Wasilla still supports hometown girl Palin

WASILLA, Alaska, July 5 (UPI) -- Soon-to-be-former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin still commands support in her hometown of Wasilla, loyal followers said.

Hundreds of her fellow Alaskans -- including the governor's mother, father and daughter Piper -- gathered Saturday on the Fourth of July in the Anchorage suburb to cheer Palin, who announced abruptly Friday she would step down as governor before her term ends in 2010, The Washington Post reported.

Attendees told the newspaper they were upset by intense media scrutiny of Palin, saying that and unrelenting political attacks on her by both Democratic and Republican rivals had become too much for her and her family to bear.

"We are just sick about it," Sue Ann Roesing, wearing a stars-and stripes scarf, told the Post. "They have smeared her so. It got to be too much."

"The attacks were mind-boggling," added her husband, Hank Roesing. "For people who live in Wasilla, it feels personal."

Palin's father Chuck Heath told the newspaper he was not surprised that some are speculating a criminal investigation of Palin was in the offing.

"It's new to me if that is true," he said. "People are always saying something."