SANDUSKY — There’s still plenty of time for new candidates to get on the ballot for Sandusky City Commission this fall, longtime commissioner Dennis Murray Jr. said during a podcast interview with StayTunedSandusky Friday from City Hall.
Murray, who served as commission president (ex officio mayor) from 2014 to 2020 and has been vice mayor since 2021, is term-limited and cannot seek re-election.
“We have only a handful of candidates at this point in time,” Murray said. “I want to see the city have a robust debate about its future, about its direction. It’s only by having a sufficient number of candidates that you can get to that kind of discussion. Right now there are three or four people running for three seats. That’s not good enough for a city like Sandusky.”
Murray said the process of becoming a candidate is straightforward and encouraged interested residents to consider running.
“It’s easy to get signatures on petitions,” he said. “You need 75 valid signatures. It’s easy to do. Go to the Jackson Street Pier concerts. You can get all the signatures you need.”
He recommended collecting at least 150 signatures to ensure the required 75 are valid and from registered voters.
Looking ahead, Murray praised fellow commissioner David Waddington — the longest-serving current member — as a natural leader to become the next commission president.
“Dave Waddington is the smartest politician I’ve ever known in Erie County,” Murray said. “He has a gut feel for where things are, and he’s a man of pure integrity.”
Waddington has more than 20 years serving on commission and that experience is important going forward, Murray said. Waddington can guide commission next year, when that experience will count more than ever.
“Dave would be an outstanding mayor. He’s going to claim otherwise,” Murray said. “But I’ll tell you there’s no one at the table who spends more time and more energy reading the materials and understanding what’s in front of him and researching it.”
There are three seats open in the fall election. Commission president Dick Brady, like Murray, is term-limited and cannot run for re-election, and commissioner Steve Poggialli, a first-term commissioner, opted against running for re-election.
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