It may be only June, but candidates are already starting to announce their plans for the municipal election in November.
Mayor Ken Wright’s announcement that he would not run for reelection sparked Dunwoody City Council members and candidates to begin discussing their plans for 2012.
James Sibold, former DeKalb County Republican Party Chairman, announced he has formed a committee to explore running for mayor. Sibold has lived in the Brooke Farm subdivision for 19 years and has practiced law in the city for the past twenty-five years.
This is not Sibold’s first try for elective office. In 2010, he ran unsuccessfully against Sen. Fran Milllar for a seat in the Georgia Senate.
Three at-large council seats are also up for election this year. They now are held by Danny Ross, John Heneghan and Robert Wittenstein.
Wittenstein announced he will seek another term. He made the announcement on Heneghan’s Dunwoody Blog.
“Over the last week, a number of people have asked me if I plan to run for mayor. I do not. I will, however, go ahead and announce that I plan to run for reelection for my current city council post in November,” Wittenstein wrote. “It has been a privilege to represent the residents of Dunwoody and I would be honored to be able to continue to do so. It is too early to start the campaign season, but I thought I would go ahead and put the speculation to rest.”
Heneghan has announced that he will be running for reelection as well, perhaps in an effort to dispel rumors that he is interested in the mayor’s job. “I am going to be running for reelection for my current Dunwoody City Council seat,” he said.
Ross had not said publicly whether he will seek another term in time to be included in this article.
The candidates in the November election will run in slightly different districts than the ones now represented by council members. On May 23, the City Council approved new City Council district lines.
City Attorney Brian Anderson said the lines needed to be adjusted because of changes to the population, especially growth in District 1.
There was little disagreement over the new boundaries.
Councilman Denis Shortal asked to postpone the vote so that he could have more time to review the new lines. His request died for a lack of a second. The council voted to 6-1 to approve the new district lines, with Shortal in dissent.