Riverside City Councilman Mike Gardner, who previously announced he wouldn’t campaign for re-election, now wants to clarify: He won’t raise money, go door to door, or send mailers, but he’s still “willing to serve Ward 1” if people vote for him.

Gardner finished second to nonprofit manager Erin Edwards of MATCH International Women’s Fund in June’s three-candidate election to represent the City Council ward, which includes downtown. Because neither received more than 50%, the two will be on the ballot for a run-off Nov. 5.

Gardner said July 5 that he wouldn’t campaign for the seat because Edwards’ vote total and support from Democratic lawmakers led him to conclude he couldn’t win without a “partisan and confrontational” race, which he said he was unwilling to run.

But in a Thursday, July 25, follow-up post on Facebook, Gardner said he still thought it was important that he remain on the council.

“I believe my knowledge, experience and leadership style are critical to the city at this point in time,” Gardner wrote, alongside a list of his achievements since first being elected in 2007. “With a looming budget challenge, a homeless (crisis) and major projects looking to come to Ward 1 and the city, now is not the time to have inexperienced newcomers comprising a majority of the Council.”

Four of Riverside’s seven council seats are up for election in November, and Gardner is the only incumbent on the ballot.

In an interview, Gardner said he could have run a campaign without being partisan or confrontational, but he instead decided not to campaign at all.

“It’s not something that I want to do,” he said, without elaborating. “I’m not going to do a traditional campaign and deal with what I regard as interference in a local nonpartisan race by state or national political figures.”

He said Edwards’ endorsers — including the local Democratic party as well as Democratic state and federal legislators such as Mark Takano, D-Riverside — were inappropriate.

“If a person owes a political party, they get distracted from doing the work that they (should be) doing,” he said. “It makes it more difficult to do what the city, as opposed to the party, needs to do.”

Gardner used campaign funds for several years to pay dues for the Lincoln Club of Riverside County, which says on its website that it aims to “develop leaders for local, state and national office” and “facilitate the appointment of local Republicans to positions in state and federal government.” He said he left the organization because he disagreed with comments made by its leaders.

“It is a partisan group, and I don’t have a problem with partisan groups,” he said, “but I don’t want them in nonpartisan elections.”

Edwards said she didn’t feel beholden to those who endorsed her.

“An endorsement means a policymaker has put trust in my ability,” she said. “It is true that our policymakers in those roles have partisan affiliations, but in order to really address the issues that we’re facing in our city — like a lack of housing that is affordable, as just one example — we are going to need good relationships with our state and federal policymakers.”

Edwards said voters should remember that three veteran council members will remain in office, regardless of the election results.

“That history won’t be lost,” she said. “So we need to make sure there are people at that table who look and think differently than we do, always, so we can really understand issues.”

Gardner said he wasn’t directly asking people to vote for him — “I think people should always vote for the person they think will do the best job and represent their views best,” he said.

If a debate is scheduled, he said he probably would participate in that traditional campaign activity, depending on the format.

“I think there is value in talking about how the city can best approach some of its big problems, and I have some thoughts along those lines that I think would be useful to any council member,” he said.

Edwards said she has continued campaigning after Gardner’s first announcement and would continue to do so.

“We’ve been working hard for about two years now,” she said, referring to her campaign team, “and with Mike’s announcement, we felt that it was more important than ever to talk to as many residents as possible. I think the way you campaign shows what kind of a leader you will be. What I hope people have learned about me is that I will be the kind of leader that will listen, find places where we can agree and ways to move forward on the issues.”