Candidates who would like to pursue the Republican Party’s nomination for county collector in the Aug. 7 primary election have until 5 p.m. Wednesday (May 16) to file in what appears to be an unprecedented move to accept more candidates.
Filing for statewide and county offices closed March 27, but the sole Republican candidate in the race, Julie Ann Zalenda of Cedar Hill, withdrew from the collector’s race on Tuesday (May 9).
County Clerk Randy Holman said that under state law, her departure triggered a five-day period in which anyone seeking the Republican nomination can file.
That five-day window began at 8 a.m. today (May 10).
“The way I interpret the statute is that filing opens for five days,” Holman said. “What’s not clear is when that five-day period would start.”
Holman said after consulting with others around the state, he believes the filing is supposed to reopen starting with the next business day.
He said that’s not when he would have reopened the filing if he had a choice.
“I would have preferred being able to say, hold it from Monday through Friday of next week, and give a little time to get the word out,” Holman said. “The biggest travesty is that the public will not have an ample opportunity to find out about this.”
He said he has spoken with a number of election authorities around the state, and he found no one who said that such an event – where the sole candidate for a party pulled out of a race after the filing ended – has happened.
“I would have thought it would have happened somewhere, but no one knew of anything,” Holman said. “Certainly it’s not ever happened in Jefferson County. No one on my staff has heard of it before, and I spoke with (former County Clerk) Wes Wagner, and he hadn’t heard of it ever happening before.”
Another Republican candidate, Lisa “Brewer” Short of Cedar Hill, had previously filed for the Republican nomination, but withdrew March 28 after she was told that under state law, candidates for county collector must post a letter from a bonding agent certifying that the candidate is bondable.
Short re-filed for the nomination on Thursday (May 10).
Holman said any candidate who wishes to file should present such a letter.
He said only potential Republican candidates are eligible to file in the reopened period. The incumbent, Beth Mahn, is the sole Democrat to file for the office.
Potential candidates may file in person at the County Clerk’s Office at the Jefferson County Administration Center, 729 Maple St., Hillsboro.
The Republican and Democratic winners in the primary will face off in the general election on Nov. 6.