Before a crowd of about 75 supporters, Turner declared that Dayton has prospered in the four years since voters embraced a political unknown pushing for change, but more work must be done as a new millennium nears.
"I want to bring that new hope back to Dayton again as we plan for the 21st century," Turner said, one of three times in the short address he used the phrase "21st century."
The incumbent Republican spoke from the front porch of a renovated house in the McPherson Town neighborhood. He said the home, once blighted and now refurbished, represents a small part of the new beginning he has brought to the city.
The mayor's race should be the marquee political contest in Montgomery County this year. Together, Democrats and Republicans may spend several hundred thousand dollars on races for mayor and two city commission seats, party leaders said.
A kickoff for the Democrats' slate of Tony Capizzi for mayor and Lloyd Lewis Jr. and Mary Wiseman for commission will be held within several weeks, said Dennis Lieberman, county Democratic Party chairman.
In his announcement, Turner emphasized his work on crime. He said the police force will have 40 new officers by year's end, and during his tenure, police response time has dropped 40 percent while violent crime has fallen 16 percent.
However, those new police officers have yet to hit the streets, Turner acknowledged later. In fact, the city's police force actually has decreased from 481 officers in 1993 to 458 today, despite the addition of seven federally funded officers, a police spokeswoman said. Turner said cadets now enrolled in the academy will boost the force by year's end, thus meeting his campaign promise of a 10 percent increase by 1998.
Turner also proposed the establishment of a regional housing court to hear housing code violations. He said downtown is "energized" for development and took credit for the city balancing the budget the past four years, something city officials failed to do the previous eight years.
"It's important to go the direction we are going - toward change," Turner said.
Turner predicted a negative campaign from City Commissioner Capizzi, his Democratic opponent. But Capizzi said he expects the negativity to come from Turner.
"He ran a negative campaign against Clay Dixon and I'm sure he'll run a negative campaign against me," said Capizzi, adding that he will emphasize his 13-year tenure on the commission, juvenile crime and regional cooperation in his campaign.
"I absolutely won't run negative," he said. "The good news is, with my record, I don't have to."