Editing Douglas Wilder (section)

==Mayor of Richmond==
On May 30, 2004, Wilder announced his intention to run for [[Mayor of Richmond, Virginia|Mayor of Richmond]].  Until 2004, the Richmond [[City Council]] had chosen the mayor from among its 9 members. The move to change this policy succeeded in November 2003 when voters approved a mayor-at-large [[referendum]], with roughly 80 percent voting in favor of the measure. Wilder was a leading proponent of the mayor-at-large proposal.

On November 2, 2004, Wilder received 79% of the vote (55,319 votes) to become the first [[direct election|directly elected]] mayor of the city in sixty years. Upon winning the election, Wilder communicated his intentions to take on [[political corruption|corruption]] in the city government, issuing several ultimatums to the sitting city council before he took office. He was sworn in on January 2, 2005.

He was a member of the [[Everytown for Gun Safety|Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org/html/about/members.shtml |title=Mayors Against Illegal Guns: Coalition Members |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070306180747/http://www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org/html/about/members.shtml |archive-date=March 6, 2007  }}</ref> a [[Bipartisanship|bipartisan]] group with a stated goal of "making the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets." The Coalition was co-chaired by former [[Boston]] Mayor [[Thomas Menino]] and former [[New York City]] Mayor [[Michael Bloomberg]].

On May 16, 2008, Wilder announced that he would not seek reelection to another four-year term as mayor.