The Edge: Hello, Ed. Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed. First, some background for our readers. You are the only mayoral candidate running against a deeply entrenched incumbent, Robert Blythe, who has been either a city commissioner or mayor of Richmond for about a quarter century now. You know Blythe, since you previously held office as a commissioner from 2018 to 2022. Why have you decided to run against him now?

Ed McDaniel: I'm happy to be here. Thanks for the opportunity. The reason I am running is we need a change in Richmond. You cannot keep electing the same people and expect different results. Go ahead and elect the same people and I promise you that you will have the same complaints that you have right now, two years from now, and then four years from now.

As far as Robert goes, I love him to death. I always have, always will. If he’s the next mayor again, I wish him all the luck in the world. But Richmond needs a different perspective. The guy's been in office now 24 years.

What's funny to me is that everybody—and it doesn't matter who you are—they all have complaints about the city of Richmond. Our streets are horrible. Our infrastructure is bad, whatever. But he's been involved in every single one of the votes that could have taken care of these problems, and none of these things have been fixed yet. So what makes anybody think another four years is going to make a difference?

I admire the Commission’s attitudes towards the growth of Richmond, but I believe that there've been a lot of things overlooked the last few years in Richmond, primarily the infrastructure. And we’re at a point now where we have to do something about it. It can’t go another four years with all these new [housing] developments. We’re going to see more flooding like what we saw a couple months ago, if that’s the case. 

The overall quality of life that our citizens have is another issue. You have some up there in City Hall that’ve proven what’s most important to them. It’s development. It’s not infrastructure, it’s not quality of life. This is what we’ve seen over the last four years. It’s not hard to see the way that they vote where their heart’s at. 

TE: Can you give more detail on that, please?

EM: I won’t mention any names, but if you have a couple of commissioners sitting up there that have strong ties to developers in this area, development’s not going to stop. We need to get back on track where it’s just Richmond first. We should take care of our citizens, our infrastructure, provide the people of Richmond with what we’re supposed to be providing them as far as the proper municipal services, good roads to drive on, good sidewalks to walk on, that’s our responsibility. We haven’t done that in a long time. 

TE: Is a lack of services the main issue facing Richmond right now?

EM: I don’t know that I would say it’s the lack of services, but I would say that it is those available services not being directed where they should be for the current needs of the city at this time.

TE: What are the main issues you have with City Hall?

EM: One thing is transparency.

TE: Can you cite an example, please?

EM: You have an extraordinary amount of executive sessions that have taken place over the last several years with no explanation as to what those sessions were about. And I have seen how open record requests submitted to the city are taking longer than usual to get. When you do get them, a lot of the pertinent information is redacted. 

I also don't think it's right that the City doesn't allow comments on social media. That's the people's Facebook page, even though the City manages it. The people have the right to be able to make a comment on something and not be restricted or muffled by the City that's supposed to be representing them. If you have a citizen that has a legitimate concern, why shouldn’t that person be able to make comments? And why shouldn’t the City take that seriously?

TE: If you are elected, how will your administration be different from Blythe's?

EM: It’d be an open door policy. Being available, that’s the main thing. The most important thing is being there for the people whenever they need you. Whenever you need me I’ll be there. I can’t ever imagine someone trying to get a hold of me and not being able to. I don’t think I’d be able to sleep until I called that person back to find out what’s wrong. Tell me your concerns, tell me your gripes. I’ll listen to the good and the bad. 

TE: Are you saying that Blythe is unavailable?

EM: I think that the Mayor could do a better job of making himself more available to his constituents. I have heard several complaints where folks have tried to call or email the Mayor and have not received any response. Another example is the Mayor’s lack of social media presence. At a minimum, I think that the mayor of the city should have a social media page where constituents can reach out to him. 

TE: Reports are that lately you've been living on a houseboat on Lake Cumberland. By law, you can't run for mayor in a town where you don't live, so how do you explain this and what are you going to do about the situation?

EM: I’ve always wanted to own a houseboat and there was a family matter that came up and the opportunity to buy one was there. I moved to the houseboat temporarily, just two months. It was a rest and recharge situation because of personal matters and to get everything ready for the fall election. I’m getting a place fixed up right now on West Main Street downtown [in Richmond]. So, I will be moving back to town before the election.

TE: When, exactly?

EM: I’m hoping to be back here by mid-October.

TE: How have you been getting the word out about your campaign?

EM: We’re looking at running some radio ads. Of course, we’re going to try to stay pretty active on social media. We’ll do some other ads, and other than that we’re going to do a ground attack. We’re going to go out and hand out flyers in neighborhoods and beat the street as they say, try to make up some ground.

Right now the City’s pushing Robert hard. Getting him out at all the events, making sure they photograph it. They’re giving him quite a platform. I don't think I've ever seen Blythe at so many different ribbon cuttings and little events here and there.

TE: Is that the City helping Blythe, or is that him leveraging his access to events by showing up to them more than he has in the past?

EM: The Mayor's schedule is made by City Hall. Every appearance the Mayor makes, City Hall has arranged it. And for this election cycle, the Mayor has been awful busy. And the City's public relations team is making every effort to produce all photos of the Mayor and his scheduled activities on their social media, giving him a great platform. 

But then the City turns off the comments whenever they make posts about him so that nobody can voice their opinion. The City is pretty much putting him up on a pedestal right now. I think when the City gets involved in elections and helps the candidates that they want, and not allowing comments on social media, it really stacks the deck. They're making sure they get their guy back in there.

TE: Who exactly are you saying wants Blythe back in there?

EM: The people that support him obviously. Other than that, I think a lot of big developers would love to see Robert Blythe back in office. 

TE: Why do you want to run for mayor if you don't think you can win? 

EM: I know that a lot of people in Richmond are saying we need a different perspective because the one that we have right now isn't working for us at all.

Even if I lose, I’m still going to be involved. I’m still going to voice my opinion when things aren’t being done the way that maybe they should be. I’ll always go to the events, make myself known, go to the meetings, and always keep a voice. 

TE: What if you do win? And what if Commissioner Jim Newby also wins? You guys don't get along. How would that work?

EM: We’re not pen pals, we’re not Facebook buddies, we never will be. But we’ve worked together fine. The funny thing is that we both have a lot of the same perspectives as each other. We don't like each other individually, but we've proven that we can work together because we've done it before. And I would expect the exact same if I were elected and he were reelected. We'd say, 'We're going to work together, do what's right for Richmond, and see you at the next meeting.'” 

Newby is Newby, and I'm sure he would say Ed is Ed. I've got that 'shoot from the hip' personality. 

TE: Many voters might not believe a mayor’s personality should be so abrasive, though.

EM: You want to have a certain degree of tact but you also don’t want to sugar coat something until it doesn’t have the same meaning. You want to be straightforward with what you’re saying because you want the message to be delivered and understood. If I’m mayor and something can be done I’ll do my best to do it, if it can’t, I’ll tell you why it can’t be done. I won’t lie. 

The public, they know just about everything about me by now. If they elect me, I’ll be there. I’ll do everything that I said I’ll do. You can go back and look at any of the times I’ve been elected. I’ve always kept every single promise I’ve ever made. And I’ll do it this time as well. But if not, I understand. No hard feelings. I’ll still be around and I wish the victorious parties well.

TE: Any parting thoughts?

EM: All I have is an opinion of where I think we should be heading. If I win, I don’t care what kind of past we have. There’s nothing personal. You have to be professional and you have to extend that professional courtesy because the fact of the matter is Commissioners are there because the people wanted them there. We've got one job to do, and that's to take care of the City of Richmond.