KNOX — After being narrowly defeated in the November election, Deborah Liddle, Democratic candidate for Knox town clerk, says the letter she circulated during her campaign was "not of a malicious nature."
Her opponent, Republican incumbent Kimberly Swain, ran an ad the week of the election in The Altamont Enterprise, that said Liddle was circulating "a negative campaign letter."

Swain and Liddle have been neck-in-neck in the last two elections. Swain won the two-year term in 2005 by just 50 votes, ousting Liddle, and this year kept her post by just 13 votes. Democrats outnumber Republicans in Knox, 5 to 3. The part-time clerk’s post pays $11,978.
In her campaign letter, Liddle said, "nothing was even said" of Swain. The letter doesn’t name Swain or refer to Swain directly. Liddle wrote, "The Knox Town Clerk should be someone who has the knowledge, ability, and skills to perform all the critical functions and responsibilities of being the town clerk." She wrote the letter, she said, to explain the duties of the office, and to say that, while in office, she had successfully performed the duties and that she would continue to perform them if elected.

Swain also says she didn’t mention her opponent in her ad the week of the election.
"I didn’t write anything negative about her. I didn’t mention her name," she said. "I simply stated that if I win or lose, at least I know I ran a clean and fair campaign."

Liddle has been the town’s court clerk, an appointed position, since 1996. She was a deputy town clerk, also appointed, from 1983 to 2000. She was Knox’s town clerk for three two-year terms, from 2000 to 2006, until she was defeated by Swain two years ago.

While Liddle’s campaign letter makes no outright accusations, it can be read as alluding to a situation where Swain came under fire.
Earlier this year, resident Edward Ackroyd filed a Freedom Of Information Law request with the town for an updated zoning ordinance. Upon returning to Town Hall for his request, Swain gave Ackroyd an e-mail from Robert Price, the long-time chairman of the planning board, to long-time Democratic Supervisor Michael Hammond. The e-mail says, "Mr. Ackroyd has raised his pain-in-the-whazoo head yet again."

The state’s Freedom Of Information Law says a governmental agency may withhold information; it doesn’t say it must, said Robert Freeman, the director of the state’s Committee on Open Government.
In her campaign letter, Liddle states, "I will ensure the prevention of serious loss or compromise of the town’s critical and sensitive information" and "I will uphold the confidentiality entrusted to me regarding delicate information."

This week, in a letter to The Enterprise editor, Liddle writes that Swain’s comments in the ad couldn’t be refuted until now and that some residents may have believed Swain and it cost Liddle the election.
"I don’t think my letter had any affect on the people’s voting," Swain said of her ad. "Obviously, it was clear that, two years ago, that’s what the people wanted...and that’s what they continued this year."

Swain said she simply stated that, if she won or lost, she had a good two years and that she hoped she would be elected to serve another two years.
"So I don’t think it was directed at her," Swain said of her ad. "Entirely, no."

As well as attributing the election’s outcome to Swain’s ad, Liddle said, Swain received more votes because she also ran on small-party lines.

In 2005 and again in this year’s election, Liddle said, she received more votes from Democrats than Swain received from Republicans.

Two years ago

Two years ago, after Swain was elected, the town board voted unanimously in December of 2005 to send her to the Training School for Newly-Elected Town Officials, a three-day conference in January of 2006. The cost of the class, Swain said, was $150, and she returned after the class to attend the clerk’s hours on a Tuesday night.
"The training class was just a little stepping stone," she said, "There’s a lot of things that they didn’t cover that the town clerk does...in their daily and monthly duties."

Liddle said the town spent a total of $900 to train Swain and to buy a new software program for Swain to pay the town’s bills.

Liddle referred to her time in office and the political change two years ago.
"All of a sudden, you have a mix now," Liddle said of the Democratic supervisor working with a Republican town clerk.
Liddle said Democratic Supervisor Michael Hammond trusts her and that, while she was the town’s clerk, he gave her a key to his office, where she used a computer to enter bills. "So," said Liddle of when Swain became the town’s clerk, "the accounting program had to be secured."
Asked if the town bought the program because of a shift in political affiliation in the town clerk’s office, Hammond said, "No."

Two years ago, the town bought a bookkeeping system specifically designed for town clerks that creates abstracts, Hammond said.
"There’s no loyalty between the town clerk and the supervisor," Liddle said of Swain and Hammond. "That’s something you have to gain over time." Hammond would not comment on Liddle’s statement.

Swain said this week she is in office for the right reasons.
"I’m here to help everybody. I’m a lifelong resident," she said. "I want to do the best that I can for myself and for everybody else that lives in the town."