Was Palin a Member of a Third Party?

As Governor Palin addressed the 2008 Alaskan Independence Party Convention. There are reports that she attended the 1994 convention as an AIP member.
****************************************

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE. The NY Times has issued a correction. It now appears that husband Todd Palin was a member of the AIP, but the reports that Sarah Palin was a member are unsubstantiated.
*****************************************
John McCain is counting on Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin to draw voters to his ticket. A ticket that is built on an independent-minded, reformist image. That image may be closer to reality than some Republican operatives are comfortable with when it comes to Palin. ABC News correspondent Jake Tapper cites many Alaskan observers who say that Todd and Sarah Palin got their political start as members of the Alaskan Independent Party in 1994. Palin switched to the Republican ticket by her 1996 run for Mayor of Wasilla.

The Alaskan Independent Party is called a "fringe" party by Tapper, but in the context of the times that is hardly fair. Walter Hinckel, a former Republican Governor, was elected Governor of Alaska on the AIP ticket in 1990, only four years from the Palin's involvement. Since that time the party has not been able to replicate that success, but at the time it must have seemed like a viable alternative to the corrupt Alaskan Republican establishment that Palin later took on from within the party.

The AIP was also described as "secessionist", a description that Tapper later points out is not really accurate. There is no doubt they are a states-rights party, and that they want the Federal Government to turn over its vast Alaskan holdings to the state. Their platform most closely lines up with the Constitution Party. In fact, since 2004 the Alaskan Independent Party has been the state affiliate of the national Constitution Party.