Palin Says She Represents 'Joe Six-Pack'

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin portrayed herself Tuesday as a champion of everyday people while noting her family's stock portfolio took a $20,000 hit last week.

"It's time that normal Joe Six-pack American is finally represented in the position of vice presidency," the Republican vice presidential candidate told radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt.

Palin said if she and John McCain win, they will "put government back on the side of the people of Joe Six-pack like me."

Palin said she and her husband, Todd, have been affected by the economic downturn.

"I know what Americans are going through," she said a day after a record 778-point plunge on Wall Street. "Todd and I, heck, we're going through that right now even as we speak, which may put me again kind of on the outs of those Washington elite who don't like the idea of just an everyday, working-class American running for such an office."

Palin makes $125,000 yearly as governor, and her husband makes about $90,000 a year combined from his commercial fishing business and his part-time job as a production operator on the North Slope.

Palin said her husband's 401(k) retirement account lost probably $20,000 in the last week as the market dropped.

According to the most recent state financial disclosure forms, filed March 10, 2008, the Palins had about $164,699 in a private investment account and $198,102 in a separate retirement account.

"The relatively low number of investments that we have, looking at the hit that we're taking, probably $20,000 last week in his 401(k) plan that was hit. I'm thinking, geez, the rest of America, they're facing the exact same thing that we are," she said.

Palin was asked to clarify why things are tight for her family.

"It's just the great financial crisis that America is in, as our savings accounts also, and a 401(k), they're being hit," she said.

She didn't explain how her savings account was being affected.