Carbondale Mayor Brad Cole announced his bid for re-election today during his annual State of the City Address. He joins Councilwoman Sheila Simon and Jessica Davis, director of Law School student development at SIUC, in the run for mayor.

Cole said he waited until today to announce his re-election campaign because he has been focused on doing his job during the last year of his current term.

“Campaigns are getting longer and longer, and I think people get tired of that,” he said. “Some people have been campaigning for the last six months and I’ve just been focused on doing my job.”

Cole said he announced his first run for mayor at the same time four years ago and believes he will have plenty of time to get his message out before the April elections. He said he has had a solid record over the past four years and the people of Carbondale can judge him on his time on office.

“We have a great record of accomplishment and we need to keep moving forward,” Cole said. “We’ve started a lot of projects, some of which have been completed and some of which we need to finish, and I believe in finishing what we started.”