Readers who’ve been following the travails of the Clarksburg, West Virginia city council candidate arrested before the election and charged with distributing anonymous campaign literature will be interested to know that the charges were just dismissed, though without prejudice to refile. “Reached afterward, the Marion County assistant prosecutor said he had made the motion [to dismiss] based on his ‘interpretation of the statutory language, the fact no expressed advocacy was contained in the language (of the newsletter) itself. And, I think we were going to have a difficult time with the prosecution of the case.'” The Exponent article also quotes the candidate as saying: “sometimes it’s wise to let the prosecuting attorney people look into the facts before arresting someone the night before the election.”
Thanks to Robbin Stewart for keeping on top of this story.