Rev. Richard Dunn to run for his old commission seat

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The spirited races in the city of Miami election just got a little more spiritual.

Rev. Richard Dunn, a two-time former city commissioner, filed to run for District 5 on Thursday.

“I just want to finish what I started,” he told Ladra Monday at the Martin Luther King, Jr., Parade.

He wants to go back to the familiar seat now occupied by Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones, who he temporarily replaced while she was being investigated for federal public corruption charges.

While it would be the third time on the dais if he gets the seat, it would only be the second time Dunn, senior pastor at Faith Community Baptist Church, is elected.

Dunn was first appointed in 1996 when Commissioner Miller Dawkins was removed from office for federal corruption charges that included bribery and theft. Then, in January of 2010, Dunn was appointed to fill in for Spence-Jones after she was removed by the governor to face the felony corruption charges. He won the replacement election in November of that year and held the seat til Spence-Jones was found not guilty in August of 2011 and resumed her rightfully elected office.

Nobody else has filed to run for that seat in the November race and it looks like Dunn might expect a smooth coast back in: He told Ladra that Spence-Jones was termed out.

Um, sorry to break the news, Rev. Spence-Jones can, indeed, run again.

City Attorney Julie Bru issued an opinion last year which states that the commissioner can run for a third term in 2013 because she has not served the two full terms — seeing as how she was suspended for 19 months while successfully fighting the felony criminal charges.

This could be a fun race to watch. I’m sure there will be a lot of praying going on.