Although she said she wouldn't run again if the Tampa City Council selected her last summer to succeed John Dingfelder in Tampa's District 4 seat, Yolie Capin now says she's changed her mind, and has filed to run for the council in the District 3 race.
"When the question was 'do you intend to run?' I said 'no,' and .. honestly the way I answered was the way I felt at that time." But Capin says now that she's served on the body for several months, she says that she thinks she can do more if elected for four more years.
Capin said another incentive to run again was simply to give voters that choice, despite her earlier word that she wouldn't run. She feels that the council's recent vote banning members who leave office before their term is finished to run in the next election to be unfair, and reinforces her feeling that the voters should decide on the wisdom of voting for such candidates (which was unmistakably directed at John Dingfelder and Linda Saul-Sena). "We really don't need to legislate that, and that weighed on me."
But some of her opponents in the District 3 race don't think much of her about face.
Seth Nelson said "it's disappointing that she breached the public trust." He added that the voters lose confidence in elected officials who go back against their word. "That's the problem when officials act in this manner. The general public feels this is politics as usual, and that's what's happening."
Another candidate in the race, Jason Wilson, wrote in a press release that "Ms. Capin's entry into our race provides the voters with more choice of names – but not an increased choice in perspective. I am the only candidate for District 3 that gives voters a chance to change this current City Council and create a more a participatory democracy with an outside physician voice that has no ties to zoning ordinances or building codes – my only interest is making Tampa a better place."
Upon hearing the criticism for her going back on her word, Capin said she has "to own up to it," adding, "I'm really, really sorry that I said no. I wish I had said 'I don't intend to.'"
This article appears in Nov 18-24, 2010.