From Mitch Perry: 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 of their terms as possible 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 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. Continue reading here.
