The Commissioner Battle Finally Settled
After an election victory and months of legal maneuvering, C. E. DeBow prepares to take his seat as County Commissioner despite an appeal.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Sam Allard received a telephone message this Friday morning from County Auditor E. O. Keene, in which Mr. Keene said that Judge Truax had on Thursday decided the case of C. E. DeBow against A. G. McNeill in favor of DeBow and that Mr. DeBow would take his seat as county commissioner at the meeting of the commissioners on the first Monday in March. Mr. Keene said that McNeill had filed notice of appeal to the State Supreme Court but that this would not prevent DeBow from taking his seat at the March meeting of the commissioners. Although DeBow received an overwhelming majority of the votes over McNeill in the election last November, the latter refused to give up his seat, claiming that the law permitted him to serve out the full term of his predecessor, Dr. French, whose place he was filling by appointment. Dr. French’s term would not have expired until January 1925.
“Although DeBow received an overwhelming majority of the votes over McNeill in the election last November, the latter refused to give up his seat.”
Local political disputes over appointments versus electoral mandates remain a recurring theme in Washington civic life. This 1923 case echoes the ongoing tensions between administrative incumbency and the public's right to representation.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.