COEUR d'ALENE - It's getting grisly on the campaign front, and Jai Nelson is fighting many a battle.

Recently Press letters to the editor have been embroiled in a back-and-forth between the opponents and defenders of Nelson, who won the Republican primary for the District 2 seat for Kootenai County commissioner.

Accusations against her have included misrepresenting her business credentials, tax evasion and smearing the personal life of a political opponent.

None of it is true, she said.

"All of these are non-issues, other than Rick Currie and Chris Fillios who have personal vendettas against me and are attacking me," she said, speaking of the opponents she defeated in the primary.

Currie, the current District 2 commissioner who is running as a write-in candidate against her, said that's not the case.

"It's not just Chris and I," Currie said. "There are a lot of people who want some answers."

A letter to the editor written in late September by Nanci Currie - unrelated to the commissioner - reported that Nelson's company, Studio J Interior Design, isn't paying business property taxes.

"I was hearing some things just through the grapevine, and I got curious," the Harrison woman said on Thursday. "I just put out what I found."

Nelson defended the business she has owned and operated in Coeur d'Alene since 1994.

"These issues were raised in the primary, and I have addressed these multiple times," she said.

She said she registered with the county for a property tax assessment in 1994, but as of 1997, sole proprietor businesses like hers have had to file with the state, not with counties.

"I have talked with people in the Assessor's Office and the Secretary of State," she said.

A partner firm has been paying the taxes on her company's equipment, she added.

"If you own the tables and chair and desk, and they did, you pay. It's your equipment," she said. Nelson declined to give the name of the other firm.

But Rich Houser, chief deputy assessor with Kootenai County, said it is a requirement for all businesses to register with the county. There isn't an exception for sole proprietors, he added.

He said the Assessor's Office has nothing about Studio J in its system, nor about a partner firm paying for its equipment.

"We've never had a filing. We can't find anything," Houser said. "We'll be contacting them."

Houser added that companies can be subject to fines for not paying property taxes, though he hasn't seen the county impose such penalties.

Staff at the Secretary of State office said that as of 1997, the state only took over filing for DBA, or the name businesses are conducted under, for sole proprietor businesses. That is unrelated to property taxes.

Nanci Currie also denounced Studio J for not being registered with the Secretary of State, but Nelson said that isn't required by law. The Secretary of State office confirmed that.

The letter to the editor had also questioned Nelson's career as a general contractor, as her name is not registered with the Idaho Bureau of Occupational Licenses.

Nelson said she did contracting work prior to 2006, when registering with the licensing bureau wasn't required. The bureau office verified the requirement wasn't enacted until that year. Nelson said she no longer works as a general contractor.

"That was a very small portion of my accomplishments," said Nelson, also a registered nurse.

Another accusation surfaced in a letter to the editor by Rick Currie on Oct. 3. Currie stated that Nelson had "told outright lies" about their political opponent, Fillios.

Fillios said on Thursday that during the primary campaign, several individuals approached him about rumors they heard from Larry Spencer, a Spirit Lake developer understood to be part of Nelson's campaign.

"The rumor was, 'If Fillios is elected, there will be a sex scandal,'" Fillios said. "I've heard this from at least five people, and these just happened to be people I know. So how many more heard the slander that I don't know?"

Whether Nelson knew about it doesn't matter, Fillios said. He argued that she should be responsible for anything happening with her campaign.

"This is an assault on my marriage," Fillios said. "I'm calling on Nelson to withdraw from the campaign and for the Republican Party to withdraw support."

Fillios has e-mails from individuals saying they heard the rumor from Spencer, but those individuals either couldn't be reached for comment or declined to be quoted.

Spencer said he never made such calls. His only involvement in Nelson's campaign was putting up signs, he said.

"I'm disappointed to see politics in Idaho dissolving to the point that candidates that lose at a primary resort to character assassination against those who won," Spencer said.

Nelson said she had focused on running a clean campaign.

"I specifically instructed any supporters who were putting up signs not to say anything negative about my opponents, because that's not who I am," she said.

Nelson added that she wants all of these accusations put behind her.

"I don't need to campaign negatively," she said. "There have been so many positive proposals that I've made. We really need to get on to the issues at hand with the county."