By Dustin Gardiner and Eugene Scott | The Arizona Republic
The gloves are off.
The election still is nearly two months away but the District 6 City Council race between incumbent Sal DiCiccio and insurance executive Karlene Keogh Parks to represent Ahwatukee is heated.
Three Phoenix residents with Democratic ties have accused DiCiccio in a lawsuit of campaign-finance violations related to a non-profit corporation he created with $121,000 raised to fight a 2011 recall-election threat. A judge this week questioned the merits of the suit.
Last week, Keogh Parks criticized DiCiccio for supporting an ethics-reform proposal that gives voters, not the City Council, the power to remove an elected official through a recall election.
A week earlier, Phoenix officials began enforcing campaign-sign law, but Keogh Parks’ team believes that the timing was suspicious, occurring only after she put up signs because DiCiccio’s signs had been up for two months.
