Voters in tiny Jefferson, Oregon recalled their mayor in a landslide Tuesday, marking the culmination of a vicious, months-long land dispute and recall campaign.

Cyndie Hightower was mayor of the Marion County town of 3,000 for less than nine months. In a phone interview, she said she did her best as the volunteer mayor and broke no rules. But after her opponents ran a recall campaign alleging she misspent public funds and was inept, voters removed her with 64 percent of the vote.

Hightower said she's been the victim of personal and political attacks by her opponents, who are allies of local developer Nancy Hamby. Hightower said she faced death threats, a drone flying over her home and harassment that affected her work and personal life.

"It was brutal," Hightower said.

Hamby said Hightower wasn't a great mayor, and she supported her recall. Hamby said Hightower has exaggerated how opponents treated her.

But both agree that the recall is an example of how local politics can turn ruthless.

"It's been very ugly," Hamby said.

Controversy erupted last year when the city council voted to annex a 15-acre parcel Hamby owns and wants to develop. Then private citizens who had never run for office, Hightower and three associates -- Bob Burns, Brad Cheney and Stan Neal -- wanted city residents vote on the annexation, which was near their homes.

A state law passed in 2016 bars residents from voting on annexations. But Hightower, 59, said she and her allies were undeterred.

They filed an initiative to get the annexation put on a local ballot. The city recorder threw out the initiative, saying it was illegal. In turn, Hightower helped her associates sue the city and the recorder.

Then, the foursome ran for city council. They won, giving their contingent a majority.

"It became a mess after that," said Greg Ellis, the city administrator. "The legal bills started piling up and people were up in arms."

Hamby and other residents cried foul. She said it presented a conflict of interest for the mayor and three councilors to vote on city business while intertwined with a lawsuit against the city. Hightower was not a party to the suit and said she ended her involvement with it after she took office.

A former councilor filed an ethics complaint against Hightower, which was thrown out by the state ethics commission, whose investigators said they "did not find cause to proceed."

Then came calls for Hightower and her allies to resign -- and bullying, Hightower said.

"They came with barrels and guns loaded, coming to council meetings and firing at will. Bullying me and the council. It got pretty fierce," she said. "They started making death threats. I had to have three sheriff's deputies at one council meeting."

Hightower works with special needs children at Jefferson Elementary School. After the annexation brouhaha began, opponents sifted through Hightower's Facebook posts, she said, and tried to get her fired over a post she wrote that was critical of illegal immigration.

Hightower said she was disciplined at work and lost some of her job responsibilities.

"That was devastating. I've been there 17 years," she said. "That was hard. It's been an onslaught."

For her part, Hamby said Hightower has aimed vitriol her way as well.

"I had my name dragged through the dirt. I've done nothing," Hamby said. "I'm a sixth-generation Jeffersonian. I love this community."

As the going got rough, Burns, Cheney and Neal -- the candidates who ran with Hightower -- resigned from the city council. Despite calls for her to resign, Hightower stayed put.

"I wasn't going to resign. I stayed in it. It was brutal," she said. "I just was not going to have them push me out and make me resign."

Then, the recall effort launched.

A website called JeffersonFirst.com was published, listing each time opponents felt Hightower did something wrong. Hamby said she's affiliated with the website, which pushed for the recall vote.

Both sides say insults and fury never stopped flying.

"It got to be so ugly I thought, 'Let Jefferson die,'" Hamby said. "There's six of us little old ladies -- we're building a library here on sweat and bake sales. We're giving. And then you get people who come and break down the community."

She added, "This is like reality T.V. It's nuts."

Now that the dust has settled, Hightower said she's glad to be out of the fray.

"It's kind of a relief," she said. "It was a lot to go through."

Hightower said she now has a better sense of politics -- and how brutal it can get when neighbors are involved.

"It's about power and control," she said.

-- Gordon R. Friedman

503-805-3347; @GordonRFriedman