David McKalip, a politically active neurosurgeon, has announced he's running for the St. Pete City Council District 4 seat currently held by Leslie Curran, who is term limited out in 2013.
McKalip has been active in Tea Party events over the past couple of years, and was a leading local critic of the health care reform bill signed into law by President Obama last year. During the public debate about health care in 2009 he became nationally known after he an sent an email that included a racially charged picture depicting President Obama as a witch doctor.
In his written announcement declaring his candidacy, McKalip references the council's vote last week rejecting digital billboards as an example of what's wrong at City Hall. Taking an aggressive conservative stance from the get go, he says he will face "at least two candidates who have advocated higher taxes, less freedom, bigger government and backward policies that have hobbled our local economy."
(UPDATE: CL contacted McKalip if he was specifying anyone in particular in that comment. He responded Sunday night that he has heard from "credible sources that Darden Rice and Virginia Littrell will run in 2013.")
This article appears in Aug 18-24, 2011.