SEMINOLE -- Mary Russell has announced she'll run for the state House District 54 seat now held by Republican Jim Frishe.

Russell, a Democrat, lives in Seminole and graduated from Seminole High School, St. Petersburg College and the University of South Florida. She is perhaps best known for her 2002-06 stint on the Pinellas County School Board, where she was known to be outspoken. She made headlines for her opposition to then-superintendent Clayton Wilcox. The resulting media coverage of their spats contributed to her decision to get out of politics -- at least temporarily.

"I thought my political career was over, at least until my boys graduated from high school," Russell said in her announcement for the House seat. "I think being a teenager is hard enough without your mother being on the front page of the newspaper. Their privacy is important to me, but more importantly, I want them to have a positive life experience. For a public person's child, that is sometimes hard to do."

Russell said her concerns about education funding, cuts to Medicare and public safety coaxed her back into the political arena even though her sons are still in school.

District 54 stretches up the western edge of Pinellas County and includes the beach communities from Clearwater to Tierra Verde.

Anne Lindberg, Times Staff Writer

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