Cr Ben Shields this week called for opponent Greg Matthews to show his allegiance to Dubbo by having election signs re-printed by local printers.

Cr Matthews confirmed some of his posters were printed at Gosford, while he alleged a tax invoice connecting him to a piece of election material last week that targeted Cr Shields' record on rate rises was "doctored".

The flyer, authorized by M Ryan and printed by a Sydney company, was labelled "dirty politics" by Cr Shields, who had seen a copy and disputed its claims.

The Daily Liberal had on August 23 received a copy of an invoice for the job from the printers made out to Greg Matthews.

In response to this newspaper's questions Cr Matthews admitted he assisted a ratepayer friend in the production of a flyer, but shrugged off suggestions it was dirty politics.

Then late on Tuesday Cr Shields issued a media release criticizing Cr Matthews for choosing an out-of-town printer, saying it flew in the face of local businesses already doing it tough.

"We recently saw examples of Greg Matthews buying from outside Dubbo with his dirt file printing about me - now he goes another step further by getting his signs printed in Gosford," Cr Shields said.

"There is still time for (Cr Matthews) to show (his) true allegiance to Dubbo - withdraw the signs and get some printed locally."

Early on Wednesday Cr Matthews presented the Daily Liberal with a tax invoice with the same order number as last week's invoice copy but this time made out to "Michael Ryan".

He asserted the Sydney printer would not have known his surname and said he had been given the address of the tradesman by a former Liberal.

He and Cr Shields provide different explanations of the invoice made out to Greg Matthews.

Cr Matthews also defended his choice of printer.

"Some of my corflutes were printed in Dubbo and some were printed in Gosford," he said.

"Ninety-eight per cent of my business is done outside of Dubbo.

"I bring those towns' money back to Dubbo.

"I occasionally support areas that support me.

"I'll bet that when Cr Shields read the authorization of the corflutes printed in Dubbo that he did not mention those because a half-truth isn't unusual."

Cr Shields said in response that all the signs he had seen across Dubbo were printed at Gosford, not locally.

Then Cr Matthews issued a letter to the editor in which he apologized for not disclosing his involvement with the flyer at a candidates forum, but not for the flyer itself, saying the "the truth... needs to come out".

Cr Shields yesterday followed up with his own letter to the editor thanking Cr Matthews for his apology and saying he now considered the matter closed.

The two men and other candidates were this week stationed outside the Dubbo returning office, where voters went to pre-poll.

Cr Shields also said candidate Richard Mutton's signs were printed at Gosford and also called for him to replace them with Dubbo-produced versions.

Cr Mutton indicated his inability to respond owing to medication taken for an illness.