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.

Pollitical newcomer Pastor Michael Navarro has pulled papers to run for the Ward 1 Council seat currently occupied by Councilmember Regina Romero (D). Navarro will be running as an Independent–Nomination Other Than by Primary (NOP) according to the Tucson City Clerk’s office and needs to get 405 signatures to qualify for this race.

Michael Navarro

Growing up on the streets of Barrio Hollywood on Tucson, Arizona’s west side, was not easy for Michael, but he decided he wanted something better than to get swallowed into a life of crime and trouble.

When Michael graduated from the University of Phoenix, he decided to attend Trinity Law School in Santa Ana, California. After graduating from law school, he moved back to his native Tucson, and began work with several different law firms as well as the Attorney General’s office.

He then began working for the Pima County Consolidated Justice Court and also acts as pastor at Westside Baptist Church.

He has a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Michael-Navarro/163916763669189
and can be reached by mnavarro@q.com. Hope to update tomorrow on Navarro’s voting record once I confirm it with the Pima County Recorder’s Office.

Councilmember Romero is running for re-election for her 2nd term, and is facing a Democratic challenger businessman Joe Flores in the August 30, 2011 primary. The winner of that primary will face off with Navarro, should he get enough signatures to qualify for the General Election on November 8. No Republican is running for this Council seat as yet.

The Mayor of Tucson and Council seats in Wards 1, 2 and 4 are up for election this year.

5/18/11 UPDATE: Navarro has been registered as a Democrat since July 19, 2007, changed to Independent on April 25, 2011, per Chris Roads (Deputy Recorder & Registrar of Voters) at Pima County Recorder’s Office.

Keeping on top of who’s in and who’s out of the race for Mayor of Tucson can be challenging with several changes last week.

As of today (May 17) with nomination petitions due 5 p.m. on June 1st to the Tucson City Clerk, here’s the current slate.

IN (in order of initial filing of paperwork with Tucson City Clerk‘s office):

–Republican Shaun McClusky, former candidate for Ward 5 Council office in 2009, chaired anti-Prop 400 sales tax campaign in 2010; a realtor, www.voteshaun.com

–Democrat Jonathan Rothschild (already submitted 3283 signatures, the maximum for his party), attorney & political newcomer; www.jonathanformayor.com

–Republican Ron Asta, former Democratic District 1 Pima County Supervisor (1972-1976), ran for Mayor in 1983 as a Democrat against Republican then-current Mayor Lew Murphy & got 36.4% of the vote; a land planner, www.ronasta4mayor.com

–Democrat Marshall Home (formerly registered as an Independent & Republican), a self-reported “multi-billionaire”, political newcomer

–Green Dave Croteau, former candidate for Pima County Sheriff (2000) and Mayor (2007– he’s the only one that challenged Mayor Bob Walkup in that race & got 28% of the vote, no Democrat or Libertarian ran); a community activist

–Independent Pat Darcy, former candidate for Mayor in the 4-way Democratic primary of 1999 (Councilmember Molly McKasson won that race over Councilmember Janet Marcus, Betsy Bolding, and Darcy– who got 8.6% of the vote–, but then Molly lost to Republican Bob Walkup, then a political newcomer); a realtor and former major league baseball player (pitcher for Cincinnati Reds)

Darcy had been considering a bid since March (click here for earlier blog) but 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.

OUT:

–Democrat Thomas Lombardi, a hall monitor at Mt. View High School, political newcomer (withdrew)

–Green Jon McLane, a businessman & political newcomer who withdrew last week & endorsed Republican Shaun McClusky

Democratic Mayoral candidates need between 1642 and 3283 signatures, Republicans between 1060 and 2119, and Green Party candidates only 17 to 32 signatures to qualify to run for the office of Mayor.

Independents (Nomination Other Than by Primary-NOP) only qualify for the Mayoral General election ballot (no primary) but need to get 2596 signatures by June 1st. “Any registered voter can sign the petition for an NOP candidate as long as they have not already signed a petition for another candidate running for the same office” according to the 2011 Candidate Information Pamphlet issued by the Tucson City Clerk. The number of valid signatures on the NOP petition must be equal to at least 3% of the total number of registered voters who are not members of a qualified political party (Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, or Green) — as of 3/1/11.

Stay tuned for any other changes in the next weeks before the filing deadline. I hear other rumors of other potential candidates…and no woman is running as yet.