Thomas MacMillan Photo
It’s official: No Republican is running for mayor this year.
That may not sound like news. No Republican ever said he was running for mayor.
But one Republican, Andy Ross of Wooster Square (pictured above on volunteer neighborhood clean-up duty), had secured an independent spot on the Nov. 5 general election ballot. He had also reserved the Republican spot for alderman in Wooster Square’s Ward 8. He said he would decide after the Sept. 10 Democratic primary which spot to relinquish.
Ross announced Tuesday that he has made that decision: He will run for alderman. He will relinquish his mayoral ballot spot.
Part of Ross’s reasoning came down to math. He wasn’t sure how many candidates would end up running in the general election; three of the four Democrats running in last week’s primary had secured independent ballot spots for Nov. 5. Since Toni Harp’s crushing victory in that primary, two of the three defeated candidates discontinued their campaigns. That left just Harp and Justin Elicker, now running as an independent.
“I now feel that given only two candidates remain, there would be no chance of winning a mayoral race, where more running candidates might have split up the vote enough to give me some chance,” Ross explained in a statement he distributed Tuesday morning.
Allan Appel Photo
He now faces Democrat Aaron Greenberg in the Ward 8 aldermanic race. Greenberg (pictured at a campaign event) won a Democratic primary last week.
“Since I announced that I would run for alderman for Ward 8 in July, I have knocked on over 2,000 doors and have spoken to several hundred voters that want to see political change in this city,” Ross stated. “People are fed up with partisan politics as usual, staggering taxes and city services going downhill. One way of effecting change is to elect some non-Democrats to the Board of Aldermen. I will be on the independent and Republican ballots. If we do nothing about our debt, rising crime, lack luster economic development in all areas of New Haven and if we do not increase our tax base which is directly related to people wanting to live and work here New Haven will follow so many other American cities that are in bankruptcy court.”
Click here, here and here for previous stories about the Ward 8 race and candidates.