Bill Evans: "Endorse This"

Anchorage voters have been waiting to see if former mayoral candidate Bill Evans would endorse a candidate ahead of the May 11 runoff. Evans says he has been contacted by many breathless folks urging him to endorse their preferred candidate for Mayor and has been accused of "disloyalty, deception, and even condoning evil."

In a lengthy statement posted to Facebook, Evans, who pulled 9.52% of the vote in the mayoral election, wrote that more people had contacted him about his endorsement than voted for him in the election but, in the end, chose to endorse ideas rather than a person.

"I believe if I endorse either candidate I am being disloyal to people who went out of their way to support me."

Bill Evans, Facebook, May 6, 2021

Supporters of fringe candidate David Bronson savaged Evans for supporting an equal rights ordinance in 2015 that protected LGBT individuals from discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodation. Evans said in March that supporting the ordinance was "the right thing to do, both then and now."

To his credit, Evans wrote in his statement that he would "endorse any candidate who realizes that Anchorage is a very diverse community and that it should be the role of the Mayor to represent everyone; to ensure that all diverse communities share the same opportunities; and, to understand that all communities are not impacted in the same way by the same policies."

Bronson has espoused radical views on homosexuality for over a decade and is seen as a threat to equality by the LGBTQI+ community and its allies.

Evans also says that he endorses "any candidate that is willing to take ownership of our problems and make the hard decisions necessary to begin to solve them. We cannot rely on others (i.e., feds, state, non-profits) to fix "our" problems. We need to stand up, kick in, and fix our city ourselves."

Bronson has admitted his desire to cut almost everything in the budget except the Anchorage Police Department and believes that locking up our homeless population is the way to solve a complex issue requiring a multi-faceted approach with no singular answer that solves the challenge overnight.

Evans closed his non-endorsement endorsement by writing that his criteria for choosing a candidate are "admittedly idealistic, politically naive, and virtually unworkable," but says the "main thing is to be sure to vote. I definitely endorse that."

You can read Evans' full statement on Facebook.