We've been holding off reporting on Tampa City Council candidate in District 5 Stanley Gloster's dropping out the race late on Monday, but we were hoping to get some comments from him before writing this post.
As originally reported by the Tampa Tribune Monday night, Gloster's check qualifying for the race to the Supervisor of Elections office bounced. The Trib reports that Gloster said that he later came up with the scratch, but by then had opted to withdraw, feeling sad about the death of a close friend and the illness of a family member.
We can tell you that Gloster was obviously affected early last week when his friend passed away. He had to delay an interview at our Ybor Square offices for a day because he said he was having a tough time coping. We had interviewed him because of a feature in the new issue of CL (out late Wednesday) on the District 5 race, which also features Carrie West, Frank Reddick, Herald Lord and Lynette Tracee Judge.
Gloster is a 41-year-old Republican who said he he decided to go GOP after he turned 18 and reviewed both political parties histories when it came to civil rights for blacks. One of his main concerns was the lack of adequate infrastructure in District 5, specifically in Ybor City past 22nd Street and points further East.
