By Steve Plunkett
Anthony Majhess will cut his second City Council term a year short to run for mayor of Boca Raton.
Majhess said the fact he would be term-limited out of office in March 2015 and have to wait two more years for the next mayor’s race helped him decide to campaign now. “I don’t want to sit on the sidelines,” he said. “To me it’s worth the risk.”
The ballot is quickly filling up with candidates.
Majhess filed paperwork for the mayor’s seat Oct. 8 and announced his candidacy to friends via Facebook.
The next day, Robert Weinroth, a small-business owner and lawyer, opened a campaign for Majhess’ spot on the council.
A week before, retiree Rosetta Bailey had filed a statement of candidacy without specifying which council seat she was targeting.
Council member Michael Mullaugh filed his paperwork Oct. 3.
State “resign-to-run” rules say elected officials must give up their seats when running for another office, except when seeking re-election.
The Attorney General’s Office says the law serves two purposes: To stop an official from using the power and prestige of one office to seek another, and to spare taxpayers the expense of having to hold a special election when an officeholder is elected to another office and compelled to resign from the current position.
Majhess said he would file his resignation at least 10 days before Boca Raton’s official candidate qualifying begins Jan. 2 but make it effective March 31, the day the council holds its organizational meeting.
He said people asked him to enter the race after Deputy Mayor Susan Haynie announced her candidacy in April. The seat is open because Mayor Susan Whelchel is term-limited out. Haynie also losing her council seat to term limits.
“My view of the city is more representative of the voters, more representative of the constituents I talk to anyway,” Majhess said.
Majhess, a county firefighter, won an upset victory to the council in 2009 and was re-elected last year despite a TV commercial by his four colleagues urging voters to support his opponent. He is a founder and past officer of the Golden Triangle Neighborhood Association.
Weinroth, who has been a member of Boca Raton’s elder affairs advisory board, co-founded Freedom Medical Services Inc., a medical supply company in Boca Raton, with his wife. Last year he challenged county Property Appraiser Gary Nikolits, a 20- year incumbent, and lost 70 percent to 30 percent.
Also last year, Bailey opened a campaign for incumbent Frank Barbieri’s School Board seat but withdrew before the election.
Other announced candidates for the March 11 election are:
• Eric Gooden, the Lynn University student who played President Obama for a pre-debate rehearsal last fall, who seeks Mullaugh’s seat;
• Scott Singer, an attorney and member of the city’s education advisory board, who is running for Haynie’s seat;
• Craig Ehrnst, chairman of the city’s financial advisory board and treasurer of NCCI Holdings Inc., also seeks Haynie’s seat.
Whelchel has endorsed Haynie as her successor and Singer for the open council seat.
Mullaugh was appointed by the council from among 17 applicants after Peter Baronoff resigned in December 2008. He was elected without opposition in 2011.
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