Steve Shine Makes Baseless Accusation

Common Cause is filing a complaint with the county prosecutor in regards to Matt Kelty's campaign loans. To avoid any conflict of interest Election Board member Andy Downs, who is also a board member on Common Cause, decided to resign from the Common Cause board once he was informed of the complaint. Downs and Common Cause have both said that he did not initiate the complaint. But this certainly didn't stop Steve Shine from making accusations:

“He’s trying to get a second bite of the apple and is engaging in a conflict of interest,” Shine said.

Steve, everyone involved said that Downs didn't initiate the complaint - is everyone lying? Also, he resigned, so where is the conflict of interest? Did you and Kelty really believe that there wasn't going to be a complaint filed? And why would it have mattered if Downs did file the complaint - he has the same rights any other citizen does.

I don't believe for a second that Shine or Kelty thought that Tuesday's Election Board whitewash was going to be the end of the matter. They're now simply trying to pin the blame on the local Democratic party for something their own party initiated.

The worse part is that Shine has absolutely no basis for smearing Downs as a liar. I certainly didn't call him and the Republicans on the Election Board liars when they said there was no collusion before the hearing. If anyone is going to levy accusations of impropriety, it certainly shouldn't be the chair of the Allen County Republican Party...