This became clear with the announcement of the partnership between ExxonMobil Corp. and TransCanada Corp. To be sure, this could be a big deal toward getting a prosperous gas pipeline built in the state in the coming years.

But the big question at the press conference in Anchorage June 11 to discuss the agreement was, “Where’s Sarah?”

In what could be one of the biggest announcements to affect the state since Gov. Palin was named the GOP vice presidential nominee, Palin was nowhere near Alaska. She was in Texas, on a stopover from a trip to New York.

Palin said she stopped in Texas to meet with the heads of the two companies, an effort to meet them personally to ensure all are on the same page. That’s fine, but her administration hailed this partnership as a huge step to bringing Alaska’s gas to market.

If it was such a big deal, shouldn’t the governor have come home to host the party?

Her deputy commissioner of Natural Resources, Marty Rutherford, did. Rutherford left Texas, where she visited the notables along with Palin, hopped on a plane and flew all night to be present in Alaska to attend the press conference making the announcement.

Why couldn’t Palin do the same? You’ll recall, this is the same woman who went into labor while giving a speech, finished up, then traveled across the country so she could be home to deliver her baby.

This is not the first time Alaskans have felt they are lacking leadership. Lawmakers often said Palin was absent during key times during the previous legislative session.

Since Palin returned from the presidential campaign trail last fall, it’s been obvious she is seeking a bigger spotlight. Sarah has outgrown Alaska, the largest state in the nation.

Since the November presidential election, Palin has been a constant figure in news headlines, granting personal interviews to national media outlets from across the country.

Palin’s office said that since the first of the year, “at least 57 interviews were done with Alaska media and at least 11 were done with out of state media.”

Getting an official listing of those interviews requires a public records request, according to the governor’s office. But those Alaska interviews include press conferences, where several reporters ask questions at once. She’s held conferences this year on such major issues as the state budget, the federal stimulus money and on energy proposals.

A quick, albeit unscientific survey of the state’s larger media outlets suggests that in the past six months there have been few — if any — one-on-one interviews where more than a couple of targeted questions were answered.

Meanwhile, there were at least four interviews with national broadcast media within a few days of the Exxon/TransCanada announcement.

That’s not entirely surprising. Palin has long shunned media outlets that have been critical of her or her policies, including the Journal.

But the governor seems to go out of her way to keep herself in the national spotlight, and does so in ways that bring attention to the state that is often less than favorable: an on-again, off-again, on-again speaking engagement at a national GOP fundraiser in Washington; the whole daughter Bristol/Levi Johnson soap opera; and more recently the feud with entertainer David Letterman (which greatly distracted the gasline partnership announcement).

Those things were distracting, and frankly were a waste of time. Gov. Palin needs to decide soon what she’s going to do with the next year: run the state of Alaska or run for national office.

If it’s the former, she should buckle down to her pre-presidential campaign days and truly lead the work to solve Alaska’s pressing issues - for starters a state deficit, declining oil production, rising energy costs and the Third-World living arrangements found in half the state.

If it’s the latter, then by all means, she should continue as she has for the past nine months. But she could give Alaskans the courtesy knowing whether we have a leader or if we must continue to flounder on until the next election.

This article published in The Alaska Star on Thursday, July 2, 2009.