PITTSBORO - A woman backing one of the mayor's challengers and working with a group to defeat the county's land transfer tax says she was denied booths at a monthly street fair because of politics.

The organizer of Pittsboro's First Sunday, however, says she didn't deny the requests. A final decision on the group's request has not been made, Leslie Fesperman said, and she is not sure individual candidates can have booths at the event.

"We allow nonprofits on a percentage of how many arts and crafts vendors there are," Fesperman said. "I try to show no partiality."

Heather Johnson, communications chairwoman for Chatham Conservative Voice, said she asked Friday whether she could set up booths Nov. 4 for Chatham Conservative Voice and Pittsboro mayoral candidate Chris Bradshaw. Johnson is his campaign manager.

Johnson said Fesperman wouldn't give her an application, and "she said my mayor candidate can't have a booth because he's not part of an organization."

In a phone interview Monday, Fesperman said she tried to explain the Pittsboro Merchants Association's guidelines to Johnson, "but Heather became so irate, I couldn't get the point across."

First, there are no formal applications, Fesperman said. A group simply sends her an e-mail message and asks her for a booth, she said. Nonprofits have to wait until the week before the event for confirmation so she can make sure nonprofits don't outnumber artists, she said.

Second, Fesperman said, she told Johnson that she wasn't sure a candidate could set up a booth because a candidate is not a nonprofit group. Only artists and nonprofit agencies can participate in First Sundays, she said.

For October's event, Fesperman agreed to let another Town Board candidate have a booth, but he never set it up, she said. She agreed to it because the candidate showed up on the day of the event and she had room, she said.

Group participation

Pittsboro Together, a political group that supports planned growth, was at October's event. Chris Hinkle, its chairman, said that members plan to be there next month.

The group has endorsed four candidates for Town Board, including incumbent Mayor Randy Voller, who is running against Bradshaw, and Town Board member Max Cotton. At First Sunday, Pittsboro Together handed out stickers and fliers in support of the candidates, Hinkle said.

Chatham County Democratic Women also has been allowed to set up booths at the monthly event on Hillsboro Street, the town's main thoroughfare.

The group attends every month, said Barbara Hatcher, who oversees the booth. Lately, the group has passed out information packets on the land transfer tax, a measure on the November ballot. Volunteers also register voters.

The fliers, printed by the county, don't take a position on the tax, though Hatcher said as an individual she asks passers-by to vote for the tax, which would add a 0.4 percent tax on property sold in the county.

Fesperman said she has yet to turn down a Chatham-based nonprofit group. But now, she said, she might not let any political group participate because of Johnson.

"Because she is making an issue of it, we may not do it anymore," Fesperman said. "We can't have all the political candidates out there."

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