2014 Alaska gubernatorial election and Mallott merged their campaigns to appear on the November ballot as a single independent ticket, which the Alaska Democratic Party endorsed. On this ticket, Walker ran for governor with Mallott as his running mate. Both candidates' former running mates withdrew. Parnell was considered vulnerable, as reflected in his low approval ratings. The consensus among "The Cook Political Report", "Governing", "The Rothenberg Political Report", "Sabato's Crystal Ball", "Daily Kos Elections", and others was that the contest was a tossup. Former Republican governor Sarah Palin, who had praised Parnell as her successor when she resigned in 2009, endorsed Walker and Mallott,
Alaska Public Safety Commissioner dismissal for a time, the acting city manager, of Kenai. She had previously nominated Kopp in March 2007 to the Alaska Judicial Council, to which he was later confirmed. (He resigned on July 13, 2008.) The Alaska Judicial Council recommends judges for selection in the state. According to the "Anchorage Daily News", Kopp "was a rising star in Alaska's Christian conservative movement." In Kenai, Kopp had been previously suspended and investigated for sexual harassment of an employee. Palin said she believed, when she named him on July 11, that the investigation had cleared him, and that she learned that Kopp had