City Controller Alan Butkovitz will not run for mayor

City Controller Alan Butkovitz will not run for mayor next year, he just told PhillyClout.

Butkovitz, who has been planning a 2015 campaign since last year, appears to have been frozen out of the field by City Council President Darrell Clarke, who has not stated his intentions for the mayor's race.

Butkovitz has said for months that he would not run for mayor if Clarke sought that office.

"I know how to read the tea leaves and I know how to understand the way things are getting organized," Butkovitz said. "They're not coming together for me. They're coming together at the moment in a kind of chaotic pattern.

Butkovitz said he met with Clarke last week but does not know if he will run for mayor.

"There's no question there's a lot of wait-and-see about what the field is going to look like," Butkovitz said. "My view of the time-line [for a campaign] is it really has to be under way by November of the proceeding year."

State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams and former District Attorney Lynne Abraham are due to announce on Wednesday their campaigns for the Democratic primary. Butkovitz said that had no impact on his decision because he had anticipated running against Williams and Abraham.

Butkovitz said it is unlikely he will change his mind about the mayor's race. He declined to say if he would still run if Clarke announced soon that he is not running.

"I can't tell what other people will do," Butkovitz said. "I've won eleven elections in my career. I've won three citywide elections. I know what has to be done and when it has to be done to win."

Butkovitz is serving the first year of his third four-year term as controller. Before that, he was a state representative for a district in Northeast Philly.