Richard Selwach only shares one thing with the president - a desire for change.
The second to announce his candidacy for Gainesville mayor, Selwach hopes to fill the seat of Pegeen Hanrahan, whose term will expire in March.
Selwach, who lost the March city commission race to incumbent Jeanna Mastrodicasa after receiving 6.19 percent of votes for the At-Large seat, said he originally planned to run again for commission.
Instead, Selwach decided to run for mayor after learning that Penny Wheat would be his opponent for the District 4 commission seat.
"Penny and I would work well together," he said. "Our plans to help the environment will go hand in hand."
Aside from improving Gainesville's water supply and preserving the environment, Selwach said his major focus is government transparency and fiscal responsibility.
Selwach received attention during the commission race for his staunch opposition to Charter Amendment 1, which would have removed nondiscrimination protections from Gainesville's code of ordinance.
If he is elected as mayor, Selwach said, he would try to calm the flow of equal-opportunity legislation - a far cry from opponent Commissioner Craig Lowe, who chairs Gainesville's Equal Opportunity Committee.
"As far as I'm concerned, everyone is equal. As long as you keep on defining, you keep perpetuating inequality," he said. "Everybody wants to file a lawsuit. We don't need that."
Selwach also clashes with Mastrodicasa, who spearheaded Gainesville's underage drinking ordinance.
"I wasn't for it," he said. "If the business owners and the students came to me and said they don't want it, I would listen to the people and debate it and put it to a vote."
Though the number of underage arrests has decreased since the ordinance passed, Selwach said it fails to combat underage drinking in private and puts a burden on Gainesville residents and business owners.
"I go into Chipotle, and I want to get a hot and spicy burrito. I'm 47 years old, and I pay taxes, and they want to see my ID," he said. "I get upset. I say, 'Hey, I'm almost 50 years old, and I'm getting carded. What is this, Nazi Germany?'"
Selwach said the bulk of his issue with the current administration lies in too much talk and too little being done to make things better for the people.
"The less rules and the less taxes and the smaller government, the better," he said. "The more convoluted, the more crap you have."
