Wilmington City Council president Theo Gregory is looking into a run for mayor in 2016.
The Democrat has filed an exploratory committee for the office with the state elections commission.
Gregory has sat on Wilmington City Council for almost three decades, and has been council president for the past three years. He says his new mayoral exploratory committee is a necessary part of making a final decision on whether to run for city’s top job.
"I gotta see if I can raise the money -- that's pivotal," Gregory said in an interview with Delaware Public Media. "You have to have the resources to run. I have the volunteers, and I have people support, but I have to make sure I have the finances in order to run."
Gregory says he expects to be one of several people in the 2016 mayor’s race -- including other city council members and the incumbent Dennis Williams, who announced his plans to seek another term back in March.
"If it was just me and the mayor, I probably wouldn't run," he says. "But I think it's gonna be me and several other people, and I might as well throw my hat in the ring like everybody else."
And Gregory says he believes he can be a strong candidate.
"My body of work over the past three years has shown I can lead, I can manage, I can galvanize, I can pull people together, I can move our city forward," he says, "and I believe I can express a message that we're all in this together. Every neighborhood and every aspect of government -- we're in this together."
If all goes well with his committee, he says he'll plan to officially announce a run in September.