Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Still a two-man race for Dunedin mayor

After going back and forth, John T. Conway says he's in the race.

By ROBERT FARLEY
Published February 10, 2006

DUNEDIN - John T. Conway's on-again, off-again campaign for mayor of Dunedin is back on.

Last week, Conway said he was dropping out of the race to care for his ill sister. He also said he was concerned about the Times using his affiliation with the Church of Scientology as a way to attack the church.

Since then, he said, his sister's daughter has stepped forward to care for his sister, who he said suffered from dehydration, a collapsed lung and other maladies.

"I solved that problem," Conway said Thursday. "She is going to care for her and I'm free to campaign. It wasn't the disaster I thought it was going to be."

Conway, 60, also said he had feared voters would turn on him because of his affiliation with the Church of Scientology.

"That has not turned out to be the case," he said, noting that he spoke to a number of residents after the Times ran a story last week that noted his affiliation with the church. "Either they are curious or they don't care at all.'

The Times contacted Conway after someone posted a link on the Web site of his opponent, City Commissioner Bob Hackworth, that suggested Conway is a Scientologist. If so, Conway would have been the first Scientologist to run for public office in the Tampa Bay area.

Conway, who is retired from the construction business, said he has taken several Scientology courses, but none in the last six years. He likes the courses and the church, he said, but doesn't necessarily consider himself a Scientologist. He later called back and said he was dropping out of the race because he did not want to be used by the Times "as a pawn in your war against these people."

After reading the story that followed, Conway said he felt the paper had been fair.

"I feel bad about it," he said of his criticism.

Conway added that contrary to the suspicions raised by some in the community, church officials never asked him to run for mayor.

"The only thing the church asks me to do is to be ethical, and that's not hard," he said.

Hackworth was putting up campaign signs Thursday afternoon when he was contacted by a reporter with the news that Conway had decided to continue his campaign.

"Okay, good," said Hackworth. "I prefer it that way. "I have worked really hard to get out and get my message out and it was kind of confusing to people," he said. "So that's good. I am actually glad to hear it.

"I agree (Scientology) is not the major issue," Hackworth said. "And I was not going to make an issue of it. I am out to carry my message, and it doesn't have anything to do with that (religion)."

Officials in the city clerk's office said earlier in the week that even if Conway had withdrawn, the ballots were already printed and his name would have appeared anyway. Although Conway came in to the clerk's office last week to ask how to formally withdraw from the race, he never did.

[Last modified February 10, 2006, 01:11:18]