Goodyear council candidate suspends campaign, another faces signature challenge

By Madeline Ackley Salazar
Mail | Twitter: @Mkayackley

Editor's note: This article was updated April 20 at 9:53 a.m. to reflect post-publication comments made by Sharnai Fisher. 

A candidate running for Goodyear City Council has dropped out of the race after an opponent’s campaign treasurer informed her he would be challenging her signatures in court.

Atenas Rodriguez had mounted a progressive campaign for Goodyear City Council and ran on issues of public safety, the preservation of farmland and “equitable public education,” according to her campaign website.

Candidates for Goodyear mayor and council were required to gather no less than 510 valid signatures by April 4 to qualify for the Aug. 2 primary ballot.

Rodriguez said she collected about 570 signatures by the filing deadline, but received an email on April 12 from well-known political consultant Constantin Querard who gave her an ultimatum: drop out of the race, or have her signatures challenged in court.

Querard is a prominent political consultant hired as campaign treasurer for council candidate Vicki Gillis, according to public campaign records.

Querard has been retained by conservative candidates in Arizona at all levels, including in local elections. He’s worked on the campaigns of Surprise Mayor Skip Hall Glendale and Glendale Mayor Jerry Weirs as well as the campaigns of over two dozen Republicans elected to the state legislature.

In 2015, he was selected to be Ted Cruz’s Arizona state director in the senator’s 2016 presidential bid.

Rodriguez said Querard told her she was “substantially short” of the number of valid signatures needed to qualify for the ballot.

Signatures can be invalidated for a number of reasons. A person may mistakenly sign a petition for a race they are not qualified to vote in or provide an incorrect address.

In this case, Querard told The Independent many of Rodriguez’s signatures were from people who were not registered to vote in the city of Goodyear. He added the invalid signatures were “nothing deliberate” on Rodriguez’s part.

“There are times when people will play games, or they’ll forge signatures...this isn’t that,” he said.

Rodriguez said Querard offered to meet with her and show her which signatures were invalid. That meeting didn’t happen, but Rodriguez said she instead spoke with him over the phone.

Rodriguez terminated her campaign on April 15.

She said she made sure to ask signers if they were eligible to vote in the Goodyear race, but told The Independent if the matter went to court, she wasn’t 100% sure the judge would rule in her favor.

“I learned that sometimes people think they’re registered to vote and aren’t,” she said, adding that she believed had she qualified for the ballot, she would have a good chance at winning.

The 29-year-old mom of two said her council bid was the first time she’d pursued political office.

“I just wanted to give back to my community and keep our city safe and healthy…I figured running for local leadership would be a pretty good start,” she said.

Rodriguez said while Querard was “courteous” and “just doing his job,” it made her rethink her decision to run for office.

“The challenge felt so political and calculated that it made me think twice about the world I was about to step into,” Rodriguez said adding that she didn’t wish to experience the ugliness political campaigns can devolve into.

“There was only…one person who hired a political consultant,” Rodriguez said referring to Gillis. “At the end of the day, when somebody challenges you, they want you out…it’s because they don’t want the competition.”

Rodriguez said she plans to run for local office in the future when she has more experience and time to prepare.

Rodriguez is the first candidate to drop out of the race after petitions were filed April 4. 

Another council candidate’s signatures are being challenged in court. An election challenge was filed against Sharnai Fisher on Monday, April 18 in the Maricopa Superior Court by a plaintiff named Sharon Crain-Hodge.

A hearing is set for 10 a.m. Friday, April 22.

Querard told The Independent in a phone call Fisher did not have the necessary number of signatures to qualify for the ballot. Unlike Rodriguez, Querard said Fisher had not responded to him regarding the signature challenge.

Fisher told The Independent that she believes her signatures are valid, despite claims to the contrary, adding she received verbal confirmation for everyone who signed her petition that they were registered voters in the city of Goodyear.

“They did inform me they were registered voters,” Fisher said. “So I was under the impression they were registered voters.” 

Fisher said she collected about 540 signatures, which wasn’t easy. 

“It’s such a quick, fast-paced process,” Fisher said. “We don't have time to go and actually check our registration while we are campaigning and canvassing for signatures.”

Fisher confirmed she had received an email from Querard, but was initially unsure of its authenticity, adding that as a private investigator she receives a number of suspicious emails and phone calls on a regular basis. 

She said she started researching Querard and his company, Grassroots Partners and said she believes his actions are a “scare tactic” meant to force her and others off the ballot.

It’s common in elections for candidates to challenge the signatures of their opponents, as city clerks do not confirm the validity of signatures they receive from candidates, Querard said. Instead, that job is left to opposing candidates, or “qualified electors” — in this case, registered voters in the city of Goodyear.

“That’s just part of politics”

In response to questions, Gillis told The Independent in a phone interview that she was unaware Querard had planned to challenge her opponent’s signatures, but stated the rules were in a place for a reason.

“There are rules we all have to follow,” Gillis said, adding that she and most of the other candidates had collected well beyond the 510 signatures required.

“If you’re told you need to have 510 signatures, you know, you might want to show up with 650 or 700, maybe even 800 signatures,” Gillis said.

“We built in a buffer…because you never know when it comes time to go through the signatures if they are all valid or not,” she said. “So that’s just part of politics.”

Fisher said she does not believe Gillis was unaware of the actions her treasurer took to challenge the signatures of her opponents. 

“She’s well aware,” Fisher said of Gillis. “She’s been on fundraising committees and boards for multiple candidates…When she brought (Querard) on, she was well aware what she was going to be doing.”

Two incumbents, Wally Campbell and Brannon Hampton are on the ballot, and four newcomers, Gillis,  Fisher, Tamara Floyd and Benita Beckles are still in the race for three spots on the council.

Madeline Ackley Salazar can be reached at mackley@iniusa.org or found on Twitter @Mkayackley.