Only announced candidate for 3 Cedar Rapids City Hall races quits

CEDAR RAPIDS - The only announced candidate to date in this year's three City Council races has withdrawn.

Ruth Hart, 45, cites “personal issues and family commitments” and “logistical challenges of assembling a winning campaign” in a written statement announcing the end of her candidacy.

Hart announced in March that she would seek the at-large council seat now held by Tom Podzimek, who is in his sixth year on the City Council and has said he will not seek re-election.

Hart, of 12 Summer Circle NE, is a mother of three, holds a master's degree in theological studies and has worked at an assortment of retail, restaurant and lower-paying jobs.

Hart pleaded guilty in 2006 to first-degree theft in Linn County District Court after stealing money from a trust fund of her mother, who was in a nursing home at the time. Hart completed a term on probation after which a public record of her guilty plea was expunged from the court record.

“Where someone was five years ago doesn't dictate where they are today,” Hart said in March.

In addition to Podzimek's council seat, the District 2 seat, held by Monica Vernon, and the District 4 seat, held by Chuck Wieneke, will be on the November election ballot.

Wieneke, who is in his fourth year on the council, has said he will not seek re-election to the District 4 seat.

The other six of the nine council seats will be contested in 2013. The odd stagger, in which six council seats are up for election in one election cycle and three others two years later, is among issues that the city's Charter Review Commission is expected to discuss as it meets in June and July.