As South Bend Mayor James Mueller launches his reelection campaign, his opponent believes there’s momentum for change.
"I hope he eats his Wheaties because I’m not going to be outworked," said Portage Township Trustee Jason Critchlow, who plans to challenge Mueller in next year’s Democratic primary. "You know, people in this city deserve a city government that works as hard as they do, and that’s the message that I’m going to be taking to every corner of our community over the coming months."
Mueller and Critchlow previously faced each other in the 2019 primary.
Critchlow says it’s hard to say whether more candidates will enter the race, but he feels he has a lot of support, including from some people currently affiliated with the city who’ve met with him privately.
"I’m not going to try to talk anybody into anything, that’s for sure, and I’m not going to try to scare folks," Critchlow said when asked about his strategy. "That’s not the campaign that we’re going to be running here. We’re just going to go out and talk about what I think people deserve, what they need from city hall and where it’s falling short and where we need to be making improvements."
He says he’s expecting a big crowd at his campaign kickoff event Sunday, planned for 3:00 p.m. at Stockroom East. His campaign says it was moved to a larger venue, due to the amount of interest.
