It was good times at the Children's Board in Ybor City on Monday night, as the Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee voted unanimously to nominate Linda Saul-Sena to run in the District 5 seat this November against Republican Ken Hagan and independent Jim Hosler.
The vote came hours after Saul-Sena stepped down as a candidate, a la John Dingfelder weeks before, as an attempt to legally pave the way to maintain her viability amidst a lawsuit filed by a Hillsborough Republican last week. That suit claims should she should be ineligible to run, after missing a deadline when she announced she would be running for the county commission seat.
Earlier this month, John Dingfelder did a similar move, but Saul-Sena's campaign team remained resolute, saying it wasn't necessary. Now apparently it is. When asked about the about face, Saul-Sena campaign adviser Mitch Kates said, "we weren't lawyered up," earlier, but after consulting with an election attorney, they now believe it's the best move to maintain ballot viability.
In brief remarks to the crowd, Kates mentioned how there is only 16 more weekends until Election Day 2010. He said that the Saul-Sena camp had distributed 20,000 pieces of literature throughout the county to get the word out about Saul-Sena, who is best known as being a representative of the South Tampa/Davis Islands area,
Dingfelder was not at that meeting two weeks ago, nor was Saul-Sena present Monday night. But Dingfelder did briefly address the Democrats, saying he wanted to thank for re-nominating after his embarrassing snafu.
He also was there to wish Yvonne Yolie Capin the very best.
Capin was named (on the 17th ballot) earlier on Monday by the current Tampa City Council to replace Dingfelder as an interim member until next March. Capin is perhaps best known for her unsuccessful bid as a Democrat in District 57 House race in 2008, losing to Republican incumbent Faye Culp.
