Roger Chapin is running for Orlando City Council, stronger than before
After being defeated in 2002 when he tried to knock out an incumbent on the Orlando City Council, Roger Chapin figured that maybe elected office wasn’t his destiny.
So he found a different way to get involved, since he doubted he would run for public office again.
Chapin became a leader on some of the community’s most influential boards, including the Municipal Planning Board, Downtown Development Board and Orlando Utilities Commission, as well as an oversight committee for the construction of the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.
Fast forward more than 20 years later, and Chapin is running for the same City Council seat again.
This time, Chapin said he is the most experienced candidate in the race. He points to his long résumé built over the years managing multibillion-dollar budgets and being vigilant on public transparency.
Roger Chapin is the son of former Orange County Mayor Linda Chapin, a legendary trailblazer in Central Florida politics.
“I can remember sitting in the back seat of the station wagon, watching my mom literally navigate and trying to get in other people’s orbits. And back then it was all men,” Roger Chapin said. “She was half-PTA mom, half-Junior League mom.”
Linda Chapin first ran for the Orange County Commission when he was 16. “At that point I didn’t care about anything but my driver’s license,” Roger quipped.
By the time she was elected Orange County Mayor in 1990, Roger was in college, but he was starting to become more fascinated by politics and even worked in Gov. Lawton Chiles’ press office.
“I caught the bug like a lot of young people do when you’re a senior and you start to think about the rest of your life,” Roger Chapin said.
If elected, Chapin cited Dyer as an example of the kind of leader he wants to be.
Dyer is a Democrat, but doesn’t make headlines for speaking out defiantly against Gov. Ron DeSantis or the Republican-controlled Legislature. (Dyer has, in fact, supported Republicans in past local elections.)
Chapin described himself as a Democrat who wants to “govern from the middle,” compared to Tanna, whom he said is “certainly on the progressive wing of the party.”
Tanna is backed by U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost and state Rep. Anna Eskamani.
Chapin, however, won the endorsement of Dyer and Chapin’s other opponents, Chris Durant and Kimber Kiss, who lost in the November election. Other influential groups, like the Central Florida Hotel and Lodging Association, support Chapin.
“There’s some people worried about City Council becoming a very partisan place,” Chapin said, citing Dyer as “obviously a Democrat, but can still pick up the phone and talk to Gov. DeSantis’ head of transportation about SunRail.”
“If we keep going down a partisan path of these partisan food fights, city government will suffer for it,” Chapin said. He added that his focus is keeping “Orlando’s best interests always front and center.”
The College Park resident’s priorities include focusing on the Main Street Districts — areas with busy traffic and thriving local restaurants and shops on Ivanhoe Boulevard and Edgewater and Corrine drives.
“I want to be very fully engaged with those within that business community and making sure that those areas remain strong and improve their walkability,” Chapin said.
Other focuses include expanding SunRail to nights and weekends and revitalizing the downtown, which isn’t located in District 3 but plays an important role in the city’s overall economy and health, he said.
And has his mother given him any campaign advice?
“Whose mom doesn’t want to give their son advice?” he joked.
Early voting runs Dec. 1-7, with polls open Election Day, Dec. 9, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Read the full article on Florida Politics here