GOP's Northern Lights
With Their Governor at Center Stage, Alaskan Delegates Play a Supportive Role

By Kevin Merida
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 4, 2008

ST. PAUL, Sept. 3 Alaska's delegates to the Republican National Convention are staying at the drab Ramada hotel off I-494, within walking distance to the Mall of America, which is the good news. However, the accommodations for the home team of the party's vice presidential nominee are what delegation Chairman Chris Nelson delicately calls "challenging."

"The staff has been nice," he said, "but we have better Internet connectivity in Alaska than they do at that hotel."

As challenges go, taking up residence at an industrial-like facility in nearby Bloomington is nothing compared with the battle now being waged on behalf of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who accepted her party's nomination Wednesday night to the raucous roar of the conventioneers, among them some Alaskans shouting, "We love you, Sarah!" Alaska's 29 delegates have been on the front lines of defending and protecting her, fleshing out Palin's portrait with anecdotes of her reading to preschool children at a Baptist church and driving herself to work, pumping her own gas.

Both on the floor of the Xcel Energy Center, in meetings and at breakfasts, in the days before Palin took the stage to triumphantly make the case for herself on this historic ticket, the Alaskan delegates have found themselves besieged for information about her. Repeatedly, they have been asked to explain her. Members of other delegations drop by to chat and offer their prayers for Palin, and journalists stop by in search of telling detail. The previously unknown Rex Shattuck, a delegate and state legislative aide, said he has been interviewed more than 25 times by media outlets.

While the grander campaign strategy involves national party leaders taking to the airwaves to buttress the wisdom of John McCain's selection, no group of Republicans knows Palin better than the Alaska delegation. It includes delegates such as Melissa Stepovich, who runs the governor's Fairbanks office, and Cam Carlson, the activist described as Palin's "political godmother." There's Annette Kreitzer, her commissioner for administration, and Glenn Clary, the Republican state party treasurer who was put in charge of getting congratulatory flowers to Palin on Thursday.

There's Fred Brown, who said after Palin had wowed the hall with her speech: "It was a great moment for Sarah. It was a great moment for Alaska. Sarah displayed the same grit, determination, courage and personal charm that we in Alaska have come to appreciate."

Palin's Alaska posse has had a lot to talk about, given the storm that has engulfed the governor over a state ethics investigation, her 17-year-old daughter's pregnancy, her own delivery of a son with Down syndrome and assorted other questions about her personal life and effectiveness as governor.

The criticisms? Nelson calls them "mooseberries." Mooseberries? "It's what comes out the back end of a moose."

They expected her to nail her speech. Alaskan delegates have watched her jubilantly cheer on contestants at a snowmobile competition and have observed her in meetings with the presidents of Iceland and Mongolia.

Kreitzer felt particularly compelled to challenge the rumors that Palin had not been pregnant with her fifth child. She remembers noticing extra weight on the governor before she announced her pregnancy and not really knowing how to handle that. "I'm not going to tell her, 'Governor, you look like you're putting on a few pounds.' " But Kreitzer couldn't imagine any other explanation. "She's 44, [so] pregnancy never came into my mind." Palin is usually so stylish, Kreitzer said, but at some point before she decided to reveal her pregnancy, Kreitzer noticed that she would often wear track suit tops. Later on, those tops made sense, Kreitzer noted.

Some are of the opinion that the intense scrutiny is actually helpful to Palin and that she should respond to all queries and challenges. "It's good for her," said delegate Pete Higgins, a Fairbanks dentist. "It lets people know we have nothing to hide, and neither does she."

Delegate Fred Brown said after Palin had wowed the hall with her speech: "It was a great moment for Sarah. It was a great moment for Alaska. Sarah displayed the same grit, determination, courage and personal charm that we in Alaska have come to appreciate."

Carlson, however, thinks the "news media doesn't have enough to write about" and that Palin's political opponents are tilting at windmills.

"I think Democrats are terribly desperate," she said. "They're terrified. There's nothing they can uncover. And it's not just Democrats. There are Republicans who don't like her because she beat them. And some of them are in jail now."

Various state legislators have been under state and federal investigation for several years, resulting in jail time for four lawmakers, including the Republican House speaker. More recently, Alaska's senior senator, Ted Stevens, was indicted on corruption charges involving the failure to report gifts.

Critics have said Palin's political résumé is unremarkable for a vice presidential nominee: She has been governor since December 2006, ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 2002, and served two terms as mayor of Wasilla and two terms on the city council.

At a joint breakfast of the Alaska and Tennessee delegations Wednesday morning, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee jabbed at the Democratic ticket. He workshopped a new bit of political stand-up, pointing out that Palin had won more votes running for mayor of Wasilla than Joe Biden had won running for president.

Huckabee told the delegates that he has been asked often whether the out-of-wedlock teenage pregnancy of Bristol Palin would hurt her mother's standing with conservatives who vote on values issues. "Let me tell you something," said Huckabee, "it endears her to values voters." The most important thing, Huckabee added, is that "we're there for each other" and that "we offer unconditional love" to family members.

After the breakfast was over, the Alaska delegation met to discuss such matters as when they would catch their bus to the convention hall -- 3:30 or 4 p.m. -- and whether they would wear their hard hats and vests on the floor Wednesday night as they had done the previous night. The hats were to promote drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), and the vests illustrated caribou thriving nearby. "It was showing the compatibility of oil drilling and wildlife," said delegate Mead Treadwell, CEO of a technology venture-capital firm. While Palin and 70 percent of Alaskans favor drilling in ANWR, McCain does not. "That's fine," Treadwell said. Palin will help.

One delegate at the post-breakfast meeting sounded a warning about left-of-center bloggers. He told his fellow delegates to expect an increase in unfriendly online communicators on Palin's big night. "They're going to be much more aggressive than the mainstream media," the delegate said. "So they're going to try to throw you off your game."

Nick Stepovich wasn't worried much about that. He had his buttons on, was talking about going water-skiing, and generally enjoying the unfamiliar spotlight that had come to his state of nearly 700,000. "So, all of a sudden, put your buttons on, comb your hair differently; it's a big deal," said Stepovich, who owns a restaurant in Fairbanks.

The Alaskans have had a little fun here, despite the controversy that has swirled around their governor. The other day they joined Tennessee delegates at the Ramada bar to watch the UCLA-Tennessee college football game. The Bruins won. And some were considering checking out the Joke Joint Comedy Club, right off the Ramada lobby.

"I was talking to a guy named Ken down there," Stepovich recounted. "He said, 'You bring me 20 people, 10 bucks a head. You bring me 30 people, 8 bucks a head.' "

Stepovich was thinking that might not be a bad idea. The delegation, and its governor, could use some laughs.

But by the end of the night, the Alaskans were whooping it up over their pit-bull hockey-mom, the one who said the difference between those two is "lipstick."