The City Council District B candidate who was squeezed out of the runoff race filed an injunction Thursday to have one of the candidates declared ineligible because she has a felony criminal conviction on her record.
Renee Jefferson, who is not in the runoff at this point because she finished third in the race for District B, has taken legal action to have Cynthia Bailey disqualified because she is ineligible due to the felony conviction and also because she lied on her application for candidacy about the conviction for forging a $14,500 check in 2007.
Tarsha Jackson and Bailey are set to face off in the runoff for City Council District B after none of the candidates hit the threshold to win the seat outright during Tuesday's general election.
Jefferson believes she should replace Bailey in the runoff against Jackson since she finished third and it appears Bailey may not be eligible because of the felony conviction.
"It's about fair elections, the end," said Dallas Jones-Jefferson, who is Jefferson's campaign consultant. "And whoever the authority is that needs to declare whether or not this election ended fairly, we just simply want them to do so.
"And so the people of District B will have the opportunity to elect a representative that will be able to serve them, whichever way they decide to go."
Bailey has maintained she was under the understanding that she was within her right to run for the city position. But she signed an affidavit swearing that she had not been convicted of a felony.
Bailey discussed the discrepancy with KPRC on Aug.28 and reiterated her claim that she had the right to run. But when pressed about the application she filled out, she ended the interview and walked out. Bailey did not respond to interview requests for KPRC on Thursday.
"From what I had read when I asked about could I run for City Council, it was you can run for anything other than a state position, not a city position," Bailey said prior to ending the Aug. 28 interview.
There were 14 candidates who ran for the District B City Council seat.
Editor's Note: This story has been updated to reflect changes KPRC 2 has discovered in relation to Bailey's felony conviction. It's unclear, based on the available documentation, why she was sentenced to 10 years in prison.