Yeah, Chafee is the only "indie" to join a party halfway through his tenure that I can think of.
@Cal
Keep in mind that Palin used to be seen as a fairly populist upstart in the Alaska GOP. If you look back through time (on this forum as well) a lot of Democrats said she was one of the "best GOP governors" for working against the oil companies.
I imagine Walker will govern similarly to Palin - against the Alaska elite (figures like the Murkowski family and Treadwell), and economically populist. It is surprising how left GOP governors in red states can go if they frame everything they do as "against the Washington/urban elite".
This frames the Palin endorsement in a very different light. That makes a lot more sense now why she did that and it probably did swing the race to Walker, as Parnell could barely reserve any air time and I'm sure her endorsement swung a few Republican faithful.
As unpopular as this sounds, in another context, had Palin been a competent state executive who was never plucked for vice president, re-elected as Alaska Governor, she could have been a real contender for the Presidency who would have won.
I doubt that. But she might have been the one running against Begich this year as a popular outgoing governor had things been less maverick-y six years ago.
