South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg moves toward Democratic presidential primary run

[oberliner]

Pete Buttigieg announced Monday that he will not seek a third term as mayor of South Bend, Ind., a move that is expected to presage his attempt to vault from local to presidential politics.

Buttigieg would not be the first mayor to attempt such a jump — nor, likely, even the sole mayor in the 2020 Democratic presidential field. But he would put forth a distinct profile, as a 36-year-old former Rhodes scholar and Afghanistan veteran who is gay and married.

“I know now that the time has come for me to prepare the city for new leadership again,” Buttigieg said a news conference at his office.

Asked about his political future, Buttigieg said he doesn’t plan to make an announcement until the new year.

“I don’t think it’s a secret that we’re looking at things,” he said, adding that he plans to serve out the remaining year and two weeks in his term.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/south-bend-mayor-pete-buttigieg-moves-toward-presidential-run/2018/12/17/e51930a2-fe5e-11e8-ad40-cdfd0e0dd65a_story.html

[rurallib]

1. Call me old fashioned, but I'd like to see a bit more experience

[elleng]

4. 'His campaign would likely cast him as a can-do executive who solved problems

close to voters’ hearts, including razing vacant homes, attracting new residents and revitalizing downtown South Bend, a city of just over 100,000 people.

He’s been recognized by GovFresh, an organization that highlights “public servant innovators” and voted him as mayor of the year in 2013 along with then-New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg. . .

Buttigieg would come to a presidential race familiar with a part of the country that Democrats lost badly in 2016 but regained somewhat in the midterm elections. States in the area, including Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, will be key targets for both parties in 2020.

“What I’ve tried to do is craft a story about the industrial Midwest that’s not about nostalgia and not about resentment,” said Buttigieg (pronounced Boot-edge-edge) said in an interview with The Washington Post last week. “South Bend is a powerful answer for how you could do it differently and have a focus on the future.”

Buttigieg joined the U.S. Naval Reserve in 2009. In 2014, he turned over his municipal responsibilities to South Bend’s deputy mayor while he served seven months in Afghanistan.

Making a jump from leading Indiana’s fourth biggest city to running for president is an audacious move by usual standards, albeit one that would benefit from connections he made during his lengthy DNC campaign.'

serving as the 32nd and current Mayor of South Bend, Indiana since 2012.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Buttigieg

[elleng]

2. 'He would put forth a distinct profile, as a 36-year-old former Rhodes scholar

and Afghanistan veteran who is gay and married.'

[BannonsLiver]

3. The more the merrier

If he thinks he’s got a shot I say have at it.