Before she ran for office, she was pretty active. Thats when I was there. I can remember fighting with our then Editor to have the paper cover the TEA type events that happened back then, TEA or not. Because, natch, no one wanted to give press to that ‘right wing garbage’.
Eventually they had to. Small, local type stuff that got bigger. County level. Some state (We were a regional paper). She ended up with notable coverage overall. It helped her career along, so it is definitely there.
On the gay thing or abortion, memory fails me. But the articles will have it if it exists.