Casper, Parry respond to election results

After Rebecca Casper won her bid for mayor Tuesday, she said her first order of business is communication with the people of Idaho Falls.

“The very first thing I’m probably going to do is I’m going to spend the next few days trying to figure out the communications with the citizens,” said Casper soon after the news came that she had won 54 percent of the vote. “And next week, we’ll jump right into those citizen review committees pulled together.”

Casper’s term begins in January.

Casper had a list of endorsements behind her, including current Mayor Jared Fuhriman and Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter.

Opponent Sharon Parry, a current City Council member who got 32 percent of the vote, credited the endorsements as the tipping point to Casper’s victory.

“When you’ve got a political machine, a governor’s meddling endorsement, a sitting mayor that weighs in, a council president that weighs in — it was a political machine,” she said. “But nevertheless, it will still be refreshing to have new City Council members to work with in January.”

Parry came in closest to Casper. The other candidates, Brian LaPray and Timothy Downs, got 10 and 5 percent of the vote, respectively.