 In that election, he finished far behind Sarah Palin (who would go on to win the governorship), but also far ahead of one-term incumbent governor Frank Murkowski, by then deeply unpopular amongst Alaskans.John Emerson Binkley was born on February 4, 1953 in Fairbanks, Alaska, the youngest of three sons and third of four children born to Mary (née Hall) and Charles Madison Binkley, Jr., better known as Jim Binkley.A graduate of Lathrop High School, Binkley attended Western Michigan University before returning to Bethel, Alaska to start a river freight business.