No, the Palins are not rich, upper middleclass maybe. They lived in a very modest home in a reguler subdivision for years. Then recently moved to a much bigger and nicer home on a lake. Still not a mansion, just a nice home. Lake homes are not uncommon in their area, there are hundreds of lakes in the Wasilla, Big Lake, and Houston area. Tod has a good paying job on the slope, hard work and lots of time away from home. Those slope workers work like 10 and 14 hours a day for two to three weeks at a time then are sent home for a week or two depending on how many hours they worked. Tod also has a fishing permit, not sure if it is commercial or subsistence. It has been passed down through his family. Their kids went to public school. Track is the only one I know personally, and he is a very fine upstanding young man. I remember seeing him playing Hockey against my son's high school team. Sara and/or Tod were always there. I met some of the guys in his unit at the gym on Ft Wainwright, they all speak highly of him. Track is a well liked soldier on his own right.
Yes Sara hunts, just like most kids that are raised up here. Wasn't that long ago that Beef was too expensive to purchase up here. So our hamburgers, meatloafs, steaks, sausage, and hams, came from Moose Caribou, and Bears. Alaska custom is also as soon as a kid is old enough that kid goes out and shoots their own Moose or Caribou to suppliment the families larder. When there is more kids and they take more than the family needs the excess goes to Grandma and Grandpa, then to members of the community that are unable to get out and hunt, the elderly or sick. Nothing goes to waste. Same thing goes for fishing.
Sara is very anti corruption. That is what motivated her to get into politics in the first place. Since she took office we have had several state legislatures go to prision for bribery. Sara is the one that turned the FBI on to their corrupt ways.
Sara took on the Alaskan Republican party that was very much against her. Alaskans were fed up with the corruption so we came out in force and supported her. The incumbent Frank Murkowski was highly supported by the Republican party, Old Frank got 3% of the vote. Then she trounced the Democrats so badly they can't get over it in the general election. They are the ones telling all the lies and making up stuff to discredit her.