Wood won’t run again as Hillsborough chairman

Posted Nov 8, 2012 by William March

Updated Nov 8, 2012 at 04:47 PM

Hillsborough County Republican Party Chairman Art Wood says he won’t run for re-election to his post next month.

“I’ve still got the enthusiasm, but I don’t have the energy,” said Wood, who also heads a local credit union as well as serving in the unpaid chairman’s post.

“I met my personal goals, including the best ever Lincoln Day dinner” – the party’s premier annual fundraising event – “and raising $150,000 from large donors,” Wood said.

“But it was at great personal cost. I haven’t had a day off in 13 months.”

Wood said the outcome of Tuesday’s election, in which President Barack Obama won Hillsborough County, apparently along with Florida as a whole, wasn’t part of the reason for his decision.

But Wood also entered the job with comparatively little experience, and there has been some grumbling recently about public comments he’s made which appeared to be a bit too candid for some local Republicans.

During the RNC convention in Tampa, Wood told a local reporter he feared the convention might be “a distraction” from campaign work for local Republicans, and shortly before the election, he told a British newspaper the Romney campaign had done a poor job of outreach to minorities.