ELECTION 2008:

Claim Palin was union member hard to pin down

Obvious sources don’t know, but that isn’t end of the story

Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Latest campaign news

John McCain and Sarah Pailin

Why no principled conservative would seriously contend that Palin belongs on the ticket (10-5-2008)
Palin connects in Northern Nevada (9-15-2008)
Palin reaches out to Nevada Republicans (9-13-2008)

When Sen. John McCain introduced Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate in August, he described her as a former union member, someone who “understands the problems, the hopes and the values of working people.”

The billing would become important. The McCain campaign initially fumbled on the issue of the economy and is now trying to portray itself as in touch with American workers in the wake of a Wall Street meltdown.

During his announcement, McCain said Palin “knows what it’s like to worry about mortgage payments and health care and the cost of gasoline and groceries.” He also mentioned her husband’s membership in the Steelworkers Union, working part-time for BP in the oil fields of the North Slope.

But the details of Palin’s former union membership have proved elusive. What union did she belong to? When? What was her trade? In a politically active union town such as Las Vegas, her labor affiliation is a matter of some interest.

E-mail and telephone inquiries by the Sun to the McCain campaign’s Western regional office went unanswered last week.

So calls were placed to the national campaign headquarters. We were directed back to the Western regional office, which was no more responsive than the first time.

Palin’s office in Alaska was a bit more helpful — but only added to the mystery. “I don’t believe the governor has ever been a member of a union,” said her spokeswoman, Kate Morgan. That is, she said, “to the best of my knowledge.”

Try the presidential campaign office, she suggested. Further inquiries to the national campaign led to an e-mail from a spokeswoman who said Palin was in fact once a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

There was no elaboration, and follow-up queries about what work Palin performed as a union member went unanswered.

By now we were reaching out to Kaylene Johnson, author of the best-selling “Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned the Political Establishment Upside Down.” Although she was unavailable, traveling for a publicity tour, a spokeswoman offered to research the subject. She e-mailed back, saying Palin was never a union member.

We called IBEW Local 1547 in Anchorage, the only electrical workers local in Alaska. A spokeswoman there said Palin was a member but referred all other questions to the local’s business manager, Larry Bell.

We’re still waiting to hear back from Larry Bell.

On Friday, the international electrical workers union, based in Washington, said a search of its membership database, using Palin’s maiden and married names, failed to find the Alaska governor.

On Monday, Jim Spellane, the union’s media director, corrected the record. Palin, he said, was in fact a member of Local 1547 for nine months in the late 1980s, from September 1987 through January 1988 and again from September through December 1988.

What was the nature of her work? Don’t know, Spellane said.

But maybe something can be gleaned from the fact that her membership seemed to coincide with her tenure as a sports reporter for two Alaska TV stations.

The union, he said, has at times represented on-air talent in the broadcast industry.

The union was hardly eager to embrace Palin, and has faced these sorts of questions before, notably when Vice President Dick Cheney boasted he had once been a union lineman.

“We would be much happier if some of our alumni would have absorbed some of the union’s principles and had a little more respect for working people,” Spellane said.

Sun researcher Rebecca Clifford contributed to this story.

Discussion: 21 comments so far…

By johnevegas

10/7/08 at 6:10 a.m.

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The McCain campaign brings new meaning and depth to the word "spin". It's kind of sad really, for him and for those who would vote for him, that the truth just wont cut it.

It's looking like McCain would use as many bald face lies as Bush. That's quite a milestone!
By BillinTexas

10/7/08 at 6:38 a.m.

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I'm guessin' that bein' in that there Union allowed her to connect the cables to her video cam'ra so's she could make the pick-chers come out of the ole TV, ya know? But I'm sure bettin' it made her understand the plight of the workin' folks a whole lot better.
By UNLVStud

10/7/08 at 10:21 a.m.

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"During his announcement, McCain said Palin 'knows what it's like to worry about mortgage payments and health care and the cost of gasoline and groceries.'"

