Minnie Heads to Court
by Christine Stuart | August 23, 2007 9:00 PM
Posted to Courts
| Legal
Hartford state Rep. Minnie Gonzalez, who is running for mayor, and a slate of city council candidates will go to court Friday in an attempt to get their names onto the Sept. 11 Democratic Primary ballot.
Gonzalez and a slate of city council challengers were excluded from the primary election by Democratic Registrar of Voters Shirley Surgeon, who determined they had not gathered enough signatures to petition their way onto the ballot.
Surgeon based her decision on a 30-year-old rule that says the people collecting the signatures can’t circulate petitions for more than one candidate.
The petition for the slate of council candidates included a mayoral candidate, Jonathan P. Clark.
Gonzalez and her attorney Mark Solak argue that Clark never intended to run and “after learning of Ms. Surgeon’s ruling, Jonathan P. Clark has since withdrawn his nomination for mayor.”
Filed earlier this week, Gonzalez’ lawsuit goes on to argue that the signatures her team collected before they circulated the petition for the city council candidates should not be invalidated.
The other lawsuit filed separately by the slate of city council candidates claims more than 600 signatures were “wrongfully rejected” by Surgeon.
Those council candidates include Andrea Comer, Eric Crawford, Maria Diaz, David Morin, Paulo Mozzicato, and Beatriz Ramon. The council candidates are represented by attorney Gregory Piecuch. They are among dozens running for council seats.
Stay tuned to find out what happens in court Friday.
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