"This is a really nice person, and she's disarming in that way," said George Carte, 67, a retired geophysicist who was mayor of neighboring Palmer when Palin was mayor of Wasilla.
"I was very impressed with her as mayor," said Carte. "She did some housecleaning with her department heads."
Meanwhile, Palin's home town of Wasilla, Alaska breaks out with Palin Fever:
Down the highway in the Frontier Mall, Patrick Carney Jr. said that when he heard the news on television a day before, "it knocked me flat." Carney comes from a large Democratic family, but he's wavering now.
Brother Mark Carney, who was in high school with Palin and works unloading freight, said Palin's addition to the ticket "changed my vote. I think it's good taking someone who's lived like a common person."
"She's highly principled. She may be from the other party, but she's very honest," said their father, Patrick Carney Sr., a former Democratic state legislator ..Ed Kalnins, senior pastor of Palin's Pentecostal church, Assembly of God, described Palin as tenacious. "Once she understands a truth, she bites down on it and won't let go of the truth," he said ..
But not everyone in town is a fan.
Irl Stambaugh was Wasilla's first police chief. When she was on the council, he said, they tussled over the issue of closing time for bars. He wanted to change closing time from 5 a.m to 2 a.m., but Palin thought that would infringe on business owners. When she became mayor, she fired him.
"I think it was a personality conflict," said Stambaugh.