Mayor of Eagle says he does not support Verhagen for D-6

By
Suzanne Downing
-
12

The mayor of Eagle, Alaska says he signed a letter of support for Elijah Verhagen without having considered the candidate more fully and because he was misled about who the incumbent, Rep. Dave Talerico, had endorsed.

Mayor Daniel Helmer is retracting that endorsement and is not endorsing in the District 6 race, whose winner will replace retiring Rep. Dave Talerico. Mike Cronk of Tok is the Republican in the race.

“I am not endorsing a candidate in the district 6 election. Besides being Mayor, I am a public employee, and my job prohibits me from endorsing or denouncing candidates for state or national office.      

“I signed a letter in support of Verhagen last week without fully knowing what was going on. I have since asked him to remove my name from the letter, and to not use my name in support of his campaign,” Helmer wrote to Must Read Alaska.     

“I was led to believe that Elijah was supported by Dave Talerico, and the only reason he was not a Republican, was because he missed the filing deadline to run in the primary,” Helmer explained.

“Signing Elijah’s letter was a mistake on my part. I should have looked into it more closely before agreeing to sign,” he wrote.

The mayor of Anderson has signed a letter endorsing Verhagen, who left the Republican Party and has no political team affiliation. Mayor Samantha Thompson is also a State employee; she is a deputy magistrate II in the court system. Thompson is a liberal who signed the recall petition against Gov. Mike Dunleavy.

12 COMMENTS

  1. I’ve emailed the mayor (waiting for a response). After signing, he realized that as a state employee that he shouldn’t have and asked me to remove his name which I did. He’s a good man and although APOC allows mayors to sign support letters, he asked for his name removed due to his employment. I don’t blame him for retracting at all. I tell people that I worked as a staff for Talerico which is true but I’ve never said he supports or endorsed me. That may be confusing for some but I knew running Undeclared would lose me Talerico’s public support and chose it anyway. And I announced I was running as a conservative Undeclared when I launched my campaign. I got 75 District 6 signatures in May and although I asked to run as a conservative Undeclared in the Republican primary I was told I could not. So although people keep saying I skipped the primary out of fear, that’s absurd, there is no primary for petition Undeclared candidates so I got the required signatures months ago. I did the math before deciding to run and knew that even with two conservatives a democrat has little to no chance of winning especially now when there’s another left petition candidate splitting the democrat vote.

  2. “I was led to believe that Elijah was supported by Dave Talerico, and the only reason he was not a Republican, was because he missed the filing deadline to run in the primary,” Helmer explained.

    Elijah Verhagen led Mayor Helmer to believe Representative Dave Talerico supported him.
    The Alaska Republican Party just distributed a correction: Representative Talerico endorsed Mike Crook.

    The only candidate filing deadline June 1, 2020 applies to ALL candidates: party primary and petition candidates.

    Elijah Verhagen filed his letter of intent at the Alaska Public Offices Commission on 4/6/2020.
    Mike Cronk filed his letter of intent at the Alaska Public Offices Commission on 4/6/2020.
    Ryan Smith filed his letter of intent at the Alaska Public Offices Commission on 5/4/2020.
    Julie Morris registered her candidacy at the Alaska Public Offices Commission on 6/9/2020.
    All four were registered Republicans in March 2020.
    Cronk, Morris and Smith filed as Republican candidates in the August 18 primary prior to June 1, 2020.
    Verhagen deserted the crowded Republican Primary and filed as a Petition Candidate prior to June 1, 2020.
    Elijah Verhagen DID NOT MISS THAT DEADLINE, Elijah wanted to have his second shot at the Republican primary winner.

    • WHO CARES!!! The point is that the little Communist girl, Julie Hnilicka, filed long before everyone else. And she didn’t even live in District 6. Verhagen is a Spoiler. And unless District 6 wants to have a Marxist Democrat as their Representative, they better get together and vote for MIKE CRONK.

    • I’ve heard the exact same thing, that Hnilicka lied about her residency in District 6. Where did she actually live during 2020? By some accounts, she was in Fairbanks most of the year, locked down by COVID, not in Nenana or anywhere in District 6. She may have originally been from Nenana, but not living there recently. There were reports that she rented a place on Nenana for the appearance of residency only. If all this is yrue, then she should have been disqualified at the onset, just like the Nenana City Council disqualified her earlier. She seems to live out of her car and bounce around from friends’ homes, or her parent’s homes. This is NOT the kind of person we want representing us in Juneau, or in District 6. She appears very unstable, with a psychopathic personality. She would be an extremely poor choice to represent the conservative District 6 values. Therefore, to protect the integrity of the district, please vote for MIKE CRONK.

      • Agree with Naomi. I checked out Hnilicka’s Facebook page. What a little egomaniac and self-aggrandizer. She acts and sounds like a little teenager who hasn’t outgrown her Barbie Dolls.

  3. Mormons stick together like glue on a wool blanket. One is a candidate for state house. Another is mayor of Nenana. Another was a magistrate judge of Nenana. All Verhagens. And Mayor Thompson of Anderson is a deputy magistrate judge too. She might also be a Verhagen? And now we hear that AST uses Mormons to patrol the Parks Hiway through Nenana. Folks, this a conspiracy……….not a theory.

      • That’s being arranged. Hnilicka is going to show up in a covered wagon with 16 other Commie women at a roadside campaign stop. Are any Verhagen judges available to perform marriage ceremonies? Might as well get the families together in Nenana for a long, fruitful future. All speeding tickets issued by AST on election day will be waived.

        • My covered wagon runs far below the speed limit. Sure love those Nenana Troopers, though. Got my Mike Cronk sign plastered on the wagon and been practicing that secret handshake. Should be able to roll through.

    • “Mormons stick together”, Catholics stick together, Lutherans stick together, Hindus stick together, Islam sticks together. So I suppose you could say say that any religion is grounds for dropping the “conspiracy flag”.
      The fact is they are related. Their support of each other is to be expected in a close knit family, or maybe you don’t know of such things. It has little or nothing to do with their faith.
      There are plenty of real and threatening conspiracies to be concerned about without fabricating imaginary ones.
      (BTW, I don’t support the Verhagens and I am proud to say I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. (Mormon)).

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