• Darlene Harris

City council president Darlene Harris said today she is "not ruling out" running for mayor, in the wake of Mayor Luke Ravenstahl dropping his re-election bid this morning.

"I'm keeping my options open," she tells City Paper.

She said one contributing factor to whether she would run or not was her family, citing the same stress of politics and personal toll that Ravenstahl cited in his speech today.

"I've been involved to make the city better for over 30 years and this was the first job i was ever paid to do it for," she said. "I intend to keep doing it. I never thought about running for school board. I never thought about running for this position or running for mayor. But I'll keep that option open."

When asked about the two current candidates for mayor — City Councilor Bill Peduto and City Controller Michael Lamb — Ravenstahl said "that'll change soon," expecting more names to jump into the race and encouraged other candidates to do so. In fact, Ravenstahl said he had a particular candidate in mind, even though he hadn't yet approached that individual."

Fo Harris' part, she admits that "it's a lot of stress to run for office" and Ravenstahl was affected by much of that stress "coming up as young as he did. Sometimes it takes it's toll."

She said she hadn't had time to evaluate how the city has fared under his leadership, in the whirlwind of this week's speculation about his future.

"We agreed on some things, and disagreed on others," she said. "It doesn't make good government if you agree all the time."