Norwich — An election complaint filed by then-mayoral candidate Peter Nystrom against petitioning candidate Jon Oldfield was dismissed Wednesday, and Oldfield said he is "furious" and is considering a defamation of character suit against Nystrom and the city.

Nystrom won the five-way mayoral election on Nov. 7 with 2,499 votes over Democratic candidate Derell Wilson, who had 1,894 votes; Libertarian William Russell, 338 votes; Oldfield, 338 votes, and petitioning candidate Joseph Radecki, 99 votes.

In the Oct. 13 complaint, Nystrom had alleged that Oldfield used his Comcast cable access TV show, “What’s Your Gripe,” to promote his mayoral campaign. Nystrom said Oldfield should have disclosed the value of what he called “free TV ads” in his campaign finance reports and should have listed a disclaimer on the screen when he displayed campaign material and gave campaign speeches.

But the state Elections Enforcement Commission on Wednesday dismissed the complaint, citing a state law that specifically exempts public access TV shows from the law that otherwise would prohibit a business entity from allowing a candidate to use “specialized business equipment, like a television studio, to record and broadcast material promotional of his campaign.”

The ruling said the cable company would have provided the same training and use of equipment to any candidate and did not provide the facilities and broadcast time to Oldfield to promote his campaign. “Instead, the cable company provided the facilities and broadcast capabilities to the Respondent to the same extent they would have provided them to other candidates upon request,” the decision stated.

While pleased with the ruling, Oldfield said Friday he remains “furious” at Nystrom for filing the complaint “a week before the election” and said the accusations of wrongdoing cost him the election. He also said the city is culpable, because Nystrom filed the complaint “in his official capacity as an alderman,” rather than solely as a mayoral candidate.

Oldfield said he has endured “six months of pain for having my reputation thrown into the mud.”

“What Nystrom did was just low-end, lousy politics,” Oldfield said. “It’s like walking up to a guy in a bar and sucker punching him because you don’t like him.”

Oldfield said he expected the dismissal, because Comcast public access station managers told him the show was not in violation of state election laws.

“I think he and the voters of Norwich owe me an apology,” Oldfield said. “I lost the election because of that.”

Nystrom said Friday he, too, wasn’t surprised at the dismissal, but said Oldfield’s accusations are unfounded. He said he filed the complaint three weeks before the election as a mayoral candidate, not as a sitting City Council member.

“It was not a big deal,” Nystrom said. “I just wanted him to do a disclaimer. That’s all. I didn’t say, ‘Stop’ (doing the show). I just feel people shouldn’t take advantage of loopholes in the law. If people are honorable, they would simply put a disclaimer.”

c.bessette@theday.com