If last week’s resignation from the Tampa City Council by John Dingfelder wasn’t stunning enough, Dingfelder one upped himself today by announcing he’s dropping out of the race to run in the District One Hillsborough County Commission race. In a letter sent to supporters today, Dingfelder wrote:
I’ve given this decision a lot of thought over the last week and after speaking to my family and supporters I concluded that, even though it’s a very difficult one, I believe this is the right path to take. After carefully evaluating all my options, I concluded that the best way to move forward is to take the action I’ve taken today. It was my desire to wage a campaign that focused on the issues important to the citizens of Hillsborough County, not to run a campaign that is dogged by threats of litigation unrelated to the challenges and issues facing our county. This is one of the most difficult decisions I’ve had to make as a public servant.
It is no secret that in response to this withdrawal, the law mandates that my party must choose the candidate who will be on the ballot in November. If the party selects someone else, I will support that candidate. However, if the party selects me, I will accept that honor and nomination with renewed vigor.
We’re told that local Democratic party chair Pat Kemp is scrambling to find a place for a meeting Wednesday night for the party to choose a replacement, which as Dingfelder says, still could be him.
Dingfelder is reacting in part to Hillsborough County Republican Executive Committee chair Deborah Cox-Roush saying that lawyers for the party were preparing to challenge Dingfelder’s place on the ballot, after he admitted last week he failed to turn in the paperwork in time to the supervisor of elections office that he would be resigning his seat to run for county commission.
We’ll update this post when we’ve got more information to report.
This article appears in Jun 24-30, 2010.
