ANAHEIM : Councilman Pickler to Run for Mayor

After months of rumors, Anaheim City Councilman Irv Pickler announced that he will run for mayor in city elections in November, clearing the way for a rematch of the last, narrowly decided mayoral race against incumbent Mayor Fred Hunter.

Pickler, 69, a two-term council member since 1982, plans to run a hard-hitting, grass-roots campaign, presenting himself as a leader of a unified city council whose members will work together to get the job done.

“I think it’s time we have someone in there who is going to bring the council together, someone who will say ‘we’ and not ‘I,’ ” Pickler said. “We have a lot of positive things happening here. . . . By working together, we can keep these things moving forward.”

Since the city requires that the mayor must also be a council member, Pickler will need to win a council seat to be elected mayor, a largely ceremonial post.

In a recent kickoff campaign party, Pickler raised about $50,000 in what he expects to be an estimated $200,000 race for both positions. In the last mayoral election, both candidates spent almost $200,000 combined.