This is the first time the Green Party of Pima County has had a Green Mayoral primary for Mayor of the City of Tucson.

Community activists Dave Croteau (who has run for Mayor before in 1999 as a write-in & challenged Mayor Walkup in 2007) and Mary DeCamp (former candidate for Ward 3 Council seat in 2009) are both running for this seat, soon to be vacated by 3 term Republican Mayor Bob Walkup. Croteau restores homes/buildings and DeCamp is a former college instructor and “Connector” for Pro Neighborhoods.

To listen to both Green candidates “debate”, tune in to the Bill Buckmaster radio show (KVOI 1030 AM) on Wed. August 3, at high noon for 1/2 hour. You can also listen to it via live stream, at www.buckmastershow.com.

They were also recently interviewed on KUAT Channel 6 on July 22 (click here).

Both Green Mayoral candidates are also available every Monday evening at La Indita restaurant on 4th Avenue for a meet & greet (click here for my previous blog).

There are 849 registered Green voters in the City of Tucson per the Pima County Recorder’s Office. Independents who registered for this Green primary can vote in it as well, on/before August 30. Vote-by-mail ballots will be mailed on August 10.

Vote wisely in the August 30 primary.

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.

Blogger & Democratic activist Ted Prezelski is reporting over at his Rum Romanism & Rebellion website that Republican Ron Asta will not be on the ballot for Mayor of Tucson:

http://www.rumromanismrebellion.net/2011/06/17/asta-la-vista/

Ted cleverly entitles his article “Asta la Vista” instead of Hasta la vista (see you later in
Spanish).

The family of the late Jennifer Reeves, who died (at age 18) in a car/truck accident back on August 8, 1994 involving Ron Asta, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday to contest some of the signatures on Asta’s nomination petitions. The plaintiff was citizen Nicolle A. Callahan.
A hearing on this lawsuit was held today in Superior Court, and “Asta did not contest the evidence against the signatures he filed, subsequently the court ruled that he could not be a candidate” (per Ted’s blogsite).

Asta submitted 1205 signatures on his nomination petitions, but hundreds were disqualified by the Pima County Recorder’s Office, leaving him 73 signatures short of the required 1060 for a Republican Mayoral candidate. The maximum # of signatures he could have collected to qualify is 2119.

I first reported back in November when Asta was considering a bid (click here) and also in February when he took out papers to run for Mayor (click here), and announced his bid. Note comments from Jessica Reeves Foster (Jennifer’s sister) under my blogs, regarding that tragic car accident.

Asta’s campaign had also been troubled with allegations of a shoplifting incident of a steak from a store, prior to his campaign (then as a Democrat) for Mayor in 1983 against Republican Mayor Lew Murphy. One of our Tucsoncitzen.com readers known as “Fraser007″ has also maintained online in the comment sections that there was an earlier shoplifting at an EZ Save of a steak by Asta between 1969 and 1971, which Fraser says he personally witnessed.

With this news about Asta, the only Republican now running for Mayor is realtor Shaun McClusky, who is facing a legal challenge on Tuesday about the signatures on his petitions as well. Democratic contender Marshall Home withdrew his campaign for Mayor yesterday in Superior Court (click here), which I reported about earlier today.

Stay tuned for more developments in the race for Mayor of Tucson. Only 5 candidates left– Democrat Jonathan Rothschild, Independent Pat Darcy, Republican Shaun McClusky, Green candidates Dave Croteau and Mary DeCamp.