ANCHORAGE  When Gov. Sarah Palin meets Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Thursday in the vice-presidential debate, even her fellow Alaskans might hear for the first time some of her views on health care reform, education policy and other issues of state government.

In her 22 months in office, Ms. Palin has not addressed many of those matters in a significant way, pursuing a narrower agenda rooted in Alaska’s resource-based economy.

Ms. Palin has approved increased spending for education and the elderly, sued the federal government for listing the polar bear as a threatened species, and pushed for a bill that would have reduced state regulation of new medical facilities.

But by and large, oil and gas issues have dominated her tenure.

“You can’t think of another area where there’s been another drive or initiative coming out of the administration with the same level of intensity,” said Scott Goldsmith, a professor of economics at the Institute of Social and Economic Research at the University of Alaska Anchorage.