Mayor of wasilla is a pretty obscure position. then quitting as Gov. makes Palin a short term politician.
O’Donnell has been accused of living off her previous campaign funds. She probably has a lot more in her bank account now.
Even Fox has no interest in her. Apparently they CAN be embarrassed.
I’m figuring Alvin Greene didn’t spend a lot of time shopping for houses in Washington.
My wife once ran for councillor in the city we lived in in Australia. She knew she had no chance of being elected – she was second on the party’s ticket, in a ward where only one person from the party could possibly be elected. So, she didn’t quit her day job 
Unlike CNN who hired Client 9 (disgraced New York Governor Eliot Spitzer).
Jeez, why run at all when it’s actually and legally impossible to win?
A lot of times those candidates are tight with the party leadership and agree to take one for the team – be the opponent in a hopeless race to keep it from being a springboard for a nutcase like Alvin Greene or Christine O’Donnell who can actually embarass the party in other races.
In those cases, being the losing candidate can be good for your day job. If not exactly quid pro quo, at least in terms of goodwill/favors you can call in later.
Virtually nobody who runs for office has no other job. You just return to your old job, or get a new job if you quit in order to run.
I suspect that **Giles **meant it was impossible that his wife’s political party would secure a large enough percentage of the vote to get two members elected, rather than it was legally impossible.
Admittedly if Palin had resigned after being caught having sex with callgirls, it would have been a much more interesting story.
John Ashcroft became US Attorney General after losing his US Senate seat.
In Australia, there’s single transferable vote. I imagine this was to show that the party had plans for if the electorate suddenly turned their direction, & to look less pathetic than if their list had only one name.
As others have said, it was legally possible for her to win, but politically impossible. The ward elected 3 councillors using PR, and historically the party got about 25% of the vote in local government elections – so one councillor was practically certain to be elected, but a second had a microscopic chance. One reason to run more than one candidate was to get your candidates in a group on the ballot paper, rather than with the miscellaneous category at the end, so even independents ran as teams of two or three.
If the party Giles’ wife was running for won one seat and the guy in the first position hadn’t been able to accept the position, Giles’ wife would have had to leave her day job.
Think Tanks. This is where the party workers hang out when they aren’t in power. Working on policy and strategy until the next election. The actual candidates probably go back to their day jobs in some cases, or linger on getting paid by a think tank or doing speaking engagements if they are well know or influential enough.