Former Madison alder and Common Council President Syed Abbas announced at an event Thursday that he is joining the race for mayor in next spring’s election.
“I do believe… Madison is at a very important point of time in history where we need leadership who can listen, bring people together, and focus on making city government work for everyone,” he said in an interview ahead of the announcement.
He noted a number of policy positions and proposals he would pursue, including a half-percent sales tax, a thorough review of the city budget to find efficiencies, public-private partnerships to increase housing development, a community intervention office reporting directly to the mayor, and several others.
He was sharply critical of incumbent Satya Rhodes-Conway, who announced earlier this summer that she will seek a third term, mainly for what he sees as a lack of community engagement.
“I have seen a pattern of ignoring community, community input, and community engagement, and decisions are made… in vacuum, and I decided that that need to be changed,” he said of one of the reasons he decided to run.
He said Rhodes-Conway’s response to the fallout of the police shooting of Corey Ruiz is just one example, noting that she never made an appearance at the memorial site at the corner of Baldwin and Williamson.
“She delegated instead of being down there, understanding the community’s emotions, engaging with them,” Abbas said. “People are asking publicly, ‘Mayor, we need to know what you can do for the community. How can we do healing?’ People are asking for healing, requir[ing] leadership, and she never showed up … this is a pattern.”
Rhodes-Conway said at a Common Council question and answer session that she felt appearing at the site would “make it about me,” and criticized other politicians who did go there.
Abbas also said Rhodes-Conway missed an opportunity to get more shared revenue from the state by not hiring lobbyists to work the state legislature until January 2022, which he said was months too late.
“By that time, most of the decisions are made,” he said. “People start lobbying (for state budget allocations) in July and August.They meet with the agency. They meet with the governor’s office. They meet with the co-chair of their committees, like the Joint Finance Committee, and then… you work with the governor, and the governor proposes a budget. It was too late. It was lobbying very, very late, and we missed the window.”
Abbas touted his own experience in state government as one of the things he brings to the race: Since March of 2024, he’s worked as deputy legislative director for the state Department of Health Services, and has “had a great relationship on the both side of the aisle, and I understand how politics really work in state capital and how we can get things done,” he said.
Policy proposals
In an interview, Abbas laid out a number of policy proposals and priorities, including:
- 0.5% local sales tax. Abbas said a half-percent sales tax, which would require state legislative approval, could bring in $40 million, about 30% of which would come from people who don’t live in Madison. “
- Comprehensive city budget review. Abbas said city government contains many redundancies, and some departments could be scaled back without costing services to residents. He also noted that some city incentive programs are outdated; for example, the city offers a $100 incentive for anyone buying a water-efficient toilet, but the only toilets available now are water-efficient, so an incentive is unnecessary.
- Regional Transit Authority (RTA) — Abbas to work with the state legislature to revive the RTA (with was created in 2009, and ended under the Walker administration) so transportation costs are shared regionally rather than falling solely on Madison residents
- First-time homebuyer condo program — Abbas would direct a large share of new sales tax revenue toward partnering with small nonprofit/private developers to build condos for first-time buyers (teachers, union workers, store managers, first-generation buyers)
- Rent-to-ownership conversion program — Abbas wants to identify affordable housing developments nearing the end of their 15- or 30-year tax credit terms and work with developers to convert units from rental to ownership
- Community intervention program — Abbas proposes a program housed directly under the mayor’s office that pairs police, nonprofits, and service providers (housing, employment, mental health, substance abuse) to intervene with youth/individuals after repeated police contact, before situations escalate to crisis
Abbas was elected to represent the East Side on the Common Council in 2019 and served two terms, including a year as council vice president and a year as president. He ran unsuccessfully in 2022 for State Assembly in the 46th District, coming second in the Democratic primary to Melissa Ratcliff, then opted not to seek a third term on the Common Council.
Abbas came to Madison in 2016 to join clean energy firm Slipstream as a project manager, eventually becoming director of education and training. That move came after stints in New York with the United Nations and Stratera Capital. He’s served on a number of nonprofit boards and civic committees.
He is the second candidate to announce a challenge to Rhodes-Conway, after former Alder Brian Benford announced his candidacy in a press release Thursday morning. The nonpartisan primary election will be held Tuesday, February 14, 2027; the top two candidates will then face off in the general election on April 6.
