Brian Rudnick: ‘I’m going to win by a little’

Brian Rudnick’s bid for Philadelphia City Council has come down to its final day.

“I feel great,” Rudnick, an independent candidate in the Eighth District, said Tuesday outside of his campaign headquarters in Mt. Airy.

The long-time Chestnut Hill resident and two-time Council candidate said he’d been up since 4:30 a.m. He kicked-off his Election Day schedule a couple hours later at Grace Epiphany Episcopal Church in East Mt. Airy.

Just after 9 a.m., Rudnick rode over to nearby Germantown Jewish Centre, munching on corn chips and flipping through a list of polling places along the way.

” Democrats have been running the whole show and they haven’t been running it as well as I’d like,” Rudnick tells two campaign workers representing Al Schmidt, a Republican running for City Commissioner. “We need some new blood.”

Before heading down Germantown Avenue for the district’s lower wards, Rudnick rallied some poll workers stationed at Lovett Library. He’s got about 160 of them at locations throughout the diverse district.

Rudnick plans on ending the day in Chestnut Hill and will vote sometime later this afternoon at his home polling place, the Chestnut Hill Library.

Many see him as a long shot, but Rudnick said Tuesday that he may be able to narrowly edge out his opponent Cindy Bass, the Democratic nominee.

“I have a mindset that I’m going to win it by a little. It’s the only way to run,” said Rudnick.

Either way, the Green Party member said he’ll come away with some kind of victory today. “We’re establishing a new second party in the Eighth District here. Republicans haven’t run people in two races,” said Rudnick.