Spear made the announcement in a reel posted to Instagram. Speaking with WAMC, Spear says he felt like his candidacy became a distraction from his ultimate goal in running: challenging incumbent Mayor Kamal Johnson.
“I feel we need, more than anything else in Hudson, new leadership and change,” says Spear.
Spear says when he first told Johnson about his plans to run, there were no alternative candidates yet. Johnson has held his seat uncontested since becoming the city’s first Black mayor in 2019. But the field quickly grew, and Johnson was ultimately bested for the Democratic nomination in June by political newcomer Joe Ferris. Johnson is still running on the Working Families Party line in November. Republican Lloyd Koedding is also on the ballot.
Spear says he’s supporting Ferris.
“Joe Ferris is running on the Democratic line; Hudson is a Democratic city. Mayor Johnson lost the Democratic Primary," Spear reasons. "I think in a very real way, the City of Hudson has spoken, and I’m going to support change.”
The four-way race has been heated. Spear and Ferris have both targeted Johnson over the city’s housing crisis and ballooning budget. Ferris, whose background is in government relations, says the city’s current leadership lacks competence, communication, and direction.
“We need a city that has an understanding of what it wants to do in the future, and that’s why I want to hire a city planner when I’m elected," adds Ferris.
Johnson has largely brushed off the criticisms, both in interviews and online. He says Hudson’s housing pipeline is “strong,” and while the city’s budget has grown, he notes they haven’t had to raise taxes proportionally thanks to grant funding. Johnson touts a number of initiatives that launched during his tenure, including Hudson’s Universal Basic Income pilot program, and the Hudson Roots program that helps some tenants pay for their rent.
"We've got a strong housing pipeline, and I want to get that off the ground. Affordability and employment always goes hand-in-hand with that as well, so those are key priorities," Johnson says of his goals. "As well as finishing up a lot of the projects that I started, including at various parks around the city."
A major talking point in the race so far has been Johnson’s relationship with the controversial developer Galvan, which owns a large number of properties in the city. Johnson rents a home owned by Galvan, but has refused to disclose how much he pays for it.
Asked about the controversy by WAMC, Johnson says it’s a scapegoat. When a local building was vandalized with graffiti tying Johnson to Galvan earlier this month, he posted a selfie with the graffiti on Facebook and Instagram, complete with the captions “Kamal [loves] all” and “I [love] the friendly city, a city of arts.”
“Of course the easy way out is to kind of try to align me with the Galvan Foundation," says Johnson. "The city has no contracts with the Galvan Foundation. We have no pilot projects or anything that I’ve ever voted on. In my entire time as mayor, I’ve never voted on anything with the Galvan Foundation. But it’s an easy scapegoat for candidates who don’t really have anything else.”
Johnson has another take on Spear’s decision to drop out. He claims the move is the result of fallout over a video Spear posted to Instagram Monday, in which Spear compares the Hudson mayoral contest to that of the race in New York City.
In a post responding to the video on Facebook, Johnson says the video came across as “weird or racially coded,” adding: “Is the comparison just because we’re both mayors and both Black? That’s how it feels.” Spear went on to make the analogy that Ferris is Hudson’s “Andrew Cuomo,” Koedding is “Curtis Sliwa,” and he is “Zohran Mamdani.”
“It’s disappointing that he ran into a little bit of controversy and quit, seeing as how much he and his campaign have been bashing me, and I’m still here," says Johnson. "But this job isn’t meant for everybody. It isn’t built for everybody.”
Spear says he’s not surprised by Johnson’s comments.
“I call him the Facebook mayor, because he participates in a kind of politics that thrives on social media," he says. "And it creates division and drama and conflict, but doesn’t really get anything done...What I’ve observed is the housing situation is worse now than it was when he came into office, and we need change.”
“I didn’t win the primary, but it still seems like it’s every man against me," Johnson notes. "So, when you don’t have a vision, you have to go after the person who gets the most attention, and right now that’s me.”
