Candidate Statement Invalidated

An Orange County Superior Court judge Monday ordered the registrar of voters to excise about 30% of a Stanton City Council candidate’s voter pamphlet statement, which opponents had charged was unsubstantiated by fact.

Responding to a lawsuit filed by three incumbent City Council members against their lone challenger in the Nov. 5 election, Judge David A. Thompson ordered that about 60 of the 193 words in candidate Kevin F. Carr’s statement of qualifications be stricken. “It appears,” the judge instructed county Registrar Rosalyn Lever and Stanton City Clerk Brenda Green, “that you should not have accepted

Among the statements to be deleted were a negative comment regarding the city’s utility tax and a sentence contending that “our city has been mismanaged so badly for so many years that the entire city is now a rehabilitation zone and some are proud of that fact.”

Carr could not be reached for comment.

Councilman David John Shawver, who had filed the lawsuit with Mayor Brian Donahue and Councilman Harry M. Dotson, said the ruling helped bring “a little bit of integrity back to our election.”

“Legal precedents have held that the voter guide is not a place to rip your opponent or put out ... untruths,” he said.

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David Haldane