Topeka ? The interim executive director of the Topeka YWCA urged the rejection of a former City Council member’s mayoral bid, calling the candidate “a batterer” and “a candidate who believes domestic violence to be acceptable.”

The former councilman, James McClinton, denied any wrongdoing and said he was the victim of a smear campaign.

The YWCA official, Annette Beck, sent a scathing letter to City Council members last week. She pointed to allegations from the past three years that McClinton struck his teenage daughter with a belt and hit her in the face.

Beck also noted a domestic battery charge was filed against McClinton in 2002.

“There is simply no place for a batterer as the mayor and leader of our community,” Beck wrote in her letter, which The Topeka Capital-Journal obtained from a council member.

But the 2002 charge against McClinton, which stemmed from the arrests of McClinton and his wife, was dismissed. He has never been convicted of any crime involving domestic violence.

McClinton responded Thursday with his own letter to city council members, saying he had “never been tried nor convicted for any violation of the law.”

The council will select a mayor on Dec. 30 to finish the term of Butch Felker, who resigned last month.

So far, McClinton is the only candidate of the 39 who has been the target of political attacks.

The new mayor must obtain at least five of the nine council votes.

In her letter, Beck highlighted four police reports involving McClinton during the past three years.

In 2000, one of McClinton’s daughters told school officials that her father “struck her on the legs with a belt for not having completed her chores,” Beck wrote.

A nurse noted a bruise on the girl’s leg.

In April 2001, one of McClinton’s daughters reported she had been struck in the face by her father, Beck wrote. A Topeka police officer reported seeing a bruise under the girl’s left eye.

In 2002, a police officer took a statement from the husband of McClinton’s former wife, who reported a telephone threat from McClinton. According to Beck, McClinton told the man: “I will put a bullet in your head. I will blow your … brains out.”

In 2002, a police officer responded to a call at the McClinton home and found his wife, Martha Lee McClinton, “visibly distraught and frightened,” Beck wrote.