The biggest story of the 2011 mayoral election since the candidates filed earlier this month has been the lawsuits.
As we've followed on The Range all week, both Democratic candidates for mayor have had their candidacies challenged, although Marshall Home’s challenge to attorney Jonathan Rothschild is certainly far more frivolous than the Democrats’ challenge to Home’s candidacy.
And Democrats have already signaled that they’ll be challenging the nomination petitions turned in by Republican Shaun McClusky and independent Pat Darcy.
Democrats have been less interested in challenging Republican Ron Asta.
But Asta may face a challenge, nonetheless.
Jessica Reeves Foster says she plans on reviewing Asta’s petitions and challenging his candidacy. Asta needed 1,060 signatures and turned in just 1,205, leaving him with a thin cushion.
Foster is the sister of Jennifer Reeves, an 18-year-old woman who was killed in 1994 after Asta ran a stop sign and crashed into the pickup truck Reeves was driving.
The story of the traffic accident threatened to torpedo Asta’s campaign earlier this year. After press accounts of the accident, Asta ran TV ad asking if he should stay in the race. About 100 people said he should quit, while about 30 said he should stay in, according to Asta, who decided to remain in the race.
Foster says she’s not as angry about Asta’s candidacy as she was when he first announced his plan to run, but the TV ad still upset her.
“The most appalling thing was his commercial and pointing the finger at Jennifer and saying she was speeding, instead of just saying that he was involved in an accident and he was sorry,” Foster says.
We’ll have more in next week’s print edition.