Too bad McSame doesn't know what that is like. He has at least 7 houses, 13 cars, and a sugar momma that pays all the bills.

McSame is totally out of touch with the problems and concerns of Americans in the 21st century.
By jfnance32

10/7/08 at 10:58 a.m.

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Obama needs to buy another house.

Oooops....his friend who helped him buy his first house is in jail.

That guy was the biggest crook in South Chicago and was his core fundraiser for years.

Must be nice to crooks like that for friends.
By redferret

10/7/08 at 11:27 a.m.

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Really love how republicans are going so far off the rails that they don't even back up their candidate any more. All it is any more is smears against Obama. Keep smearing, and McCain's polls keep slipping.
Keep flailing guys, but don't worry. In less than four weeks Obama will win, McCain will lose, and you can all switch gears to bashing the Obama presidency over nothing.
By jfnance32

10/7/08 at 12:11 p.m.

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Redferrent.....sorry to break the news to you but there is nothing being posted here or in the original letter that praises Obama.

All the "pro-obama" people are just bashing McCain/Palin. I did not see any "back up their candidate any more" from the Obama crowd.

I guess you drank too much kool-aid this morning.
By redferret

10/7/08 at 12:16 p.m.

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Ah contretemps, these are defenses against the landslide of republican smears against Obama. You guys opened this can of worms, and now it seems like it will be your undoing.
Dems are through doing the BS Obiwan Kenobi, "If you strike me down, I'll just be more powerful." It's been time to strike back. You guys opened the negative door way early, and now you guys are sorry that all of your skeletons in the closet are getting aired out.
By jfnance32

10/7/08 at 12:22 p.m.

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LOL.....you admit that your first point is all wrong.

Now you change your argument.

Also, this is a pretty weak attack anyway.
By PatriciaLV

10/7/08 at 2:26 p.m.

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Actually, Jim, you were the one who went off-topic ..... as usual.

All you EVER post is anti-Obama nonsense in the manner of a four-year-old a la "NYAHH NYAHH NYAHH".

I've NEVER seen you promote your candidate. NEVER.
By jfnance32

10/7/08 at 3:12 p.m.

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I never seen you promote anything much less promote for Obama.

I looked at most of the 300+ of your postings and I can not find one where you actually praise Obama. It is very rare for any of your postings to mention the word "Obama".

About 90% of your postings are direct attacks on other bloggers and they rarely have any substance. They are usually just full of insults directed at bloggers or people. The only time that insult another blogger is in response to an insult from them.

Here are some of my postings promoting McCain.

http://southernhighlandshomenews.com/new...

http://m.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/sep/2...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/sep...

P.S. Your insults are not very good. I put them on a 3rd grade level. But keep working on it. I sure that you will improve and perhaps get to the 6th grade.
By redferret

10/7/08 at 3:40 p.m.

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Hey, ummm.... how's that electoral college map looking? Maybe a little too blue? Maybe some of the bigger need to win states have swung behind Obama? Maybe McCain's hoping to syphon 1 vote out of Maine? Maybe he can pull it off at last minute? ahhh, you guys'll be fine. By my count we're looking at 369 to 179. It'll probably be more like 328ish to 210, Obama.
By PatriciaLV

10/7/08 at 4:04 p.m.

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Why is it that you cannot even construct your own argument? Rather, you have to take someone else's words and present them (twisted) as your own.

Did it ever occur to you that maybe Obama isn't my first choice of candidate? No, I don't suppose you have the capacity to think in anything other than black and white; no shades of gray in your world, eh?

I don't like either candidate and while I will vote for him, I cannot "tout" someone who I do not believe is the best candidate his party could have nominated. If you've really "looked at most of the 300+ of [my] postings" you'd have noticed that I said that a few times.

