Jessica Spillers expects the question.

No one was surprised when the frequent critic of Mayor Jay Ruais’s job performance announced her intention to seek reelection to her Ward 8 school board seat this fall.

But when the married mother of three young children switched things up and announced a run for mayor instead — on the next-to-last day of this summer’s candidate filing period — even longtime political observers were caught off guard.

So she anticipates the question posed by a Union Leader reporter during a stroll through her Jobin Drive neighborhood. Why take on a popular incumbent with a sizable political war chest at his disposal?

Spillers, 37, says running for mayor of the city she loves is “personal.”

“I’ve lived here since 2016, I’m a part of this community, and I have three

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