Rich refutes campaign claims

SANDPOINT — Bonner County Commissioner Lewie Rich is disputing a political opponent’s contention that he campaigned while conducting county business.

Rich, who won re-election to the District 3 seat on the board in Tuesday’s election, said he made it a point not to wear campaign buttons during meetings or make remarks about his candidacy.

“I never entered into statements regarding the election,” the Republican said on Thursday.

Rich’s Democratic challenger, Mel Davis, said Rich made references to campaign stances during board meetings. If such remarks were made, they were passing references to matters that were before the board, Rich said.

“If that happened, it was very few times,” said Rich.

Rich fended off Davis’ challenge by a margin of 3,717 votes to win a second term on the commission.

Rich said he was pleasantly surprised by the margin of victory given that polls on the Bonner County Daily Bee website prior to the election suggested the two were neck-and-neck leading up to Tuesday’s vote. Rich added the audiences at candidate forums were tough to gauge because they appeared to be largely populated by the candidates’ political entourages instead of undecided voters.

“I didn’t anticipate winning by as big a margin as I did,” said Rich.