Madison Mayor Paul Soglin announces re-election run

Madison Mayor Paul Soglin has announced he will run for re-election.

Soglin made the announcement Friday morning.

This comes after he said in July that he would not run.

He said in a news release, “Looking ahead, there is much I would like to finish with you.”

In the release, Soglin said a lot has changed since his previous announcement, including President Donald Trump’s policies and new initiatives in the city’s budget for next year.

In his campaign video, Soglin focuses on the need to assist families in response to cuts at the state level, communicate clearly with city engineers in the face of another round of record-level rains, and combat U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Madison.

“Since July many people – business leaders, progressives, conservatives, people of color, longtime Madison residents and people new to our city – have urged me to reconsider and run again,” Soglin said in the release.

Soglin joins seven others hoping to take his seat. Those candidates are:

Toriana Pettaway, City of Madison racial equity coordinator
Michael Flores, former Madison School Board member
Nick Hart, local comedian
Raj Shukla, executive director of River Alliance of Wisconsin
Satya Rhodes-Conway, managing director of the Mayors Innovation Project at UW-Madison Center on Wisconsin Strategy and former City Council member and
Maurice Cheeks, City of Madison District 10 alder
Brenda Konkel, executive director of the Tenant Resource Center and former City Council member

The primary for the mayor’s race is Feb. 19. The general election is April 2.

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