Darren Fish, who lost a rerun election for president of AFSCME Local 494 in Pontiac, Ill., said Feb. 12 that the local’s parent union is investigating the rerun. In Dec., Fish and incumbent boss Danny Jarrett split the original vote for president with a third candidate. Fish and Jarrett were the top vote-getters and had a runoff two days later. Fish won the runoff 198-184. But on Jan. 13, Local 494 threw out the runoff results and set another for Feb. 11. Jarrett won the second runoff 250-228. Fish criticized the revote due to the fact that only 80 out of 750 members caused the second runoff. Fish also said questionable methods were used in the second runoff. A member “was telling new employees that I was no longer employed…, when really I was on vacation,” said Fish. [Pantagraph 2/13/99]
