Stanford Lerch

Jeffrey Brown, Democratic candidate in the 1st Congressional District, will be on the primary ballot in September, after thwarting an attempt to remove him due to a lack of valid petition signatures.

 A Maricopa County Superior Court judge found that although Brown's nominating petition did not contain a sufficient number of valid signatures to qualify him for the primary ballot, the challenge was made too late to have an effect.

Bethany Hicks, the presiding judge, wrote:

First District Congressional candidate Howard Shanker has been very verbal over the last few months about the “anointment” of Ann Kirkpatrick as the nominee.  Ann Kirkpatrick has received from support many Democratic leaders including the DCCC.  Shanker has talked a lot about an open process and not letting the insiders determine the candidate.  But one of Shanker’s supporters is behind the effort to remove fellow CD1 candidate Jeffrey Brown from the ballot.

Stanford Lerch of of Lerch & De Prima PLC Attorney’s (office in Phoenix, Arizona) is challenging the signatures of Brown and trying to prevent him from being added to the ballot.  Lerch is not exactly a neutral observer in the process.  Lerch donated $500 to Shanker’s campaign.

An email to Shanker’s campaign for comment was not answered.