Two-time elected Tampa City Councilman John Dingfelder has resigned from his seat in the past 24 hours, saying he needed to do so to keep him eligible for a Hiilsborough County Commission seat that he is running for this November.
In a letter submitted last night to his fellow members on the Council, Dingfelder wrote:
When I qualified to run for County Commission I filed all necessary documents, and was proud to have qualified by petition.
When you run for another office, and hold office, you must also file a “resign to run” letter. I did not realize at that time, that the resign to run letter was due days earlier. As soon as I was made aware of this oversight, I felt I had to do the right thing and resign immediately; so that’s what I have done.
While a technicality, I want to do the right thing, so my resignation is effective today.
As the St. Pete Times Janet Zink reports this morning, state election law demands that elected officials that are running for another office must submit a letter 10 days before the deadline to file, indicating that they will be resigning their current gig. The deadline was last Friday, June 18. Dingfelder did not send in his letter until last Tuesday, June 15. He says a provision in the law allow him to be on the ballot if he resigned immediately, which is what he has done.
Dingfelder is running as a Democrat in the District 1 County Commission seat currently held by Rose Ferlita, who has not officially announced her plans yet, but has essentially said she will be running for Mayor of Tampa next year. The two Republicans in the race are Trey Rustmann and former House representative Sandy Murman, who seized on Dingfelder's gaffe as one would assume she would, telling Zink in the Times,
"Attention to detail is very important, especially in this job as county commissioner. Obviously, when you're talking about tax dollars, having someone pay attention to what the details are, I think, would be very important to them."
The Times also reports that City Councilwoman Linda Saul-Sena, who like Dingfelder is running for a County Commission seat, also needed to submit her letter to the supervisor of elections office by June 4. At this time it's unknown if she did so.
For Dingfelder, it's a ignominious exit from a stage where he has been a strong figure over the past seven years.
Last September, CL named him "Best Politician". My predecessor, Wayne Garcia, wrote at the time:
Sure, the Tampa City Councilman has made missteps in his political career. Observers say he’s inconsistent in his progressive ways. But he did push his city to adopt green building incentives. And he was the only politico with the guts to show up at the gay rights protest of News Channel 8. Takes balls to stand up to the owner of the local daily newspaper when you are running for office in 2010. Bravo, Mr. Dingfelder, bravo.
Dingfelder is also an attorney. On the bright side, he'll have Thursday mornings open to campaign over the next few months in what could be a close election come November.
This article appears in Jun 24-30, 2010.