Tribal Election Will Replace Ousted Pair Colvilles Seek Candidates For Omak, Nespelem Positions

Sat., Sept. 18, 1999

By John Craig johnc@spokesman.com

Leaders of the Colville Confederated Tribes have scheduled a special election to replace two council members they removed from office earlier this month.

Chairwoman Colleen Cawston said the two ousted council members, Louella Anderson and Joanne Leith, apparently will be eligible to run again for the Omak and Nespelem district positions from which they were removed.

The schedule announced this week calls for candidates to file for the positions from Monday through Sept. 29. A single special election, with no primary to narrow the field, will be conducted Nov. 6 in the Nespelem and Omak districts.

Only residents of those districts may vote.

The winners are to be sworn in Nov. 18 to finish Leith’s and Anderson’s original two-year terms.

The two were the only incumbents among seven to win re-election in the June 19 tribal general election, despite the fact that they were publicly sanctioned shortly before the election for alleged campaign violations. Cawston said many absentee voters may have cast their ballots before the sanctions were announced.

Anderson and Leith were censured for using the tribal bulk mail permit for campaign mailings. They were fined $250 apiece, plus the amount they saved by using the cut-rate postage, and were allowed to remain on the ballot.

Campaign use of the bulk permit is legal under Postal Service regulations, but was considered a violation of tribal election rules.

Communications Services manager Sheila Whitelaw was fired for allowing candidates to use the permit, even though she said she offered the service to all candidates as a means of generating income for the tribal budget.

Leith, Anderson and another candidate who was eliminated in the primary paid for the postage at the time of the mailings. They said they thought the practice had been approved.

Leith said she also thought she was supporting the reservation economy by hiring the tribal print shop.

Cawston said the fines against the candidates were initiated by the tribal council’s election committee, while the ethics committee led the move to expel Anderson and Leith after they were re-elected.

Campaign and ethics violations are considered separate offenses even if they spring from the same conduct, Cawston said.

Censured Louella Anderson and Joanne Leith were censured for using the tribal bulk mail permit for campaign mailings. They were fined $250 apiece, plus the amount they saved by using the cut-rate postage, and were allowed to remain on the ballot.

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