Tripodi, Donnelly Had "Unfair Campaign Practices"

The Westchester County Fair Campaign Practices Committee found this week that Ossining town supervisor candidates Susanne Donnelly and Peter Tripodi IV had both engaged in unfair campaign practices.

An Oct. 24 hearing in front of the Campaign Practices Committee was brought about by Tripodi, who complained that Donnelly had stated in a news release that she was "endorsed" by the Independence Party after he had won a write-in Independence Party primary election.

"The Committee concluded that the context of Ms. Donnelly's reference to the endorsement in a news release about the results of the primary election was misleading because the average voter might not easily distinguish between the Independence Party's Committee endorsement and the actual Party's endorsement as a result of the election," the county Campaign Practices Committee stated in a press release.

The Campaign Practices Committee also wrote the following complaint about Tripodi: "The Committee noted that Mr. Tripodi had issued a news release in advance of the Committee's meeting stating that his complaint against Ms. Donnelly would be heard by the Committee, a violation of the Committee's rules, which state that 'A candidate should not abuse the process of filing complaints to obtain political advantage by notifying the press or public prior to the hearing of a complaint.' Mr. Tripodi stated that he was unaware of this rule."

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