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Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Ind. Gov't. - More on: "Terre Haute Mayor Kevin Burke has thrown opponent Duke Bennett’s eligibility to be mayor into question"
Updating this ILB entry from Nov. 16th, Austin Arceo of the Terre Haute Tribune-Star reports today:
TERRE HAUTE — Terre Haute Mayor Kevin Burke officially challenged the Nov. 6 election results Monday, less than a week after attorneys sent Mayor-elect Duke Bennett a letter questioning his eligibility for the office.The story includes links to the 3-page petition - these follow the story itself - but the ILB did not have any success in efforts to access any of the 3 pages.The petition, filed Monday morning in Vigo County Superior Court Division 3, questions whether Bennett was qualified to be a candidate, since he worked at a not-for-profit agency that receives federal funds, including money for a Head Start program. The petition references the Little (or “Mini”) Hatch Act, a federal law that limits political actions of certain government employees.
The Hatch Act, a similar federal law, provides similar limitations to employees of certain government agencies.
In another Trib-Star story today, Arthur E. Foulkes has a report that begins:
Arguments about the reach of the Hatch Act are nothing new.“It’s not one of those three-paragraph laws,” said Jim Mitchell, a spokesman for the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, the federal agency in Washington that investigates and prosecutes complaints involving the Hatch Act.
The Hatch Act “has got a lot of ins and outs and that’s why it takes some time for us to investigate the circumstances [of a complaint] to find out what’s really going on,” Mitchell said.
Terre Haute looks set to become the scene of an important Hatch Act legal case.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on November 20, 2007 09:31 AM
Posted to Indiana Government | Indiana Law