Alba Martinez does ‘not have plans to run for Mayor in 2015’

Remember this morning when recently withdrawn mayoral candidate Ken Trujillo was said to be “urging former city Human Services Commissioner Alba Martinez to get in” the race.

Yeah, no. Martinez just let NinetyNine know that she’s not interested.

Martinez, a principal for The Vanguard Group’s retail services, emailed WHYY’s Katie Colaneri with a statement Thursday afternoon.

“I was sad to see Ken Trujillo exit the Mayor’s race. I love Philadelphia, and I love public service,” she wrote. “However, I do not have plans to run for mayor in 2015 because I am fully committed to Vanguard and to our clients at this time.”

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It turns out former city solicitor Trujillo’s abrupt exit from the mayor’s race Wednesday was just as shocking to his close friends as it was to the media.

“I know he was heartbroken about leaving the race,” said Pedro Ramos, who’s known Trujillo since the mid-1980s and is a partner with him at the Market Street law firm Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis. “He caught everybody by surprise.”

But what about his very public push for former city Human Services Commissioner Alba Martinez to run?

Ramos says he got a call from Trujillo before his formal announcement, but he declined to say whether Martinez’s name came up in conversation.

“I have not heard from her that she was interested in running for mayor in this race,” said Ramos, who has known Martinez since the early 1990s when she was a young attorney running a unit at Community Legal Services.

Before Martinez nixed the idea, some at City Hall on Thursday morning said it was welcomed news.

One insider described her as “the dream candidate” with an impressive resume. She ran the Latino services agency Congreso for eight years, followed by a stint at the Department of Human Services under Mayor John Street. After that, she was CEO of the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Martinez has been an executive at the Vanguard Group since 2008.

“With Ken Trujillo stepping out, there’d be a whole lot of enthusiasm and support,” Ramos said. “She’d have to figure out if she could raise the money necessary in the time that’s available, which is pretty hard with the existing city campaign limits.”

Oh, still no word from former mayor and governor Ed Rendell about those whispers that have him potentially jumping into the mix.