UTICA-ROME -- Former WOUR afternoon drive personality Jerry Kraus announced plans to run for a seat on the City of Utica's Common Council earlier this week.
Observant spectators at last Sunday's Boilermaker Road Race got an early heads-up on the news -- as "The Doctor" ran the race in a shirt that read "Jerry Kraus for Council." (Added Friday 7/17: If you weren't there or just missed him, a full-size version of the photo at left is part of our Pictures of the Week featuring local media at the 2009 Boilermaker.)
But Kraus didn't officially announce his candidacy until this past Wednesday. According to the Utica Observer-Dispatch, Kraus made the announcement at the race's finish line, explaining he chose the location because 2009 marked his 15th consecutive year as a Boilermaker runner. The paper quoted Kraus asking the crowd, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could keep the excitement of Boilermaker weekend all year round?”
Updated 7/17: After nearly 30 years at the station, Kraus left WOUR to pursue other interests in 2007, just before Clear Channel sold the station and the rest of its Utica-Rome cluster to Galaxy Communications. Today, he's still in the public eye, serving as PR director of the Stevens-Swan Human Society, as you may recall seeing in a CNYRadio.com Picture of the Week last October.
Kraus, 52, will be running as a Democrat, for one of the Council's at-large seats.