Orlando District 3: Five candidates vie for open council seat
Orlando’s District 3 race features Roger Chapin, Mira Tanna, Kimberly Kiss, Samuel Chambers and Chris Duran. The winner will hold the seat for four years.
While all five have raised competitive sums of campaign cash, Chapin is the best-funded candidate in the race and is backed by Mayor Buddy Dyer…
The winner will represent a district that includes College Park, Rosemont, Baldwin Park and Audubon Park. Election Day is Nov. 4. If no candidate receives 50%-plus-one vote, the top vote getters will have a runoff on Dec. 9.
Chapin, of College Park, is the son of former Orange County Mayor Linda Chapin and owns his own communications company. He’s a current board member on the Orlando Utilities Commission and previously served on the city’s Municipal Planning Board and Downtown Development Board.
He contends he’s the most experienced candidate of the bunch, someone who knows City Hall and is ready to start right away.
“I want to do the blocking and tackling of city government,” he said.
Chapin said he supports building wider sidewalks for walking and biking on key corridors in the district — Edgewater, Corinne and Virginia Drives — in an effort to improve safety and commerce. He likes that those three road plans have design elements meant to slow down cars.
He said he’s focused on affordability, including reviewing city policies related to parking requirements and providing incentives for shovel-ready affordable housing developments, which may not qualify for other funding sources.
His endorsements include Dyer, unions representing the city’s police and fire departments, and the Central Florida Hotel & Lodging Association.