Palmer elects Johnson new mayor

PALMER — They weren’t exactly incumbents, but a political newcomer has prevailed against two city councilmen in the race for mayor.

As of Thursday afternoon, there were still 138 ballots left to count, so the results weren’t quite official. So far, Mike Chmielewski and Kevin Brown took 189 and 210 votes respectively, while DeLena M. Johnson won 308 votes.

“I think it was very decisive for the people in Palmer,” Johnson said. “There are a lot of people that wanted to see something a little bit different.”

Johnson operates the Palmer Museum of History and Art and ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility, saying the city needs to reign in its spending. Chmielewski and Brown said spending wasn’t nearly as bad as Johnson said it was.

Johnson credited door-to-door campaigning with her victory.

“I talked to a lot of people and I listened to a lot of people. I was talking about getting the people more involved with the town and having the mayor’s office be more responsible with the people as well as taking responsibility for the budget,” she said.

She’s looking forward to having the election certified this week and her swearing in ceremony Monday. She will be taking over for John Combs, who did not run for mayor this year. She plans to hit the ground running.

“Well I have to,” Johnson said. “We’re going right into the budget cycle, right into the budget season.”

In the city council race where three candidates were vying for two seats, the odd-man-out was Mike Madar.

Edna DeVries and incumbent Kathrine Vanover won the two open seats with 362 and 273 votes respectively. Madar took in only 168 votes. Tom Braund, who actually dropped out of the race early on to instead run for borough assembly, a race he also later dropped out of, took 113 votes.

Vanover said she felt people just knew her well and therefore voted for her.

“I think they looked at my record and they know me. This is a small town. You can’t not be known,” Vanover .

DeVries is a former council member, former state legislator, former borough assemblywoman, former borough mayor and former Republican National Committeewoman for Alaska.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.