Flanked by his father and his wife at his parents home in Eastwood, City of Syracuse budget director Tim Rudd on Jan. 16, 2025, announced his candidacy for mayor of Syracuse. Credit: Patrick McCarthy | Central Current

City Republicans rejected Tuesday night Tim Rudd’s bid for the party’s designation in this year’s mayoral race.

Party members interviewed Rudd on Tuesday as part of the normal vetting process for candidates running in 2025 races.

Kevin Ryan, the chair of the Republican party’s city committee, said they will make sure Rudd does not run on the Republican ballot line.

“There’s no appetite for Tim Rudd running for mayor as a Republican,” Ryan said.

Instead, Ryan said, they will interview other candidates — Ryan declined to name them — and decide whether to run a candidate by Feb. 25.

Tuesday’s interview was the latest step in a three-week saga that began Jan. 16. At the time, Rudd, a lifelong Democrat, announced his plans to run for mayor as a Republican. He switched his party registration but made clear that he would run as a “Republican in Name Only,” a pejorative term some Republicans use for fellow Republicans they believe sympathize with liberals. In a podcast uploaded to his YouTube page, Rudd said he planned to flip back to being a Democrat if he won the mayoral race.

Tomorrow, Rudd faces an effort by party members to have him, his wife and his father removed from the party. The party’s county chair Joe Carni and others will hear out Rudd’s support for the party and could decide to have Rudd’s party affiliation revoked by a state Supreme Court judge.

Rudd is adamant that he will run on the party line. If he remains a party member, he will have to collect signatures to get on the June 24 primary ballot.

Rudd, the city’s budget director, was recently placed on paid leave by the city. City officials said they’re investigating Rudd for a violation of city policies but have not yet said which policies.

He has become a critic of the city’s handling of its payroll modernization effort and Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens, whose campaign he donated $1,000 to before entering the race. In the YouTube video, he criticized Owens and Mayor Ben Walsh’s handling of the payroll modernization effort.

Ryan cited a turning point in Rudd’s interview: when party members asked Rudd whether he would comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Rudd and Ryan disagreed on what Rudd said. Ryan said Rudd responded that he had not given the topic much thought. Rudd says he told the committee that he would not change the city’s policy on immigration enforcement unless there were negative financial ramifications for the city.

“That was a softball across the middle and he swung and missed,” Ryan said.

One party member recommended Rudd for nomination but only jokingly, Ryan said.

Rudd disagreed with Ryan’s characterization of the reaction to his answer about ICE’s enforcement. He believes the party is more divided on whether the city should comply with ICE than Ryan described.

Rudd tried to sell to the committee that they do agree on some policies and share some values. He does not support “good cause” eviction protections nor does he support interior inspections for homes on the city’s rental registry, he said.

During the interview, Rudd told the committee that he wrote in Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for president in November’s election.

In an interview with Central Current after he met the Republican party’s city committee, he accused Ryan of having “the smallest tent of all time.”

Rudd and Ryan described a scene in which he and other party members shouted at each other.

By the end, Rudd contended, the committee members clapped.

“Maybe they were clapping because I was leaving,” Rudd said. But I think they were clapping because they liked it.”

Ryan, however, was not impressed. He was adamant the party would not allow someone like Rudd to run on their line and that Rudd is only running as a Republican to gain ballot access.

“We’re not going to allow someone who doesn’t support our party values to run on our line,” Ryan said.

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Chris Libonati is the managing editor of Central Current. He is a founding editorial member of the organization and was hired as Central Current's first reporter. He previously worked at the Syracuse Post-Standard...