A candidate for mayor says he’s ‘a lifelong Philadelphian.’ His voter registration says something else.

John Wood is new to politics and off to a lucky start, pulling the first ballot position in Philadelphia’s packed Democratic primary for mayor in a drawing Wednesday.

He’s also — sort of — new to the Democratic Party.

Pennsylvania voter registration records reviewed by The Inquirer show Wood, a retired Philadelphia Police lieutenant, at times has been a Republican and an independent in Philadelphia, as well as in Montgomery and Chester Counties.

Wood was registered as an independent, with an address in Malvern, Chester County, when his registration was updated on Oct. 28 of last year to list a Philadelphia address. His party affiliation changed to Democrat at that time.

Wood, in an interview, said he did not understand why his voter registration listed the Malvern address.

“That’s where my mom lives,” Wood said of the Malvern address. “I did not register to vote there. I’m at my mother’s a lot.”

Candidates for mayor must live in the city for three years before the general election, which will be held Nov. 7 this year.

But Wood will have been registered to vote in the city for less than a year before the election to replace term-limited Mayor Jim Kenney.

Wood, who retired from the Police Department in 2020 after 31 years, said he has lived in Philadelphia longer than the required three years.

He described himself as “a lifelong Philadelphian” but declined to say if he had ever lived outside of the city, citing work “in intelligence services” that required secrecy.

“I’m not going to comment further on that,” he said.

Wood was also evasive when asked about being registered previously as a Republican and as an independent.

“I’ve never voted outside of the city of Philadelphia,” he said. “I’ll say it’s accurate that I voted for Jim Kenney as a Democrat. That’s the most I’m going to say.”

It is unclear what, if any, impact all of this could have on Wood’s candidacy, which was little-known until Wednesday, when he pulled the first ballot position in a 12-candidate primary.

The deadline to file legal challenges against candidates to keep them off the May 16 ballot passed on Tuesday. No challenges were filed against Wood.

Voting records show Wood was registered to vote in Philadelphia when he changed his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat in 2013. He switched back to Republican in 2016 before the presidential primary was held in April. He then registered as an independent in 2017.

Wood switched his voter registration to an address in Wynnewood, Montgomery County, in 2021 and then to Malvern in 2022.

Wood said he also did not know why his registration lists Wynnewood.

“That’s my mother-in-law’s home,” he said. “I don’t know what happened there. I’m there a lot. I did not vote in Wynnewood.”

Montgomery County property records show Wood purchased a house in Lafayette Hill last May. Wood said that property is a rental and he spends a lot of time there fixing up the property.

Wood, in his campaign filings, listed his address as a small, two-story twin house that he does not own on a narrow street in Roxborough.

Asked how long he has lived there, Wood noted he told Philadelphia Magazine in an interview this week that he has lived there “about a year.”

“I was already asked that question,” he said. “I’m sticking with that.”