Prospect Heights mayor will not run

Prospect Heights Mayor Pat Ludvigsen changed his mind this week about running for the city's top spot, saying he'll sit this one out.

He's stepping aside in an effort to help another resident become mayor.

He's supporting Nick Helmer, who announced his candidacy earlier this year.

Helmer, 66, is a business owner and real estate developer, who said he's aiming to enter the public service sphere after living in the city for the past 25 years. Helmer does have governing experience. From 1988 to 2000, he served on the Chicago Executive Airport Commission, formerly the Palwaukee Municipal Airport Commission.

But he'll have stiff competition from Alderman Dolly Vole, who announced her intention to run in August.

At that time, Ludvigsen also said he was throwing his hat into the ring, after being appointed to the spot when Mayor Rodney Pace stepped down in September 2007 shortly after being reelected, citing health reasons.

Elected in 2007 for a 4-year term, Vole was the only "no" vote on the council to confirm Ludvigsen as acting mayor, saying her philosophy of how to run the city differed too greatly for her to vote in the affirmative.

Ludvigsen said he and Helmer share the same vision for the city and Helmer has a lot more time to devote to the job.

"I don't want to split the vote between two people with similar views," Ludvigsen said. "And Nick can spent a lot more time on it because his kids are grown and he's got more free time."

He said he wanted to run initially to maintain continuity with the citizenry, so the city would not have three mayors in two years. Also, he wanted to oversee a number of projects, including the construction of a major city flood protection levee, sale of a little bit of land the city still owns for a now-defunct arena project and implementation of home-rule status.

The home-rule vote failed last month by a 2-1 margin, though. Ludvigsen had campaigned hard for it, saying the city desperately needed the money for city roads, which were in bad shape overall. The city had planned to use home-rule powers to use more money from hotel taxes for the streets, he said. Vole was dubious about how the power would be used if approved.

The mayoral winner in April will finish out Pace's term, which ends in 2011.

Ludvigsen, who gave up his aldermanic post after he was appointed acting mayor, said he hasn't yet decided whether to run for his old aldermanic seat.