Curtis Stokes, former head of the Hillsborough chapter of the NAACP, says he will switch his party registration from Republican to Democrat and run for the citywide District 2 Tampa City Council seat in March 2011. Mary Mulhern currently holds the post.

The City Council races are nonpartisan, but Stokes, who contributed to Barack Obama's campaign, said he wants to make the switch anyway. "Some of the things that my Republican brethern are talking about locally don't align with who I am," he said, specifically citing indigent health care and gay rights.

Janet Zink, Times Staff Writer