Cunningham won’t run for Poway mayor

By Steve Dreyer

Poway City Councilman Jim Cunningham said Tuesday he will not run for mayor next year.

One year into his second four-year term, Cunningham said running against Mayor Don Higginson at the same time Councilmen John Mullin and Dave Grosch will likely be running for re-election, plus the fact that the council will be hiring a new city manager in the spring, “would cause great chaos and confusion in our city.”

“This is not why I became involved in local politics,” Cunningham wrote in a prepared statement released Tuesday morning, “I came to help and facilitate our citizens’ great ideas, not to cause chaos in a time when we need stability. Ego is not now, nor should it ever be, a reason to advance one’s own political career. Whether you can bring added value to your city is the only determining factor in deciding whether you should run for office.

“I have made a decision that, although will distress my friends and good-intentioned supporters, is the right decision for Poway. Absent a significant compelling need, I will not be running for mayor of Poway in 2014.”

Poway voters will elect a mayor and two councilmembers next November. While Cunningham is the first to announce his plans, Higginson, Grosch and Mullin are all expected to seek re-election. Of a possible mayoral candidacy, Councilman Steve Vaus, one year into his first term, said Tuesday “I will be giving it serious consideration in the new year.”