--- title: Diamond, a Dog, Enters Mayoral Race in Upstate New York description: The 13-year-old pooch is running as "Schenectady's best friend." canonical: https://time.com/3945322/dog-mayor-new-york/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-02T22:24:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:48:21.718Z og:title: Meet Diamond, the Dog Running for Mayor in Upstate New York og:description: The 13-year-old pooch is running as "Schenectady's best friend" og:url: https://time.com/3945322/dog-mayor-new-york/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Meet Diamond, the Dog Running for Mayor in Upstate New York twitter:description: The 13-year-old pooch is running as "Schenectady's best friend" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # A Dog Is Running for Mayor in Upstate New York > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=edbf3e0b-58f1-43f2-8a60-3f8f7457ccaf&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Inside the Canine Mind [Watch (HLS stream): Inside the Canine Mind](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/dTemQHb7.m3u8) (2:08)  _Published 2009-09-11. Professor Brian Hare at Duke University studies people's pet dogs to understand how canines think_ by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jul 2, 2015 10:24 PM UTC by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jul 2, 2015 10:24 PM UTC The latest candidate to enter the race for mayor in Schenectady, N.Y. doesn’t just have a leg up on her competition—she has two. Diamond, a 13-year-old dog, is running as a write-in candidate in the city’s race. And according to the [_Daily Gazette_](http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2015/jul/01/canine-mayoral-candidate-faces-ruff-campaign/), she’s running as “Schenectady’s best friend.” > [](https://twitter.com/HRViccaro/status/616569374992953344) Diamond’s entrance into the race for mayor—which features three human candidates, Mayor Gary McCarthy, Roger Hull and Chris Gibbs—isn’t the first time a four-legged friend of the upstate town has made a foray into local politics. In 2007, Sparky the cat ran for mayor, followed by Roger the cat in 2011\. In 1999, the [_Gazette_ ](http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2015/jul/01/canine-mayoral-candidate-faces-ruff-campaign/)reports, Loffredo the dog entered a mayoral race. No furry candidate, of course, has actually won, but McCarthy and Hull told the paper they welcome the competition. “I assume our paths will cross in the campaign,” McCarthy said of Diamond. \[[The Daily Gazette](http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2015/jul/01/canine-mayoral-candidate-faces-ruff-campaign/)\] ## Transcript >> Henry. >> Henry. >> Henry. >> Henry. >> Okay. The mission of the Duke Canine Cognition Center-- >> One, two, three, go. >> is to understand dog Psychology in a way that people really haven't been looking at dogs until very recently. Dogs have shared an evolutionary history with us over the last 10, 000 or 15, 000 years at least. They solve problems more like we do, in many cases, more like we do than our closest relatives, Chimpanzees and Bonobos. We wanna study people's pets because there's no dog on the planet that's more sophisticated than a dog that has to manipulate or understand what its owner wishes, and what its owner is trying to get it to do. >> Henry. >> One of the games that we are presenting is a very simple game to try to understand how dogs understand our gestural communication. >> Here we go. Good job, Henry. >> The question is how do dogs understand that information and how do they use it? We wanna understand what, is the effect of domestication on dog psychology. >> We'll let them meet and then we could know, and then maybe he'll calm down. >> Hello. This is Bruno. >> Why is it that some breeds solve problems differently than others? >> Where is it? I don't have it. >> Since he's doing so good we're just gonna use his gaze or which cup he's standing closest to as his choice. >> The goal of all the research is really to understand what is it about our species that is so unique or different? >> Bruno! [ unk ] or dad? Boy, this is crazy business you're making me do. He's like, why don't you just give me the food? Bruno! Okay bye, Bruno. >> Bye, Bruno! >> Bye! Thanks for coming! Here you go-- one more for the road, Bruno, one more for the road. There you go big guy. 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