Derr misses filing deadline

Yesterday was the filing deadline for the District H special election. Usually, that brings a last-minute surprise in the form of an unexpected candidate. This time, it brought a different kind of surprise.

As one of the first people to declare her candidacy to replace Adrian Garcia in the District H City Council seat, Karen Derr seemed to have lined up all her ducks in a row.

Until today.

The Realtor and potential candidate apparently forgot to file her papers with the City Secretary by yesterday's deadline.

Oops.

Officially filing the paperwork in candidacy 101. Derr had done everything else by the book. She started a website (which was just taken down), appointed her husband treasurer, and had a high name ID thanks to her real estate business. The City Secretary's list does not show Derr, and that is a major break for Maverick Welsh, the former Chief of Staff for Council Member Peter Brown.

That's a shame, and I feel bad for Karen. She'd certainly been an active campaigner - there's a ton of her yard signs in my neighborhood, and we've been contacted twice by her team, once on the phone and once at the door. Nobody else has done that yet. I hadn't made up my mind who was going to get my vote in this election, but she was certainly on the list of possibilities. Her departure makes my decision a little easier, but it's still a shame.

KHOU has more.

Derr tells 11 News that she thought the city's deadline matched a state deadline for special elections, which is not until later this month.

"To tell you the truth, we've been out with a very grassroots campaign on the trail and going to three and four meetings a day," she said. "We dropped the ball, evidently."

"You dust yourself off, and you try again," she said.

She added that supporters are urging her to either mount a write-in campaign or run for an At-Large seat in November. Derr says she has not yet made a decision, nor is she ready to endorse another candidate.

I doubt she'll do the write-in thing. There's just no percentage in it. I do have a feeling she'll be getting a bunch of calls from other candidates, as an endorsement from her ought to carry some weight. I've got a statement from Derr beneath the fold.

So with Derr out, who's left? It's still a long list.

The order on the ballot, which was determined by a drawing according to a longstanding tradition set up by the city secretary, is as follows: Edward "Ed" Gonzalez, Lupe Garcia, Gonzalo Camacho, Hugo Mojica, Larry Williams, Maverick Welsh, James Partsch-Galvan, Yolanda Navarro Flores and Rick Rodriguez.

Williams ran against Adrian Garcia in 2005 and got 22% of the vote. Partsch-Galvan has run in multiple elections before, including in 2005 against Shelley Sekula Gibbs, getting 27%. The other candidates had all been actively running for awhile and had participated in the first candidate forum.

Karen Derr Campaign Filing Deadline

The Karen Derr campaign inadvertently missed the March 3rd campaign deadline for filing for the City Council District H May 9th special election. "We've had our treasurer's designation in order for weeks but we misunderstood the special election filing deadline," explains Derr who takes full responsibility for the missed filing. "I have a dynamic team of both seasoned and first time campaign staff and we have been very excited to be running a truly grass roots campaign, out in the field going door to door." Derr, who has never run for public office before was seen as one of the frontrunners in the race. Candidates can now only file as write-in candidates for the special election or can file to be on the ballot for the general election in November.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on March 04, 2009 to Election 2009