Just got an email from Shaun McClusky, remaining Republican candidate for Mayor:

McClusky Withdraws From Mayor’s Race

Based on information from a pre-trial hearing today, and at the advice of my attorneys, I am withdrawing from the race to become Tucson’s next mayor. A number of the signatures which I gathered were not properly witnessed by the gatherers, and based on that information I will not have the required number of petitions to qualify for the ballot. Therefore, as of today, I am withdrawing my petitions and candidacy for the Mayor’s race.

Unfortunately, Democratic Party Chairman Jeff Rogers and the local political machine he heads have chosen, and show every indication of continuing to choose, legal means to bully, intimidate and financially damage any and all candidates in these elections with the exception of their own hand-picked representatives, and to this point it’s clear that their tactics have succeeded admirably.

Regardless, the fact that I was not able to turn in a sufficient number of petitions is my fault. And I want to sincerely apologize to all my supporters for this mistake, I know many of you have worked hard to help my campaign, and I know this hurts you as much as it does me.

Tucson needs new leadership, and I hope that all of you will re-dedicated yourselves–as I am–to getting both Tyler Vogt and Jennifer Rawson elected to the City Council. Both Tyler and Jennifer are quality candidates who deserve your support.

Sincerely,

Shaun McClusky

McClusky was facing a court challenge in Superior Court tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. regarding the validity of the 1183 signatures he submitted on June 1, 2011. The Plaintiffs in that lawsuit are Brittni Storrs and Tom Prezelski, represented by attorney Bill Risner.

This leaves only Democrat Jonathan Rothschild, and 2 Green Party candidates Dave Croteau and Mary DeCamp in the race for Mayor. Democrat Marshall Home withdrew from this race last Thursday due to residency problems, Republican Ron Asta did not have enough valid signatures in a lawsuit on Friday, and today the same thing (lack of enough valid signatures on the nominating petitions) was found against Independent Pat Darcy in another Superior Court action (click here).

NOTE: Republican Mayoral candidates could have gotten a minimum of 1060 signatures or a maximum of 2119 signatures to qualify for this race. Democratic candidates had to get between 1642 and 3283 signatures. Greens only needed between 17 and 32 signatures from their party members.

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.