Anne Kilkenny

Anne Kilkenny is a politically active resident of Wasilla, whose personal insights about Sarah Palin played a significant role in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election. On August 31, 2008, Anne Kilkenny wrote a frank letter to answer friends' questions about Republican Vice-Presedential nominee Sarah Palin. The letter, from the viewpoint of a Wasilla native, quickly garnered the attention of media outlets all over the world.

Within a few days Ms. Kilkenny, a "good citizen of Wasilla", had been quoted on the front page of the New York Times, and interviewed by the Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Her letter and story were quickly picked up by other major domestic and global print, radio, and TV media outlets. media.

Ms. Kilkenny was one of 100 or so people who rallied at the Wasilla library to protest Mrs. Palin's alleged plan to ban books, an event she mentions in her letter.

Ms. Kilkenny's letter describes a personal view of her experience of Sara Palin as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. The letter contains both praise for Palin ("She's smart"), as well as criticism. Overall, the letter is critical of Palin, and characterizes her mayoral term as one in which taxes were raised 38%, expenditures increased 38%, and debt was increased from zero to $22 million. The letter contains numerous personal observations of Palin made by Ms. Kilkenny, such as "gutsy: absolutely!...fiscal conservative: not by my definition!".

The full contents of Ms. Kilkenny's letter about Sara Palin were published on thousands of blogs, and by a number of major news outlets. The full letter can currently be seen at the Anchorage Daily News.

Ms. Kilkenny's voice became a significant viewpoint in the national discussion of the presidential election. This may be in part due to Mrs. Palin having been relatively unknown by most Americans before her nomination was announced on August 29th, 2008 just one week before Ms. Kilkenny's letter came to light.

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