Pat Darcy, formerly a Democrat, now an Independent, who filed to run for Mayor of the City of Tucson faced a legal challenge today in Superior Court as to the validity of his signatures on his nomination petitions. Judge Paul Tang ruled that Darcy failed to meet the requirements by being 106 signatures short, and granted the Motion for a Preliminary Injunction.

Darcy submitted 3,104 signatures to qualify to run as an Independent in the 2011 General Election. The minimum required for a Nomination Other than Primary (NOP)/Independent is 2596 signatures per the Tucson City Clerk’s office. Darcy could collect signatures from registered City voters “as long as they had not already signed a petition for another candidate running for the same office.”

I first reported on Darcy back in March when he was considering this bid as an Independent (click here).

Darcy only registered as an Independent on April 1, 2011, and took out paperwork with the City Clerk on Friday May 13, 2011 to run for Mayor. He has been registered as a Democrat since 1971 per Chris Roads (Deputy Recorder & Registrar of Voters) at the Pima County Recorder’s Office. Darcy is a realtor in Tucson with CB Richard Ellis and is best known as a former pitcher for the Major league Cincinnati Reds baseball team.

The motion for a preliminary injunction in the lawsuit was filed by Plaintiff citizen Sam Almy, reresented by attorney Bill Risner. 908 signatures submitted by Darcy were challenged and 614 were found invalid due to signatures by people not registered to vote (196), people who had signed previous Mayoral petitions (138), people not registered in the City of Tucson limits (277), and people indicating the wrong date of their signature (3). Therefore Darcy had only 2490 valid signatures, less than the 2596 required to be eligible as an Independent in the General Election 2011.

Darcy did take the stand in his defense today and said that the people of Tucson wanted “honest dialogue” which is why he was running as an Independent. He appeared at today’s hearing pro se, without an attorney.

Tomorrow’s court hearing is a similiar challenge regarding invalid signatures against Mayoral candidate Republican Shaun McClusky.

Pat Darcy

Pat Darcy, formerly a Democrat now an Independent, is considering a bid for Mayor of the City of Tucson. From his website at CB Richard Ellis:

Pat Darcy has been serving the business community of Tucson, Arizona since 1985. Mr. Darcy is a Senior Associate at CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) and specializes in retail properties. He carries an unequaled track record of solving a multitude of commercial real estate issues for local, regional and national clients. As a long-time Tucsonan, Darcy has taken his passion for the local community and focused his career on building relationships that spur economic growth and improve quality of life for the people of Pima County.

Prior to joining CBRE, Mr. Darcy was a major league baseball player with the Cincinnati Reds and in 1975 became the first high school player from Tucson to appear in a World Series game and also the first person from Tucson to play on a world championship team.

• ICSC Member (International Council of Shopping Centers).
• Lead recruiter for the City of Tucson in bringing in the Colorado Rockies to Tucson for their spring training headquarters.
• Eight years as a member of the City of Tucson Parks and Recreation Commission with the last four years as Chairman.
• Was acknowledged for his leadership role in having impact fees for parks passed by the Tucson City Council.
• Speaker for Linking Sports and Communities, a not for profit organization helping underprivileged young people.
• Community Relations Council for the Fred Acosta Job Corps Center.
• Active member Catalina United Methodist Church.
• Youth Coach
• Member Pima County Sports Hall of Fame.
• Master of Ceremony for Pima County Hall of Fame annual dinner and press conference.
• Southern Arizona Mental Health Association
• Dinner Committee, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
• Arizona Daily Star’s Tucson Festival of Books panel moderator
• Speaker at schools, clubs and youth leagues on value of education and sports.

Education

* Bachelor of Arts, University of Arizona

Darcy ran for Mayor before in the September, 1999 Democratic primary along with Betsy Bolding, Ward 2 Councilmember Janet Marcus, and Ward 6 Councilmember Molly McKasson. McKasson was the winner, but went on to lose to then-political newcomer Robert Walkup in the General Election. Walkup has been Mayor since then but announced on February 22 that he is not seeking re-election to his 4th term.

Results from that 1999 Democratic primary election:

Betsy Bolding 9019 34.09%
Pat Darcy 2281 8.62%
Janet Marcus 3165 11.96%
Molly McKasson 11,864 44.84%

Darcy may enter the field of Mayoral candidates, which already has one Democrat — political newcomer Jonathan Rothschild, and two Republicans Shaun McClusky (who ran in the Nov. 2009 Ward 5 Council race and lost), and former District 1 Pima County Supervisor Ron Asta, who served in that capacity before (1972 to 1976) as a Democrat. McClusky and Asta will face off in the August 30 Republican primary.

Darcy hasn’t filed as yet for the office of Mayor per the Tucson City Clerk’s Office, but can be reached via email at Patrick.Darcy@cbre.com or at 520-323-5154. His campaign website is under construction.

5/13/11 Ted Prezelski at Rum Romanism Rebellion reporting that Darcy finally took out papers to run for Mayor of Tucson: http://www.rumromanismrebellion.net/2011/05/13/mayor-race-update/ — as an Independent. Stay tuned.