City Commissioner Hutchinson Quits Mayoral Race !

     So just after hitting the button on my last blog compiling the list of candidates for the Fort Lauderdale elections in March, the news came in:

     Cindi Hutchinson drops out of Mayoral race!

     The rumor had been around for a few weeks that Hutchinson was considering dropping out, but could not be confirmed. 

     State Representative and Fort Lauderdale Mayoral candidates Jack Seiler and former Commissioner Dean Trantalis will probably benefit most from Hutchinson’s departure, but that’s only conjecture at this point.

     Seiler says that he was surprised by her announcement, and that she has had an “outstanding career” and shouldn’t be judged by “a mistake”, (referring to last summer’s inquiry into inappropriate campaign mailings coming out of Hutchinson’s campaign office). He says it won’t change the way he’s campaigning for the job – “one voter at a time”.

     Mayoral candidate Earl Rynerson was also surprised at the news and said he thinks it makes the race “more interesting for sure”. He added that he believes that Hutchinson and Trantalis are responsible for the ballooning City Budgets over the last 5 years and that neither should be in the race. He says he is going to go after those who were loyal to Hutchinson and try to talk them into supporting him.

     Rossi and Trantalis could not be reached at the time of this posting.