Was it just a coincidence that the 1994 Alaskan Independence Party Statewide Convention was held in Wasilla?

Question

Lynette Clark, the chairman of the AIP, tells ABC News that Palin and her husband Todd were members in 1994, even attending the 1994 statewide convention in Wasilla. She was AIP secretary at the time.

“We are a state’s rights party,” says Clark, a self-employed goldminer. The AIP has “a plank that challenges the legality of the Alaskan statehood vote as illegal and in violation of United Nations charter and international law.”

Answer 1

updated 7:48 a.m. ET, Wed., Sept. 3, 2008

ST. PAUL, Minnesota - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's husband, Todd, twice registered as a member of the Alaskan Independence Party (15 years ago), a fierce states' rights group that wants to turn all federal lands in Alaska back to the state

Sarah Palin herself was never a member of the party, according to state officials.

Todd Palin's party affiliation emerged Tuesday as the latest issue confronting the McCain campaign as it prepared to introduce Gov. Palin to the Republican National Convention.

Voter registration records and past news reports, however, show Palin never registered as a member of the Independence Party, and backed Steve Forbes' presidential campaign in 2000, not Buchanan.

"Supporters of Barack Obama are engaged in an unfortunate and nasty smear campaign," McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said, specifically citing issues related to Palin's politics.

Gail Fenumiai, director of the Alaska Division of Elections, said Todd Palin twice registered under the Alaskan Independence Party — in 1995 and 2000. Some members of the party have advocated secession from the United States, though THAT IS NOT A GOAL LISTED IN THE PARTY'S PLATFORM.

Voter registration records show Sarah Palin registered in May 1982 as a member of the Republican Party and has not changed her affiliation. Todd Palin has been registered undeclared since 2002, Fenumiai said.

Palin did address the Alaskan Independence Party's state convention by video earlier this year, welcoming the party to Fairbanks.

"Your party plays an important role in our state's politics," she said in the video, which is posted on the party's Web site. "I've always said that competition is so good, and that applies to political parties as well."

"Dexter Clark, husband of Lynette and a vice chairman of the Alaska Independence Party, said that when his wife told reporters that Palin had been an AIP member she was "acting on information from Mark Chryson," the party's regional chair for Wasilla, Palin's hometown. The 1994 convention was held in Wasilla, where Palin was a city councilmember at the time. Chryson "has repeatedly said to me personally and my wife, Lynette, and groups of party members at large, that at that 1994 convention, Sarah and Todd Palin attended and registered as members," Dexter Clark told Mother Jones.

Asked how Palin could have been a member, when state records did not indicate Palin ever registered as an AIP member, Chyrson, in an interview with Mother Jones, backed off his account. "What could have been the confusion”her husband was a member of the party. He was at the convention. She could have been considered, it might have been thought she was a member then." Talking Points Memo has reported that Todd Palin was a member of the AIP from 1995 to 2002, with the exception of a short period in 2000 when he was undeclared.

Chyrson said he did not remember seeing Sarah Palin at the 1994 convention: "I don't, no. I was working behind the scenes. Back then I was only vaguely familiar with her. I would not have recognized her. I had just met her. I probably would not have recognized her." He added that Sarah Palin did not play "an active role in the party" or to speak out for its causes.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/0...

Answer 2

She has since retracted that statement and apologized for it...

Sarah Palin has been a registered Republican since her 18th birthday... get the facts straight, he being a Fundamentalist Christian, an anti-choicer, and all around conservative suffice my opposition to her candidacy...

Answer 3

Oh, who cares?  What's your point?

Way to cut and paste.  Congrats!

UGH!