Dear Bob Brady and Jannie Blackwell,

Each you have had some experience with petition challenges. And, I would like to talk to you briefly about them for a moment.

Congressman Brady, you should have been knocked off the ballot last year when you made multiple errors in your campaign filings for Mayor, especially given the precedent that was set in previous technical challenges. But, you had great lawyers, and you are a powerful guy, so you stayed on the ballot. However, instead of seeing the hundreds of thousands of bucks in legal fees you racked up, as well as the ridiculous idea that you weren't going to be able to run for Mayor because you screwed up something inconsequential as two ridiculous examples of a system in disarray, you apparently decided to have your lawyers sue the ethics board... Great. Yes we can!

Councilwoman Blackwell, your step-son Tommy was kicked off the ballot today (read about it in the paper tomorrow) for State Rep, because it was found that he only had 184 valid signatures. Vanessa Brown is your new State Representative. All of that work, and without an election, his career has at least been temporarily ended. Doesn't that sort of suck?

Obviously, there is a little bit of difference in going after someone for a pure technical error versus bad signatures. But the bottom line is that it is now clear that even the party's preferred candidates seem to be having some serious problems keeping themselves on the ballot.

So, Councilwoman Blackwell, Congressman Brady, what do you say? Are you ready to figure out some ways to push for sensible changes, so that this type of thing doesn't keep happening?