The next municipal election is a little more than a year away, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t planning behind the scenes. 
Jeff Bultje says he can’t formally announce his candidacy yet, but he can announce he plans on running.
“I’m hoping that by doing this earlier, people will think “Hey, Jeff Bultje’s the right guy to run, I won’t run” or maybe they can approach me to say that “Hey, I think I can do better than Jeff, maybe I can talk him out of it,” which would be fine too,” he explains. “I certainly would hope to have that one contender against Mayor Randy Hope.
By announcing his intent to run, the local businessman hopes to see a smaller field in the mayoral race.
“What happened in the last election, there were seven people running and Mayor Randy Hope won (with) 29% (of the) vote,” “I feel that’s really not a good margin of winning, it’s not a very democratic process.”
Bultje garnered almost 4300 votes, or 13% in the last election, trailing winner Randy Hope as well as Marjorie Crew, Steve Brent and Ian McLarty.
The window to officially file a candidacy doesn’t open until May 1st of next year.