In a news story that surprises no casual observer of the local political scene, businessman Steve Francis will announce his formal candidacy for mayor of San Diego on Jan. 15, according to a Jan. 14 press statement.
Francis, chairman of AMN Healthcare Inc., the nurse staffing firm he founded with his wife Gayle and built to a successful public company, came in third place in the last mayoral primary, in 2004, behind City Councilwoman Donna Frye and the winner, Jerry Sanders.
Sanders is seeking re-election, but Frye has not said whether she will run again.
Francis said “San Diego wants and needs new leadership to restore fiscal integrity, ethics and transparency in government.”
Francis, a former member of the Nevada Assembly, resigned in 2005 as AMN Healthcare’s chief executive officer, but maintains his chairman’s title. In 2006, he founded a local think tank called the San Diego Institute for Policy Research LLC, a private, nonprofit research agency.
, Mike Allen
