Inside Sarah's Circle: 6. Meet Annette Kreitzer

This is the sixth in a series in which TX4P profiles the people close to Gov. Palin.

You may not remember her name, but if you watched the Republican National Convention, chances are you've heard her voice and seen her on television from the floor of the RNC:

"Mr. Chairman, I am Annette Kreitzer from the capital city of Juneau, Alaska. I have with me a few of my close friends. And apparently a few more of Sarah Palin's friends. Mr. Chairman, it's a great day to be a Republican. It's a great day to be a woman. It is a -- it is a great day to be a Republican woman. So Mr. Chairman, I am proud to move that Sarah Palin be nominated by acclimation by this convention for the office of vice president of the United States."

The motion was quickly seconded, and Mitch McConnell called for the voice vote. The crowd went wild, and Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, officially became the first woman ever nominated to be the vice presidential candidate of the Grand Old Party.

Annette Kreitzer serves the Palin administration as Commissioner of the Department of Administration, a position to which the governor appointed her in January, 2007. She had previously served the State of Alaska in various capacities for some 17 years. According to the DOA website:

Kreitzer began her career in government in 1983, working for a Fairbanks legislator. After a seven-year hiatus, she returned to Juneau as Committee Aide for the Senate Special Committee on Oil and Gas and then served as the Committee Aide for the Senate Labor & Commerce and Resources committees. Most recently Kreitzer served as Chief of Staff for former Lieutenant Governor Loren Leman.

She also served as Senate Finance Subcommittee staff for the Departments of Revenue, Environmental Conservation, and Natural Resources. Ms. Kreitzer was the Governor’s appointee to Rural CAP (2002 - 2007); represented the Alaska Senate on the National Conference of State Legislatures Chemical Weapons Study Group (1998-1999); and served on the Governor’s Safety Advisory Council (1994-1997).

Prior to entering government service, she worked as an Emergency Medical Services Squad Leader and EMT II, administrator for the Anna Livingston Memorial Clinic, a reporter and a freelance writer.

Commissioner Kreitzer's volunteer activities include service on the Bartlett Regional Hospital Board, the Aleutians East Borough Health Committee, teaching gun safety and assisting with Ducks Unlimited and National Rifle Association events. Ms. Kreitzer attended Wright State University with an emphasis on journalism and took additional courses through the University of Washington and University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Additional personal information about Annette Kreitzer is hard to find. On her Project Vote Smart page, for example, the entries for family, birth date, birthplace, home city and religion are left blank. We do know that she is married, and she and her husband make their home in Juneau. Like Gov. Palin, the Commissioner is an NRA member and an avid hunter.

Thanks to her motion from the floor of the convention to nominate Gov. Palin by acclimation, we also know that Commissioner Kreitzer is a Republican. As a delegate to the RNC, she was one of the first Palin supporters to challenge the nasty rumors spread by the Democrats that the governor had not been pregnant with her fifth child:

She remembers noticing extra weight on the governor before she announced her pregnancy and not really knowing how to handle that. "I'm not going to tell her, 'Governor, you look like you're putting on a few pounds.' " But Kreitzer couldn't imagine any other explanation. "She's 44, [so] pregnancy never came into my mind." Palin is usually so stylish, Kreitzer said, but at some point before she decided to reveal her pregnancy, Kreitzer noticed that she would often wear track suit tops. Later on, those tops made sense, Kreitzer noted.

The Anchorage Daily News also has this video of an interview with the Commissioner from the convention floor.

Commissioner of the Department of Administration is one of the most powerful positions in Alaska's state government. DOA oversees 11 divisions, over a thousand employees, and administratively supports two commissions. The services the Department is responsible for affect every other department in State government. Kreitzer's purview includes finance, motor vehicles, the Oil & Gas Conservation Commission and information technology, just to name a few of the more important areas.

Computerworld recently profiled Commissioner Kreitzer and conducted an extensive interview with her. The magazine credits her with turning around an IT department which it characterized as "rudderless" priot to Kreitzer's arrival on the scene. It's a revealing interview, though which we learn much about the commissioner, her leadership style and her working relationship with the governor:

"As the chief information officer and commissioner of the Department of Administration, part of my charge from the governor is to keep costs down. I am very familiar with her philosophy of smaller government. I don't have to be told something twice. So I have to work with other commissioners to help them understand why they should support what I want when their team doesn't want what I want, but their way would cost the state more money. I think it would be very easy to marginalize a chief information officer in government, even at a cabinet level, because there are so many other issues the commissioners are dealing with. But I believe the governor has my back. It comes down to prioritizing and focusing on what's the most important thing we need to accomplish. If you don't have that, you can't move forward in good times and efficiently use all your resources."

Like the governor, Commissioner Kreitzer is a no-nonsense leader who doesn't suffer fools lightly. Our favorite Kreitzer quote from the interview: "I learned how to deal with difficult people because I was one."

Other posts in this series:

Inside Sarah's Circle: 1. Meet Kristan Cole
Inside Sarah's Circle: 2. Meet Pam Pryor
Inside Sarah's Circle: 3. Meet Bill McAllister
Inside Sarah's Circle: 4. Meet Mike Nizich
Inside Sarah's Circle: 5. Meet David Murrow

- JP