Mayoral hopeful David Catania will almost certainly be on the ballot in November. The at-large councilmember turned in 7,000 signatures today at the D.C. Board of Elections, more than twice the 3,000 signatures he needs to qualify.

“There’s no question that we going to be on the ballot this November,” Catania told reporters after dropping off the signatures this morning.

Catania also used the occasion to tout some internal campaign polling, which he claims show him within the “high single digits” of opponent Muriel Bowser. Catania’s campaign declined to release the poll publicly, but that would be a sizable improvement over a March Washington Post poll that showed him lagging behind Bowser by more than 30 percentage points.

The mayoral hopeful number’s could improve further after a column from the Post‘s Colby King, which all but endorsed Catania but worried about his notoriously abrasive personality. At the Board of Elections, Catania claimed that concerns about whether his temper makes him a less effective legislator amount to an “urban myth.”

Catania, who has chafed at Bowser’s refusal to debate him until he officially makes the ballot next month, accused her of being “caught in a fabrication” over whether they had promised to make American University’s debate later in September the first debate of the general election. Bowser’s campaign has since conceded that it was only a promise that they made to themselves.

“I think it’s clear that it’s Ms. Bowser’s strategy to avoid discussing the issues until the last possible moment,” Catania says.

Bowser spokesman Joaquin McPeek says Bowser has a “laser focus” on campaign work like door-knocking and hasn’t been deliberately dodging debates. McPeek declined to comment on Catania’s poll.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery