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Mathis To Seek 4th Term

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By GEORGE WILKENS gwilkens@tampatrib.com

The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 4, 2009

PLANT CITY - Mary Yvette Thomas Mathis, the only Plant City commissioner facing re-election this year, has announced she will seek another three-year term.

In making her announcement at the Jan. 26 Plant City Commission meeting, Mathis said she initially began preparing a formal announcement of her candidacy. She decided against a prepared speech.

"Sometimes you just need to look at people and speak from your heart. I want everyone to know I'm doing this because I love what I do," she said of her job on the five-member commission.

"I stand here at this time in honor and in memory of my father. He was my inspiration," she said of Willie Thomas Jr., 82, who died April 3 after a yearlong bout with prostate cancer.

She has characterized her late father as her mentor and political adviser. He was a familiar face around city hall and a regular at commission meetings until he became ill.

Mathis won a special election in January 2000 to complete the term of veteran Commissioner Sadye Gibbs Martin, who died of cancer two months earlier while in office.

Mathis went on to win the Group 5 seat in the April 2000 election and has won re-election every three years since.

Mathis, assistant principal at Giunta Middle School in Riverview, was born in Lakeland but is a lifelong Plant City resident.

The weeklong qualifying period for the seat, which pays $9,526 annually, begins at noon Feb. 16 and ends at noon Feb. 20.

The municipal election is April 7.

No one else has publicly announced intentions to run for the seat in the nonpartisan race.

Reporter George Wilkens can be reached at (813) 865-4433.

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