What you need to know:

• Maxwell Sumner was appointed to the Mat-Su Assembly District 4 seat Thursday evening through a unanimous vote by the assembly.
• Sumner, a home developer and brother of state Rep. Jesse Sumner, was sworn in after the vote and will hold the seat until the 2025 election. He has no prior political experience but serves on the Matanuska Electric Association board.
• The District 4 seat was vacated by Rob Yundt, who resigned last month.

PALMER – A Mat-Su Assembly seat left vacant when its holder resigned last month was filled Thursday by an Assembly appointment.

Maxwell Sumner, a home developer and brother of state Rep. and former Assembly member Jesse Sumner,  was unanimously selected by the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly to fill the vacant District 4 seat.

The seat was vacated last month by Rob Yundt, who resigned after moving out of the district. Sumner was sworn in immediately after the vote and will hold the seat until the 2025 election.

“A lot of people think that local politics might be unattainable or not the right fit, or for other people,” he said in an interview before the Assembly on Thursday. “Jesse serving made me realize that if everyone thinks that way, then it’s the people who think they have the time that are up there serving, or people who have special interests. Those might not be the people you want.”

Sumner, born in Mat-Su, co-owns the Sumner Company with Jesse Sumner and was elected to the Matanuska Electric Association board last year. He has never run for or held public office. His largest state campaign contributions include $1,000 to Gov. Mike Dunleavy in 2018 and $3,500 to Yundt over two donations this year and last August. He is a registered Republican.

Sumner said he hopes to remain on the MEA board while serving on the Assembly, citing a similar arrangement made for former Borough Mayor Larry DeVilbiss in 2011. DeVilbiss was allowed to hold both roles as long as he recused himself from all borough matters involving MEA.

Sumner answered more than 20 questions during a roughly 40-minute interview before the Assembly on Thursday. The questions focused primarily on local development and planning issues.

When asked whether the borough should adopt zoning, Sumner said he does not currently support traditional zoning rules for Mat-Su but would recuse himself from any such decision because the outcome would directly affect his business.

“I don’t think the time is right for the borough to have zoning. I think, unfortunately, we might eventually be there,” he said. “Before we get to zoning, I would think some creative options for responsible development should be explored, looked into or researched.”

The District 4 seat was filled through an interview process rather than by voters because the vacancy was created after the summer deadline for the November ballot. District 4 includes Wasilla.

Sumner was one of four candidates who applied for the seat and one of three who went through the interview process Thursday.

The other candidates were Mark Carling, a stay-at-home dad who previously worked on the Slope; Colleen Vague, a former member of the Mat-Su School Board and Planning Commission who ran against Yundt for the seat in 2020; and Richard Payne, a Mat-Su-based attorney who previously served as an assistant district attorney for the state and as Wasilla’s city attorney. Payne did not interview due to a family emergency that took him out of state.

Sumner said he plans to run for the seat in the November 2025 borough election.

-- Amy Bushatz can be contacted at abushatz@matsusentinel.com.