And yes, I'm just as bad as you are in that; you are "ANYTHING BUT DEMS" and I am "ANYTHING BUT REPUBS". Pot, kettle, black. I would love to select the "None of the above candidates" option, but throwing my vote away isn't the answer to the hell that the Bush administration has wreaked on the world; a hell that McMaverick is sure to continue.

The really sad commentary here is that you are all too indicative of today's society in general - intellectually lazy. And for whatever it's worth, I fall into that category entirely more than I care to admit.
By jfnance32

10/7/08 at 6:01 p.m.

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You are so funny.

You main posting before this was to bang me for not promoting McCain at all which was false. I do promote McCain but not as much as you must want me to.

Now, you are stating that you are OK with people not promoting a candidate.

I guess you are arguing with yourself now.

I wonder which one of you will win.
By PatriciaLV

10/7/08 at 6:19 p.m.

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Do you EVER even TRY to understand anything anyone writes, Jim? Or is it just so much easier to bleat?

I give up.
By nkls3713

10/7/08 at 7:20 p.m.

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by REPUBLICANS FOR OBAMA

MCCAIN WAS NO TOP GUN AVIATOR AS HIS SKILLS AND JUDGMENT WERE QUESTIONED BY NAVY OFFICIALS AFTER A SERIES OF ACCIDENTS.

MCCAIN CAN'T BE TRUSTED BY CONSERVATIVES.

MCCAIN WILL PUSH YUCCA MOUNTAIN ON NEVADA.

MCCAIN WILL DO AWAY WITH SOCIAL SECURITY.

MCCAIN WILL CONTINUE THE DISASTROUS POLICIES OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION THAT HAVE PUSHED THIS COUNTRY TO THE BRINK OF A NEW DEPRESSION.

VOTE FOR A NEW DIRECTION. VOTE FOR OBAMA.
By Teaser

10/7/08 at 10:38 p.m.

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Oooops....his friend who helped him buy his first house is in jail.
------------------
Gosh, so is Keating. Now what?
By Democrats08

10/8/08 at 12:47 a.m.

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Obama is so concise on what needs to be done and considerate of the poor and middle class. McCain is full of garbage, his defense of his supporting the failure Bush in his own words "over 90% of the time" is to shamelessly point out those same failed policies he helped create by giving the wealthy more huge tax cuts to fix it all? He would invest all our money left, on tax cuts for his wealthy friends, all we have left on the waste product Iraq war and have a domestic "spending freeze" that would paralyze America here at home for good. One of the main reasons America is in the trouble we are in because the Bush administration instead of investing in the American people with more Domestic spending, invested in Iraq and tax cuts for the wealthy instead! Obama will reverse all of that and get us out of Iraq taking those tax cuts and wasted war spending and re-invest that money in job creation, energy, health care, housing and everything Americans desperately need right NOW. It's obvious why more and more Americans are turning away from the failed policies and ideas of McCain/Bush and moving to get behind Obama.
By azsk8fan

10/8/08 at 1:37 p.m.

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A woman I know works at the airport and long before McCain was running for president she had occasion to 'deal' with him (in a sense) as a customer of the airline she works for. She said he was rude and arrogant and wishes she had known he was going to run for President because if she had known she said she would have told him it might behoove him to be a little 'nicer' so as not to alienate any votes. Because of her experience during their encounter he has lost her vote. Just sharing this info that was passed on to me today....
By billm

10/8/08 at 6:44 p.m.

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I agree w/the mccain supporters who have been commenting about this article in that nobody gains from all of the negative attacks on the candidates.Lets just all exercise our right to vote this november and in jan 09 lets all come together as one and support the new president of the united states barack obama.mccain could move to alaska and replace ted stevens as senator that way he could really get to know his vp pick in case he decides to run again in 2012.see how easy it is to make a statement w/o being negative.go barack,go cowboys.
By spartacus84

10/8/08 at 7:04 p.m.

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Sarah Six-Pack was in the winking union.
By redferret

10/8/08 at 7:58 p.m.

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I love how most republicans hate unions, but then when convenient try to say they're for them.