[3] He was elected on the list of centrist and socialist politicians led by Gaston Defferre against the Gaullist party Union for the New Republic (UNR).

In 1988, after the dissolution of the National Assembly, he was again re-elected, for the fourth time, deputy of the Rhône delta for 2nd district of Marseille, with 60.63% of the votes cast.

[citation needed] From June 1995 to September 1996, Gaudin was president of football club Olympique de Marseille.

[6] On 7 November 1995, on a proposal from Alain Juppé, President Jacques Chirac named Jean-Claude Gaudin Minister for Integration and City and Regional Planning.

[citation needed] In 2004, Gaudin was interim president of the UMP after Alain Juppé stepped down and before Nicolas Sarkozy was elected.

[13] In May 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Gaudin announced ordering 1.5 million face masks for residents of Marseille, and advocated a policy of voluntary screening.

Soon after, he was named by the new mayor as head of the ecumenical association Marseille Espérance,[15][16] founded in 1990 by his predecessor Robert Vigouroux.

[17] A few months after Gaudin stepped down as mayor, a preliminary hearing related to supposed no-show jobs at the Marseille City Hall, started after a system of false recordkeeping of SAMU Social employees' attendance was revealed, and led the Parquet national financier (PNF) to send him, with six of his relatives, before the tribunal correctionnel.

[18][19][20] The conclusions of the PNF call out his management of human resources by pointing out undue overtime, as well as unjustified absenteeism in the SAMU Social[21] and in the museums and libraries of the city.

[22] During the hearings, Gaudin regularly justified himself by mentioning a "social peace" and the fear of trade union reactions.

Jean-Claude Gaudin and four of his associates ended up pleading guilty of "neglectful embezzlement" in a plea bargain procedure.

[30] On 26 September 2016, Gaudin was awarded the Plaque rank of the Order of the Aztec Eagle by the president of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto.