Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan is strongly hinting that she will run for a third four-year term.
Sheehan, a Democrat and the city’s first female mayor, tells WAMC that an announcement about her plans for the 2021 election “will be coming very soon.”
"With 2020, everything changed and there's still a lot of work to be done," she said. "There is a lot of work that was put on pause and there's new work that is under way. And I want to be part of policing reform in this city, and I want to be part of the incredible work that our community is doing around the health disparities that have been highlighted by COVID, and by the focus that we also have on creating a city where every neighborhood works. So a lot of work to do, and I'll be making an announcement very soon."
Next year’s key Democratic primary could also include Common Council President Corey Ellis, who toldWAMC last week he would like to be mayor but isn’t sure if 2021 is the right time to run. Ellis lost the 2013 primary to Sheehan, who was then City Treasurer. They were vying to replace five-term Democratic Mayor Jerry Jennings.
In a 2017 debate, Sheehan said she supports term limits and thinks two terms is the right amount, but she did not commit to that limit outright:
"I absolutely support term limits," she said in the 2017 Times Union debate. "Two terms to me is what they have in Syracuse, two terms is what we have for our president, and I think that this is something that I supported when I ran last time and I continue to support it."
Sheehan defeated then-Common Council President Carolyn McLaughlin and then-Common Councilor Frank Commissso, Jr. in the pivotal Democratic primary en route to her second term.
