Sean Parnell July 2009, when Governor Palin resigned her position, Parnell became governor and finished the term of office. In 2010, Parnell won a four-year term as governor in his own right. In 2005, Parnell ran and won in the Republican primary to become lieutenant governor. Afterward, in the general election, he was paired with Sarah Palin as her running mate. In Alaska, the lieutenant governor candidates run separately from the governor candidates in the primary election race, but after the primaries, the nominees for governor and lieutenant governor run together as a slate. Palin and Parnell were elected with 48.33% of
Alaska one week before the election. The conviction was set aside in April 2009 after evidence of prosecutorial misconduct emerged. Republican Frank Murkowski held the state's other senatorial position. After being elected governor in 2002, he resigned from the Senate and appointed his daughter, State Representative Lisa Murkowski as his successor. She won full six-year terms in 2004, 2010 and 2016. Alaska is not divided into counties, as most of the other U.S. states, but it is divided into "boroughs". Many of the more densely populated parts of the state are part of Alaska's 16 boroughs, which function somewhat similarly to