TROY — The city’s Democrats will see a rerun from 2015 as Mayor Patrick Madden faces a primary challenge from former City Council President Rodney Wiltshire.

“We’re getting the signatures to petition the spot on the ballot,” Wiltshire said.

While Wiltshire initially did not plan to campaign this time around, when petitioning began Feb. 26 “I was persuaded and encouraged by people to run,” he said.

The Wiltshire and Madden campaigns will have to obtain about 472 valid signatures from the city’s 9,455 enrolled Democratic voters to get on the June 25 primary ballot. There are nearly three times as many Democrats as Republicans in the city.

Madden said he would run on his record, which shows how his administration has stabilized the city's finances by regaining the state's and financial market's confidence in the city's fiscal operations. He also said his record reflects that he restarted stalled projects such as the South Troy truck bypass and provided an environment that is fostering $250 million in private investment in the city.

The two mayoral candidates were part of a three-way Democratic primary fight in September 2015 that saw Madden defeat Wiltshire and Ernest Everett. Madden then beat Wiltshire on the Working Families Party line and former Republican Councilman Jim Gordon to win the three-way general election.

Gary Galuski, the city Democratic chairman, said Wiltshire's decision to run was "unfortunate."

“Since I’ve been chairman, the party has opened up the (candidate selection) process to as many applicants as possible,” Galuski said. Wiltshire "chose not to go through the process."

While the Republicans lost the race for mayor four years ago, the battle between the Madden and Wiltshire slates resulted in the GOP securing majority control of the City Council. That’s a scenario city Democrats don’t want to see happen again.

“When we stand together, we win,” Galuski said.

Republican mayoral candidate Tom Reale leads a slate that includes incumbent Council President Carmella Mantello and Councilman Jim Gulli of the 1st District.

Wiltshire said he decided to run after seeing Madden’s administration raising property taxes, instituting a trash fee, closing the South Troy and Knickerbacker Park swimming polls and failing to provide services to taxpayers.

The results of the 2015 election, Wiltshire said, proved that winning the Democratic primary is the key to winning the general election.

Wiltshire said he would be able to work with the City Council slate that the Democratic Committee has endorsed. Councilman Anasha Cummings of the 4th District, Councilman David Bissember of the 5th District — who is running for council president — and former Councilman Ken Zalewski, who is running in the 5th District, have all worked with Wiltshire before.

Galuski said the endorsement of Cummings, Bissember and Zalewski shows how the city’s Democrats have united not just this year but in 2017, the first election after the 2015 party fight. In 2017, Cummings and Bissember were the endorsed party candidates.

Madden has $40,535 in his campaign treasury as of January, according to his most recent filing with the state Board of Elections. Wiltshire’s previous campaign committee was terminated in January, according to the online reports.

Reale has not yet formed a campaign committee.