55.4  Leave of absence for public employee candidacy.
  1.  Any public employee who becomes a candidate for any elective public office shall, upon request of the employee and commencing any time within thirty days prior to a contested primary, special, or general election and continuing until after the day following that election, automatically be given a period of leave. If the employee is under chapter 8A, subchapter IV, the employee may choose to use accrued vacation leave, accrued compensatory leave, or leave without pay to cover these periods. The appointing authority may authorize other employees to use accrued vacation leave or accrued compensatory leave instead of leave without pay to cover these periods. An employee who is a candidate for any elective public office shall not campaign while on duty as an employee.
  2.  This section does not apply to employees of the federal government or to a public employee whose position is financed by federal funds if the application of this section would be contrary to federal law or result in the loss of the federal funds.
86 Acts, ch 1021, §2; 2003 Acts, ch 145, §154; 2020 Acts, ch 1062, §94