But the FBI told the Atlantic Monthly no such check took place.
"In general, we do not do vetting for political campaigns except as it might regard investigations needed for security clearances," the magazine's Web site quoted John Miller, the chief FBI spokesman. If the agency had conducted a security check of Palin, it wouldn't have shared it with the campaign, the magazine said.
Previous vice presidential picks -- even those with long records in national politics -- have come under much closer scrutiny. In 2000, Democratic nominee Al Gore picked Joe Lieberman after a vetting process that lasted about 10 months, including poring through some 800 legal opinions Lieberman had been involved with as Connecticut Attorney General.
The New York Times reported that other surprises surfaced involving Palin: that she was a member for two years in the 1990s of the Alaskan Independence Party, which at times supported secession for Alaska, and that her husband Todd was arrested 22 years ago on a drunken-driving charge.
Wev Shea, the U.S. Attorney in Alaska during the administration of the first George Bush and a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2004, said he was contacted in March by a friend with connections to McCain and asked what he thought about Palin.
Shea, who advised Palin, including drafting a White Paper on ethics for her incoming administration, said he responded enthusiastically, but didn't believe that was part of a vetting process. Shea said the contact came as an e-mail from Daniel Bent, the former U.S. Attorney in Honolulu, after Palin attended a National Governors Association meeting in Washington, during which she met McCain. Aside for that one e-mail in March, Shea said, he received no follow-up questions.
Bent said he couldn't recall exactly how Palin's name came to him, but sent Shea's response to a confidante of McCain, Orson Swindle. Asked whether what he did could be considered vetting Palin, Bent said, "No, no. It was just passing it on to the McCain campaign."
Dan Seamount, who served with Palin on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, wasn't contacted. "I was taken by surprise just like everybody else," Seamount told the Daily News. Seamount, a geologist who still serves on the commission, said he would have never guessed Palin's future based on what she said at the time.
"She always told me that she thought that she wasn't going anywhere politically," Seamount said.
Palin's overriding interests at the time were about Alaska, Seamount continued. She expressed some concerns about terrorism, but if she had any opinions on the war in Iraq, he couldn't recall. Palin never talked about traveling outside the country, he said.
"She seemed mostly a local person," he said. "Most of what we talked about was Alaska issues."
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