Dem candidate Casey Fisher out of District 4 supervisor’s race|[07/10/07]

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Casey Fisher has withdrawn from the race to become the Warren County supervisor from District 4, citing earlier &#8220bad information” from legal counsel with the U.S. Post Office dealing with rules limiting political activity of federal employees.

Specifically, those rules are the provisions of the Hatch Act, which prohibit certain federal and some state employees from running in partisan political races.

&#8220I’m disappointed in one way, but I’m excited in another,” Fisher said, adding he is not ruling out the possibility of running for a local office in the future.

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&#8220I’m eligible for retiring in 2 1/2 years,” he said.

A last-minute filer, Fisher, 40, was one of a number of local candidates whose day job at least partly complicated his status as a candidate.

In the case of Fisher, a minister and the lone Democrat in the race, his job as a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service put him in the cross hairs of the Act, passed in 1939 to fight corruption in the Depression-era Works Progress Administration.

It sets guidelines on a range of activities including campaigning for political candidates and an employee’s candidacy in elections, allowable only when candidates in a particular race do not represent a political party.

In the months since he announced his candidacy, calls and anonymous requests have made their way to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, the Act’s enforcement entity on the federal level. Those requests resulted in OSC legal counsel contacting Fisher.

Fisher, also a member of the Vicksburg zoning board, said he was assured by legal staff at the post office and his own attorneys that his candidacy and job status were safe because he had not taken any contributions by the local or state Democratic Party.

Officials with the OSC’s Hatch Act Unit have said mail carriers come under the Act’s governance when it comes to political activity.

Fisher was unopposed for the Democratic nomination in primary voting Aug. 7, cinching his advance to general voting Nov. 6 against incumbent Carl Flanders, former supervisor Bill Lauderdale, both independents, and Republican C.L. &#8220Buddy” Hardy, also unopposed for his party’s nod.

As for Lauderdale, 60, his job status with the Mississippi State Tax Commission will not jeopardize his candidacy as it relates to the Hatch Act.

Lauderdale said Monday he still plans to take a leave of absence from his position in the audits and compliance division once the primaries are over.

The audits and compliance division does not handle federal money, a stipulation of state employees that the Act addresses in its guidelines.

That part of the Act forced District 3 candidate James Stirgus Jr. to quit his job as a coordinator with the Warren Washington Issaquena Sharkey Community Action Agency.

WWISCAA assists low income residents with energy bills using federally funded programs.

Another local government employee is running for office, Jennifer Thomas, campaigning unopposed as a Democrat to represent District 54 in the Mississippi House of Representatives.

Thomas is an operations officer with the Warren County Emergency Management Agency, an office whose dealings with federal funds entails those flowing through the state’s emergency management agency.

Advisory opinions by the OSC, however, have upheld the Act’s restrictions only on those who actually write the grants or supervise those who do.

This month, Warren County supervisors approved advertising for grant-writing services, though it is expected the position will become more of a search engine for grants rather than a full-time grant-writing entity.