The chairman of the Richmond Democratic Committee says he mistakenly allowed a vote to endorse Del. Dwight C. Jones for mayor that violated the committee's bylaws.

Eric Payne told a five-member Democratic party appeals panel tonight that he was not aware when the vote was taken on Sept. 25 that committee rules do not allow new business to be introduced at party meetings.

"That is my oversight," Payne told the review panel in a conference call that included representatives of four of the five mayoral campaigns. The call was open to the media.

Lawrence H. Framme, former state Democratic party chairman and representative for mayoral candidate Robert Grey, called the committee vote "business by ambush."

"There is no manner in which an endorsement of a candidate could have been brought forward at a regular meeting of the committee," Framme said.

The review panel, composed of party representatives from the 3rd and 7th Congressional Districts, were to discuss the appeal during a separate conference call later and make a recommendation to their full district committees.

The outcome of the appeal is likely to have a major effect on the mayoral race because of the power of the Democratic Party's endorsement in Richmond and ability to pair the nominee on sample ballots with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Paul Goldman, a former state party chairman who is running for mayor, filed the appeal because he said the process had violated party rules and principles of fairness.

Goldman was joined in the appeal by Grey and City Council President William J. Pantele, who was represented last night by campaign manager Craig Bieber.

Bieber said the endorsement was not made by the same process used by the committee in 2004 and 2006, as he said Jones had claimed.

"It's the height of hypocrisy for Del. Jones to claim that his endorsement was no different," Bieber said. Contact Michael Martz at (804) 649-6964 or mmartz@timesdispatch.com.