Tim Rudd, the city’s budget director and a lifelong Democrat, will leave his post as Mayor Ben Walsh’s budget director to run for mayor as a Republican.
Rudd has also submitted his resignation from his post as budget director, effective March 18.
His decision to run for mayor means Rudd will face one of his current bosses, Democrat and Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens. Rudd previously donated $1,000 to Owens’ campaign, which he had also worked on.
He offered a vague explanation for the move and said he’d go into more detail on March 19, the day after he leaves his post.
“She had my vote,” Rudd said, “and she lost my vote.”
Central Current reached out to Owens for comment, but she declined because she was serving in her capacity as deputy mayor at the time of the inquiry.
Though Rudd has provided Mayor Ben Walsh and Owens notice of his intentions to leave the administration and run for mayor, he has pledged to stay on with the city to see the budget process through. Rudd believes the mayor will allow him to stay in the administration through the budget process.
“I will do all I can to professionally produce the budget for Mayor Walsh,” Rudd said. “I owe that to the city and to my staff and to Mayor Walsh to help carry this task to that point.”
Rudd vowed to run for mayor as a Republican and as a “RINO,” an acronym meaning “Republican in name only.” Some conservatives in the GOP use the term as a pejorative against Republicans perceived to be left-leaning.
In a speech Thursday afternoon outside of his parents’ home in Eastwood, Rudd explained his reasoning for switching parties: He no longer believes a Democratic primary race can produce the best mayoral candidate.
“Changing my political affiliation does not change anything about me,” Rudd said. “I have the same ability to think, the same experiences and skills, the same work ethics and the same heart.”
Rudd hopes that his record as a public servant distinguishes him from the other candidates in the field — so far all Democrats — and will appeal to voters of all political affiliations. When asked why city Republicans should vote for a candidate who is openly campaigning on a nominal connection to the GOP, Rudd insisted voters should look to his record.
“Reference my record. I stand on my record. Look at my record,” Rudd said. “A lot of public record. Figure out who’s best. Go for who’s best.”
Rudd admitted that city Republican leader Kevin Ryan likely wasn’t happy with him, because the two had not officially met to discuss Rudd’s attempt to get the Republican Party endorsement. He said he may meet with Ryan as early as tonight, and hopes to smooth things over with the chair of the city Republican committee, who was also recently appointed as an Onondaga County elections commissioner.
“I think in the end, he will trust me enough to get over any feelings he has at the moment about not having the full conversation,” Rudd said. “I trust him in that mutual overlapping network to come around to find, based on my record, the best candidate.”
County Republican Committee Chair Joe Carni says he understands Ryan’s frustrations.
Rudd contacted Carni recently and communicated his interest in running as a Republican, Carni said. To Carni’s knowledge, though, Rudd had not followed through on any of Carni’s recommendations to him: Register as a Republican, coordinate with Kevin Ryan and the city Republicans, and sit for an official interview with the city committee.
“It would seem to me that if you were seeking a party’s endorsement, you would have conversations with and include/work with the City Party that you were attempting to run with the support of,” Carni said.
Rudd seemingly satisfied one of those concerns at his campaign announcement, where he made a point of signing the paperwork that will change his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican.
The city’s budget director has more work cut out for him, though, if he hopes to earn the support of his new party.
While Carni said he didn’t want to speak for the city Republican committee, he reiterated that expects city or county candidates seeking the local Republican Party’s endorsement to meet with the respective committee for a formal interview.
That meeting would likely host some tough conversations between the local leaders of the Republican Party, and the candidate declaring he only wants to use the party’s name.
“He’ll have to explain his ‘RINO’ stance,” Carni said.
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