Buttigieg there as Mueller wins South Bend Democratic mayoral nomination

James Mueller held his victory celebration in the iconic watering hole made famous by the movie "Rudy."

A makeshift stage at Corby’s Irish Pub was perhaps the perfect place for still-mayor and presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg to symbolically hand off power to his high school classmate.

“It’s without hesitation I believe I’m introducing to you the next mayor of the City of South Bend, James Mueller,” Buttigieg told the crowd.

Buttigieg recruited Mueller to join his home team administration some three and a half years ago.

“I realize we're at this critical moment in the city, and we had to figure out how we could keep the momentum going and keep building on the progress and looked around and decided that I needed to step up and deliver that,” said Mueller.

While Mueller admits he’s not the typical politician and may not be as flashy as his current boss, Mueller is apparently known for a Rudy-like work ethic.

“He's got a very no nonsense problem solving style. He’s not as much of a showman. Maybe that's a good thing for the city, but what I know is that he works ridiculously hard, he cares, he knows what he's doing, and he's got a knack for finding solutions to complicated problems,” Buttigieg explained.