Lowndes County Circuit Clerk Mahala Salazar has announced her intention to seek reelection, but this time as an independent.
Salazar has held the office since 1992, and has run until now as a Democrat. She said today her decision to drop partisan affiliation is intended to help her more effectively perform her duties.
“We do all the election preparation with the assistance of the Democratic and Republican executive committees. These are lay people working for their parties but they depend on us to keep up with laws and keep up with elections,” Salazar said in a statement.
Also, during her 2007 campaign, Salazar faced an opponent in the primary elections for the first time. She said dealing with the primary election as a candidate “made it extremely difficult to do (her) job effectively.”
This year Salazar will deal with redistricting and renovating her offices, in addition to elections. She says party affiliation is not necessary to perform her job.
“The duties of the office of circuit clerk are dictated by statute rather than a policymaking nature; therefore a party designation has no bearing on how the job is done,” read the announcement.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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