TONY Galati says the joke is over — he is, in fact, now running for the seat of Baldivis.

The spud king of WA has had a birthday to remember.

Camera Icon Reece Whitby, who is also running for Baldivis Credit: News Limited

He started his 55th birthday with an April Fool’s Day joke announcing his candidacy for the seat of Baldivis and finished the day confirming he would run.

Mr Galati said he received countless calls for support following his radio prank, prompting him to officially throw his hat in the ring for the March 2017 State Election.

“It started as a prank but the amount of support I’ve had today in just those three or four hours is just amazing,” he said.

“The community really want someone who will speak out and be there for them.”

Mr Galati said he recently was approached to consider a tilt politics recently but was hesitant.

“I still need to find out what the workload is but I think I can handle it because I’ve got a pretty big support team around me.”

“If they all contributed a couple of hours each we’d get most of (the campaign) done.”

He will be up against Labor candidate Reece Whitby for the new seat of Baldivis and will hope to leverage his business and people experience.

“I look the economy is and it’s a mess so if I can improve things, I’ve got a lot of experience in business and with people, then I’d like to help,” Mr Galati said.

“Baldivis is where our farm is, it’s where my kids grew up and where we have our original Spudshed — we’re part of that community.”

Mr Galati conceded it would “be a little bit hard” to run his Spudshed chain and politics but he was confident he could manage the workload.

“I do a lot of hours and I’m fairly fortunate I don’t need much sleep,” he said.

“If I’m dedicated and determined to do something, I will put the time into it — especially if I see people will benefit from it.”