A crowded Des Moines City Council race just got a bit more elbow room. Ward One candidate Kimberly Strope-Boggus dropped out Wednesday.

Strope-Boggus says she recently landed a new job as the development director at a non-profit. As the job requires her to solicit donations, she felt a conflict of interests.

The election is next Tuesday and the deadline to drop out was September 26, meaning that Strope-Boggus’s name will still appear on the ballot.

“I hope that the people of Ward One who cast their vote for me can forgive me,” she told WHO 13.

There are six other candidates running in Ward One — which has been without a voice on the council since Indira Sheumaker stopped attending meetings back in March. Sheumaker finally resigned in September.

“Not having representation has had a direct impact on us,” Strope-Boggus said. “There are projects at Merle Hay Mall with the Buccaneers’ arena, Franklin Junior High, the old Mercy Hospital, Douglas Avenue, 2nd Avenue — they all need attention.”

Stroppe-Boggus also apologized to those who have donated to her campaign. She admits she will not be able to repay them.

“That’s the hard one. They invested in me, and the money went into a field program and into mail pieces,” she said. “These are friends, these are people who’ve known me from sitting on boards together. I knocked on doors for their candidacies. They know that I will still be doing the work, just in a different capacity.”

Strope-Boggus began some of that work Wednesday by endorsing Chris Coleman for the Ward One seat. She says she’ll start door knocking for him this weekend.

“I’m telling those who voted or would have voted for me to wholeheartedly put their faith in Chris,” she said. “Chris and I have had several conversations over the past couple of days where he has said that he will take the baton on the issues that I’ve campaigned on — development, homelessness, LGBTQ issues and others.”