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Campaign allegation called 'non-issue'
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An alleged incident of a county employee campaigning on behalf of a candidate for the county board in the week before Tuesday’s election is simply being blamed on politics.
“It’s really a non-issue,” Commission Chairman Jimmy Burnsed said Friday. “It was a case of one’s word against another.”
County employee Darryl Newman was accused of campaigning for District 2 candidate Ted Akins. And the man who submitted a written complaint to county officials, Dale Smith, was a self-admitted “avid supporter” of Akins challenger Wade Price.
In last week's primary election, Price beat out Akins with 269 to 203 votes.
While the county’s policy strictly prohibits employees from campaigning in local elections, Burnsed noted corrective action in such a situation isn’t laid out in the ordinance.
“I think you would need a little more evidence,” he said. “In this case, we’ll chalk it up to politics.”
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