In what serves as a reminder of the political activities restrictions on federal employees, the Office of Special Counsel has filed complaints seeking disciplinary action against two employees who ran for office in 2014.
The complaints, filed with the MSPB, could lead to penalties up to removal for employees in the separate cases.
In one, an employee is charged with being a candidate in a partisan election—for a seat in the U.S. House, unsuccessfully—despite what OSC described as “repeated warnings” from both his own agency and from the OSC that he was barred from doing so while a federal employee.
The other case involves an employee that OSC says ran for a county commissioner seat; although the employee ran as an independent, the election itself was partisan, OSC said. In that case, it said, the employee won and continues to hold that office.
