Challengers of four Oro Valley officials who are facing recall elections filed nearly 3,000 signatures with the Town Clerk’s Office last week, hoping to guarantee their candidacy.
A minimum of 526 valid signatures is required for a candidate to get on the November ballot for Town Council. Steve Didio, Shirl Lamonna and Ryan Hartung each turned in petitions with roughly 800 signatures, according to an announcement on Hartung’s website, but their validity still needs to be verified by the clerk.
In a separate recall effort, mayoral candidate Pat Straney needs 221 signatures to qualify for a March special election. He submitted his petition with more than twice that amount.
All four candidates turned in their petitions more than a week before the Sept. 4 deadline.
People are also reading…
The group Oro Valley Citizens for Open Government initiated the recall process after the Town Council voted 4-3 in December to buy El Conquistador Country Club and to increase the town’s sales tax by a half-cent to raise money for renovation projects to turn it into a community center and recreation center.
Mayor Satish Hiremath and council members Joe Hornat, Mary Snider and Lou Waters voted to approve the deal.
The town has 10 days to certify the candidate petitions and then Pima County must verify the signatures. If the petitions and signatures are valid, the council candidates will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot.
Campaign finance
Although the election is just about two months away, campaign finance reports show that none of the candidates has reported any spending or fundraising yet.
Incumbents Snider and Hornat both filed statements of no activity, and Waters is sitting on roughly $6,900 from the previous election, according to June’s pre-recall election report.
Didio has $600, Lamonna has $227, and Hartung has $500, all recently added to establish their political action committee funds.
No financial information was available for Hiremath and Straney.
Outside spending
None of the challengers have dipped into their coffers yet, but Oro Valley Citizens for Open Government — chaired by Hartung — spent $315 in mid-June to take out a newspaper ad in the Northwest Explorer.
