‘ Worst- kept secret in city,’ Nenshi says of Chabot bid
The mayor is labelling a council colleague’s decision to declare his intent for the city’s top job long before the 2017 election as “an interesting political strategy” and he’s questioning how the move might interfere with the councillor’s current duties.
But longtime ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot, who told the Herald on Wednesday that he intends to run for mayor of Calgary in the next municipal election, said his focus and decisions as a councillor will not be affected by his future plans.
“I will continue to work hard, as I do every day, to look out for what’s in the best interest of Calgarians,” he said.
Chabot said there’s a lot of work ahead and a final decision on entering the mayor’s race hasn’t yet been made.
“Although my intent is ( to run), I can’t confirm one way or another at this point until I can ensure I get all those pieces together,” he said Thursday.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi said he’s not surprised Chabot is potentially seeking his job.
“Well, it’s certainly an interesting political strategy,” Nenshi said Thursday. “Of course, it’s the worst- kept secret in the city. He’s been running for mayor since approximately the day after I was elected in 2010, so we’ll see if he actually goes through with it this time.”
Chabot said he’s actually been considering the post since February 2010, before Nenshi was elected.
“The truth is I was thinking about running from the day that ( former mayor) Dave Bronconnier announced that he was not running. It had nothing to do with Nenshi,” Chabot said.
Chabot, a former construction worker and electronics salesman, was first elected to council in a 2005 byelection and has held the ward 10 seat in east Calgary ever since.
While the current mayor speculated about fundraising difficulties surrounding the want- to- be mayor, Chabot said he’s so far had absolutely no problems raising funds for a potential campaign.
“The story around the city, of course, is that he’s been having an enormous amount of trouble fundraising and he felt that making an announcement would actually assist him with that,” Nenshi said. “We’ll see if it does.” The councillor dismissed speculation that he’s having trouble raising money and noted a mayor’s campaign requires much more money than the councillor campaigns he’s experienced.
“People have been very forthcoming in agreeing to participate in my fundraisers and even agreeing to contribute to my campaign without even coming to my fundraisers,” he said.
“My fundraising is going great as far as an alderman is concerned, maybe not as good as it would need to be for me to run for mayor, which is why I can’t say for sure one way or another right now.”
Nenshi noted that entering the mayor’s race so early — 28 months before the next election — could interfere with Chabot’s current job as a city councillor.
Nenshi said Thursday he’ll make an official announcement concerning whether he plans to run for mayor a third time closer to the 2017 election date.
He’s been running for mayor since approximately the day after I was elected in 2010.