It's not been a great 24 hours for John Dingfelder and Linda Saul-Sena, two Tampa Democrats who intended to catapult from the Tampa City Council to Hillsborough County Commission later this year.
The two intended to serve out as much as their terms before resigning prior to the November 2 election, but instead both had to leave the council overnight, when they realized that they had missed the deadline to submit a letter to the Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections office indicating that they intend to run for another office.
Both qualified for the November ballot last Friday, June 18, the deadline to do so. However, state election law states that they must submit a letter indicating as such a full 10 days before that date, and neither did so.
According to University of Tampa Political Science professor Scott Paine, a judge can still throw them off the November ballot if their qualifications are challenged. In fact, Paine says a judge would have to do so.
However, what would happen next would allow the two to still run in November. If the Democrats had no candidates in the District 1 race (for Dingfelder) and District 5 seat (for Saul-Sena), the Secretary of State's office would request the Hillsborough Democratic Executive Committee to choose a candidate.
According to Jennifer Krell Davis with the Division of Elections office in Tallahassee, the party could then re-submit Dingfelder and Saul-Sena's names to their respective races (Hillsborough County Republican Party chair Deborah Cox-Roush told CL the party is contemplating taking action, but has not decided at this time).
CL contacted Saul-Sena Thursday afternoon. She steadfastly refused to answer questions about how or why she missed the deadline, and insisted that she is now focused exclusively on running and winning the County seat against Republican Ken Hagan and independent Jim Hosler.
She did say she intends to write two letters to her former colleagues on the council. One will be on her hopes that they select a replacement for her that would have a design background. She says that with the council having to make so many land-use decisions, somebody with a background as a planner or in architecture would be optimal.
The resignation of the two council members leaves a big void for the body, who will choose replacements for Dingfelder and Saul-Sena within the next 30 days.
UT professor Scott Paine says that experience will be missed come later this summer, as the city works on a new budget that must be approved by October 1. "It's a tough budget year," he said.
This article appears in Jun 24-30, 2010.