West Philly City Council candidate drops out of heated race amid legal challenge

A West Philadelphia City Council candidate ended his campaign Monday morning amid a legal challenge to his candidacy in one of the city’s most competitive races, clearing an easy reelection path for incumbent Councilmember Jamie Gauthier.

Jabari K. Jones, who was seen as a viable challenger against Gauthier, withdrew his candidacy before a Monday hearing in City Hall over the validity of his nominating petitions.

The race had been gearing up to be a heated battle over development concerns and public safety in a district that stretches from University City to Cobbs Creek. Jones, 28, is the head of the West Philadelphia Corridor Collaborative, a coalition of small businesses. He had positioned himself as a tough-on-crime, development-friendly alternative to Gauthier, a progressive who unseated a longtime incumbent in 2019. Both are Democrats.

But Jones was one of dozens of candidates hit with legal challenges over alleged defects in petitions last week — a time-honored political tradition in which voters, often aligned with rival campaigns, try to get candidates booted off the ballot in city races.

Voters in the 3rd Council District last week lodged an objection claiming that more than half of the voter signatures Jones filed to get on the ballot were defective. Candidates running for district Council seats need to submit 750 valid voter signatures. Jones filed about 940, meaning just a few hundred faulty autographs could doom his campaign.

He bowed out instead of wrangling over signatures before a judge.

He said Monday that his campaign had identified well more than 200 signatures that would likely be tossed because voters had, for example, signed under a nickname instead of their full legal name, or used an outdated address where they were no longer registered to vote.

Jones nonetheless called the errors “technicalities” that ultimately sidelined legitimate voters in the district.

He also expressed frustration that a Court of Common Pleas judge on Friday tossed his own challenge against Gauthier’s nominating petitions, in which he claimed she had failed to publicly disclose her financial interest in a company called Liberty Housing & Planning Corp.

“I think that’s extremely bizarre and opens up a lot of questions about how we view conflicts of interest,” Jones said. “You can just get caught and there’s no consequence. But a voter who signs a nominating petition [with faulty information], we erase those voices.”

Gauthier testified under oath Friday that she never drew income from the firm, which she cofounded in 2004 with former classmates in an urban planning graduate program, a campaign spokesperson said. She had forgotten the company was still incorporated. Her campaign nonetheless filed an amended statement of financial interest last week disclosing a 25% stake.

Gauthier’s only other rival in the Democratic primary, Raymond Grant, faces his own legal challenge to nominating petitions on Thursday. Grant is seeking to run under his religious name, Mustafa Majeed, and listed himself as a “community activist” on his paperwork. Little is known about his candidacy. Gauthier’s campaign last week dismissed him as an “an apologist” for Bill Cosby due to his appearance in a New York Times article defending the comedian, who was convicted in 2018 and was released from state prison in 2021 after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his conviction.

With Jones out of the race, Gauthier has a clearer path to securing the Democratic nomination in the May 16 primary — and almost certain reelection. No Republican filed to run in the November general election.

“I am thrilled today to be one step closer to a second term, and am proud to have the support of the Democrats in the 3rd District,” Gauthier said in a statement Monday morning. “Thank you to all of the volunteers and neighbors who helped us secure our place on the ballot.”

Jones said he is considering an appeal against Gauthier over the statement of financial interest. Beyond that, he said he would continue his advocacy around public safety and business development in the district.

“I still plan to be very active at West Philly as I’ve always been,” Jones said.