City of Tucson Mayor & Council Candidate Filings: Let The Games Begin!

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I have taken some grief for not posting a "SWAG" (silly wild ass guess) list of candidates for the City of Tucson mayor and council election this year. In a usual year I would have done so, but this has been a most unusual year. In fact, this has been the craziest city election season I have seen since the water rates recall election back in the mid-1970s.

I have lived in Tucson since 1963. I do not recall any time when we have had so many candidates announce they are running for office only to quit weeks later; candidates who are county residents and not eligible to run in the City of Tucson; and one candidate who took a survey to ask "should I stay or should I go now?," only to disregard the survey results and stay anyway.

I kept hearing in my head the line from the Stealers Wheel song, "clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right…" What the hell is going on?

Michael Jenkins announced for Ward 4, only to later drop out when Tyler Vogt, whose "younger smarter brother" is Rep. Ted Vogt (LD30), announced that he was running. (If you have never seen Gene Wilder's The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975), look it up to get the joke).

Marcia Ortega announced for Ward 1, only to drop out weeks later. Ditto for Janet Gallup who announced for Ward 1, only to drop out weeks later. Michael Navarro filed paperwork to run as an independent in Ward 1, but failed to file his petitions by Wednesday's deadline.

Former Tucson City Council Member Ron Asta (a long time ago) announced that he was running for mayor, but after the local newspapers beat him up for his long-ago arrest for shoplifting some steaks in his shorts (he claimed to be a vegetarian at the time, so go figure) and for killing a young woman in a vehicular accident (he is a notoriously dangerous driver, oft cited), Asta ran an ad to ask ""should I stay or should I go now?," only to disregard the survey results that told him to "go now!" and stayed anyway.

Jon McLane, purportedly a Green Party candidate, announced for mayor only to later drop out and endorse the Republican candidate. Was this another attempt at a sham Green Party candidacy like Republicans staged in 2010 state legislative races? I don't know.

Thomas Lombardi announced for mayor, only to drop out weeks later when it was discovered that he was a county resident and not eligible to run in the City of Tucson. "Oops! I have to be a city resident?"

But the winner of the craziest story of this election goes to Marshall Home™ (I kid you not, he trademarked his name) who has filed his petitions to run for mayor, even though the Tucson City Clerk has confirmed that Home™ is a county resident and is not eligible to run in the City of Tucson. Oh, there will be a legal challenge to his petitions.

This guy is a major piece of work. See Marshall Home™, Billionaire Democratic Mayoral Candidate, is None of the Preceding Things (must read and photos). He appears to be a "sovereign citizen" who uses "paper terrorism," i.e., filing bogus liens or financial claims against the government and government officials, or anyone else he doesn't like. I understand he has had some very recent run-ins with the law. Home™ likes to wear a Burger King™ paper crown and say he is a "king of America." That strikes me as rather un-American given that Americans fought a revolution to kick out any vestiges of royalty in this country. I keep telling you, there should be a mental competency exam for candidates to run for political office.

For comic relief, we have Republican mayoral candidate Shaun McClusky (2011) who informs us that he is running against city council candidate Shaun McClusky (2009). "In 2009 I screamed about – and literally screamed – I literally told you everything that was wrong and didn't offer any solutions," he said. But here we are in 2011, and McClusky for Mayor has nuance. No screaming." Josh Brodesky: McClusky: Can he be taken seriously? There is also the matter of his pair of court judgments for $18,000 in credit-card debt.

For further comic relief, we will have a first-ever Green Party primary for mayor between former Green Party mayoral candidate Dave Croteau and Mary DeCamp, who ran for the Ward 3 City Council seat two years ago. Seriously? How many Greens actually vote in a primary? Why not decide this over dinner at your favorite restaurant, guys? Or just draw cards in a game of Show Low.

Former Cincinnati Reds pitcher and commercial real estate broker Pat Darcy filed on Wednesday to run as an independent candidate (no primary). He previously ran for mayor as a Democrat in 1999, and lost in the primary. As I recall, he ran a lackluster campaign. He has been a reluctant candidate so far this year.

Once again, the Libertarians failed to field any candidate despite the minimal effort required. Why do we recognize this political party again?

Finally, where is the "Star Power Team" of Arizona Daily Star editor Joe Burchell, reporter Rob O'Dell and columnist Josh Brodesky? These know-it-alls seem to think that they, and they alone, know what is best for the City of Tucson. Why aren't they running for office and putting their ideas before the voters? Put up or shut up, boys. Enough with your incessant whining in the Star.

Both Republican candidates for mayor Shaun McClusky and Ron Asta filed with a small cushion of signatures above the minimum number required that, after validation of signatures, may leave one or both of them a little bit short. They are definitely cutting it close.

I understand that independent Pat Darcy used paid petition circulators just in the last few weeks to collect his signatures. That's dicey. Generally speaking, paid petition circulators have at best a 60% valid signature rate of return, which could leave Darcy short of the number of valid signatures required to qualify for the ballot.

June 15 is the deadline for legal challenges to candidate petitions. Stay tuned.

So where do we stand today after the filing deadline? (subject to change following verification of valid signatures and legal challenges to petitions, and possible write-in candidates qualifying for the general election ballot at the primary election).

Mayor

Jonathan Rothschild (D)            Signatures: 3,283

Marshall Home™ ("Not the D")    Signatures: 2,950

Shaun McClusky (R)                   Signatures: 1,183

Ron Asta (R)                             Signatures: 1,205

Dave Croteau (G)                      Signatures: 28

Mary DeCamp (G)                      Signatures: 23

Pat Darcy (Ind.)                         Signatures: 3,104

Ward 1 Council

Regina Romero (D) incumbent    Signatures: 539

Joe Flores (D)                            Signatures: 551

Ward 2 Council

Paul Cunningham (D) incumbent Signatures: 634

Jennifer Rawson (R)                   Signatures: 543

Ward 4 Council

Shirley Scott (D) incumbent         Signatures: 521

Tyler Vogt (R)                            Signatures: 428

Valid signatures required to qualify for the primary ballot:

Write-in Candidates for Primary Election:

Filing deadline for Primary Election: 5 p.m. July 21, 2011 [A.R.S. §16-312(B)]

An individual who is a member of a qualified party can become a write-in candidate in the Primary Election unless the individual filed a nomination petition for the August 30 Primary Election and failed to provide a sufficient number of valid petition signatures. [A.R.S. §16-312(E)(3)]

Note: Pursuant to State Law a write-in candidate in the Primary Election must get the number of votes equal to the minimum number of signatures required on nomination petitions for the same office in order to be placed on the General Election ballot. [A.R.S. §16-645(E)]

H/t Tucson Weekly for the updated petition signature numbers.

UPDATE: H/t Carolyn Classen for the updated petition signature numbers.