INDEPENDENT candidate Jenny O’Connor believes concerns raised by an Indigo Shire colleague about her wanting the best of both worlds by remaining mayor and standing in the Victorian election could spectacularly misfire on Liberal Bill Tilley.
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Cr O’Connor strongly refuted the claim and described the comments made by Cr Trenery as “dirty party politics”.
“I think it is an attempt to smear me and because James is a member of the Liberal Party, I wasn’t particularly surprised by it,” she said.
“I’m not part of that game and I don’t play it.
“I’m really mindful of the fact Benambra sits in the federal electorate of Indi and I think people have (sent) very clear messages to the old parties they don’t like dirty politics.
“Actually it is going to blow back on them quite frankly.”
Cr O’Connor didn’t link Mr Tilley with Cr Trenery's actions.
“I spoke to (Bill) after I announced I would be a candidate and we agreed we wouldn’t be playing dirty politics in this campaign because we know voters don’t like it,” she said.
“Bill might be quite unhappy about it in fact.”
Cr Trenery said he didn’t regret his decision to speak out about the possibility of Cr O’Connor becoming mayor again and then taking leave of absence to contest the state election.
“The whole purpose of making the statement I did was to benefit Indigo Shire,” he said.
“We needed a mayor who was full-time concentrating on council matters and I just wanted the best for Indigo Shire.
“I don’t have any personal grievance with Cr O’Connor.”
In retrospect, Cr O’Connor said she wished she didn’t decide to seek another term as mayor when she was also standing for state parliament.
But she said no other councillor was publicly indicating a willingness to stand for the role and she was being encouraged to do so by colleagues.
“The idea that I might need to have Plan B has fallen away,” she said.
“I’m really keen to win the seat of Benambra.”
“I finished my term at 6am (Tuesday) and for me that was the time to say I’m going to stand aside,” she said.
“People were also asking why I hadn’t stepped aside.”
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