

Shortly after becoming mayor, former city officials and Wasilla residents said, Ms. Palin approached the town librarian about the possibility of banning some books, though she never followed through and it was unclear which books or passages were in question.

Ann Kilkenny, a Democrat who said she attended every City Council meeting in Ms. Palin's first year in office, said Ms. Palin brought up the idea of banning some books at one meeting. "They were somehow morally or socially objectionable to her," Ms. Kilkenny said.

The librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, pledged to "resist all efforts at censorship," Ms. Kilkenny recalled. Ms. Palin fired Ms. Emmons shortly after taking office but changed course after residents made a strong show of support. Ms. Emmons, who left her job and Wasilla a couple of years later, declined to comment for this article.

In 1996, Ms. Palin suggested to the local paper, The Frontiersman, that the conversations about banning books were "rhetorical."

Then, there were the loyalty tests:

Once in office, Ms. Palin asked many of Mr. Stein's backers to resign -- something virtually unheard of in Wasilla in past elections. The public works director, city planner, museum director and others were forced out. The police chief, Irl Stambaugh, was later fired outright.

Mr. Stambaugh lost a wrongful termination lawsuit against Ms. Palin. He did not respond to a request for an interview.

This one is a little bizarre to me. Down here in the lower 48, or at least California, city employees mostly have the good sense to not overtly support one candidate over the other. It is definitely not unheard of for one political faction down here to rid the city of officials who supported their adversaries (here's looking at you Montebello). But it definitely doesn't look great for Palin, or for any other city official who fires staff that were fans of the old regime.

Finally, there is the open partisanship that Palin displayed in running for a non-partisan office, something which we see very little of here in the SGV.

The traditional turning points that had decided municipal elections in this town of less than 7,000 people -- Should we pave the dirt roads? Put in sewers? Which candidate is your hunting buddy? -- seemed all but obsolete the year Ms. Palin, then 32, challenged the three-term incumbent, John C. Stein.

Anti-abortion fliers circulated. Ms. Palin played up her church work and her membership in the National Rifle Association. The state Republican Party, never involved before because city elections are nonpartisan, ran advertisements on Ms. Palin's behalf.

Anyway, I was a little surprised to see how controversial her tenure as a small town mayor was. It's obvious she was already thinking about higher office when she was there (the article details her efforts to hire a lobbyist and bring federal money to the town).

Of course, ultimately, Plain will be judged through the partisan lense: Republicans will minimize any infractions she might have committed as mayor, while Democrats will look to enlarge them.