STOCKTON — Former Councilwoman Dyane Medina announced Thursday she will run next year for the District 5 seat currently held by Christina Fugazi, who plans to seek re-election.

Medina, a 33-year-old social worker, represented District 5 in 2013-14 after the council selected her over Fugazi as the appointed midterm replacement for Susan Eggman, who had departed upon winning election to the California Assembly.

Fugazi, a 47-year-old high school teacher, unseated Medina in the 2014 election and served as vice mayor for two years under former Mayor Anthony Silva.

“I never stopped being involved in Stockton,” Medina said during a phone interview Thursday when asked about her decision to run for her former council seat. “I’ve still been working to better Stockton and since the last election I had a daughter, and now more than then, the importance and urgency have become more apparent.”

Medina is employed part-time as a social worker at San Joseph’s Medical Center and serves on the boards of the Stockton Public Schools Foundation and the San Joaquin Pride Center. Her husband, Gustavo Medina, ran unsuccessfully last year for a seat on the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors.

Five current council members, including Mayor Michael Tubbs, already have endorsed Dyane Medina’s candidacy.

“It’s humbling,” Medina said. “I think it’s because I’ve worked with them in different capacities and they all know I work well with other people and have strong leadership skills.”

Aside from Fugazi, the lone council member withholding an endorsement of Medina is Susan Lenz. Reached by phone Thursday, Lenz said she would be able to work with either candidate and added it is too early for her to endorse anyone.

Fugazi said she is unfazed knowing that at least five of her six council colleagues for the next 19-plus months support her challenger.

“While I appreciate what endorsements can bring to a campaign, they don’t necessarily win elections,” Fugazi said. “There’s elections and running for office, and then there’s being in the position. You have to separate them.”

Asked to assess her performance on the council, Fugazi said serving “has been one of my greatest honors.”

“I’m very proud of the work I’ve done,” Fugazi added.

Along with being a contest between past rivals, the 2018 race will be one of the first tests of the new City Council voting system approved by Stockton voters in 2016.

Last year marked the end of a system in which council candidates had to finish in the top two in June district voting and then prevail in a citywide election in November to be elected.

Starting in 2018, council members will be elected solely by district voting. If a candidate wins a majority of the district vote in June, the seat will be decided. Otherwise, the top two June vote-getters will compete in decisive district voting in November.

In 2014, Medina beat Fugazi in the three-candidate June district race by more than six percentage points. But Fugazi was elected convincingly in November 2014, beating Medina in the head-to-head citywide race by more than 8 percentage points.

Fugazi received the majority of the vote in five of the six City Council districts in the 2014 general election. The lone exception was District 5, the seat Fugazi and Medina were competing to serve.

Medina won District 5 by a margin of 51.6 percent to 48.4 percent in November 2014, according to data from the San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters. But Fugazi was elected to represent District 5 because she won Districts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 by 10 percentage points.

In addition to the District 5 seat, District 1 and District 3 will be in play in 2018. Vice Mayor Elbert Holman will be termed out in District 1 after next year. Susan Lofthus will be completing her first term serving District 3. There are not yet any publicly declared candidates in those races.

— Contact reporter Roger Phillips at (209) 546-8299 or rphillips@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/phillipsblog and on Twitter @rphillipsblog.