Palmer Mayor announces run for Borough Mayor

PALMER — Palmer Mayor Edna DeVries is running for Mat-Su Borough Mayor, again. DeVries joins former Wasilla Mayor Bert Cottle as candidates who have verbally stated their intent to run for Mayor during the Borough elections on Nov. 2.

At the Palmer City Council meeting on Tuesday, the council discussed little business, and allowed for over an hour and six minutes of public comment during the hour and 24 minute meeting. Of the 22 people who rose to speak during each public comment section, 18 spoke in favor of DeVries.

“I feel that what we have going on in Palmer, you know the sense of community and good things regarding Palmer and keeping us free, that I want to see that spread throughout the borough,” said DeVries. “Palmer is a great place and the Mat-Su Borough both are great places to live and I’m happy to be here.”

DeVries began her career as an elected official in 1979, serving on the Council in Palmer for 12 years over three separate stints. DeVries has also been elected as Borough Mayor, a member of the Borough Assembly, and to the Alaska Senate. DeVries currently serves as the secretary of the Alaska Republican Party and previously worked for the city of Palmer as a treasurer and finance director.

“Being part of the city council government is kind of a thankless job sometimes and several weeks ago a bunch of community members got together and wanted to know how we could show our appreciation and so we got together and put together a certificate of appreciation that we would like to present to our mayor,” said John Miller. “We the undersigned wish to express our sincere gratitude. Well done now good and faithful servant presented to Edna Bell DeVries and it’s presented by women’s groups, political organizations, city council members, senator community Palmer landowners and business owners.”

Following Miller’s presentation of the certificate to DeVries, the nearly 50 people in the crowded council chambers at Palmer City Hall burst into a standing ovation. Applause was often heard among verbal agreements during the public comments, however the crowd booed and hissed at former Councilman Dave Fuller, who called for DeVries’ resignation with his comments.

“I as a voter in the City of Palmer politely request that you resign your position as Mayor of the City of Palmer so that you could professionally seek higher office full time versus splitting it with your duties as mayor of the City of Palmer. With all due respect, over the past year, it has become obvious that you have used your position as Mayor to forward a personal political agenda that is based on your desire to attain higher office versus the best interests of the residents of the City of Palmer. You have illustrated this in your numerous requests from outside the city to support your partisan platform,” said Fuller. “If you are truly intent of gaining higher office to serve the voters of the Mat Su Valley, then please, do the right thing and step down as Mayor and focus on all of the constituents you want to earn votes from and stop using Palmer as a campaign tool.”

There were 25 speakers offered the opportunity to give their comment to the council, three of whom spoke during each of the two public comment sections. Of the hour and six minutes devoted to public comment, 79 percent of the time was devoted to speaking in support of DeVries run for borough Mayor.

“That’s very edifying and I’m very appreciative of that but I know that tomorrow could come a decision I would make that maybe they wouldn’t agree, you know how that goes in politics but I thought that was very well supported and I thought Mr. Fuller’s request was very out of line,” said DeVries.

DeVries won her seat as Palmer Mayor in 2016 and has held the office for five years. DeVries won her most recent election running for her second term as Palmer Mayor by just three votes over former Palmer Mayor Jim Cooper. DeVries also ran for the Alaska House of Representatives against former Palmer Mayor DeLena Johnson in the 2018 Primary election. DeVries received 40.88 percent of the Republican Primary ballot votes for District 11, while Johnson received 59.12 percent.

“I support Edna as mayor. I’ve been here through a lot of mayors and she’s been a very good one. I appreciate her degrees when she awards it to someone. She’s always very personal and has given a lot of thought to what she’s doing,” said Janet Kincaid.

The official filing period for the Borough Mayor office begins on August 17 and runs through August 27, but a letter of intent to file allows candidates to begin fundraising for the election. The city of Palmer will hold an election for two available council seats on October 5, for which four candidates have applied.

While the most discussed topic during the meeting was support for DeVries’ Mayoral run, other local and national political issues often surfaced during the testimony. Many expressed skepticism surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine.

“If you listen to mainstream media you’re listening to the same stuff over and over and over again and you’re listening to lies and you’re fearful. You guys are good guys whoever is wearing masks in here. You’re good people, take the masks off. Throw the fear away. Trust in god,” said Dickie Hudgins.

Hudgins left the podium to applause from others in the crowd. Fuller was the lone dissenting member of the public to speak in opposition to DeVries’ run for Borough Mayor.

The council will hold their next regular meeting on Aug. 24 at 7 p.m.