Cape Coral mayor won't seek re-election

FILE: Former Cape Coral Mayor Marni Sawicki

CAPE CORAL, Fla. Cape Coral Mayor Marni Sawicki won’t run for re-election, she announced Monday.

Sawicki cited a desire to “focus my energies on building my company when my term ends” in a lengthy Facebook post explaining her decision. Her term expires in November, shortly after the general election set for Nov. 7.

Sawicki became the city’s first female mayor in 2013 after edging incumbent John Sullivan by 121 votes. She was sworn in to a standing ovation on Nov. 18 that year.

But more recently, Sawicki publicly sparred with the head of the city’s charter school system and engaged in an on-again, off-again relationship with a city employee to whom she was briefly married. She was even the target of an attack video from a group claiming to the be the internet activist “Anonymous” hackers.

Five candidates have so far filed to run for the office Sawicki is vacating: Derrick L. Donnell, Rana M. Erbrick, Michael Hollow, Kevin Koch and Sherry Leonard.

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