A runoff election for the mayor of Clinton will be held next week and an email with a labor union endorsement of one of the candidates has prompted a complaint to the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure board. The email originated with the Iowa State Education Association and was sent to the Clinton School District’s bargaining union representatives.
The email and attached mailer was a union endorsement of Ed O’Neill for mayor. The Clinton Education Association representatives forwarded the email to its members thru the district’s email system. The other candidate on the ballot, Mark Vulich, raised the issue publicly.
School Superintendent Deb Olson said the email was distributed thru the school’s email system. She says their legal counsel has told them it is a likely a violation of the law to use district resources to endorse a candidate in any election.
Later, Vulich’s campaign committee filed an official complaint with the state board citing what they claimed were various financial and lack of financial reporting violations by the educational organizations, the union involved with the mailer and the candidate – O’Neill.
O’Neill has stated he did know about the email and that it was an internal issue for the school to handle and stressed he had no involvement with what happened at the school.
Neither candidate received the majority support required at the November vote which forced the runoff.
By Dave Vickers, KROS, Clinton
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