CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) – The mayor of Hammond is asking Lake County elections officials to dismiss a complaint that he paid his wife more than $300,000 over the past decade for work she did as a campaign consultant.
 
The Times of Munster reports Eric Krieg contends Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. isn't following a 2001 Indiana Election Commission advisory opinion that candidates paying family members should publicly file a written contract describing services provide to the campaign. 
 
McDermott's attorney, David Westland, says Krieg's objections to McDermott's campaign spending are nothing more than “pure speculation and innuendo.” Westland said the advisory opinion doesn't require candidates to file such a contract.
 
McDermott is a Democrat. Krieg is a Republican.
 
The complaint could go before the election board as early as Thursday.