Better Government Association

Cole pulls campaign link from city Web site

Mayor Brad Cole removed a link on the city's official Web site to his personal site Monday after questions arose about blurring the line between campaigning and governing.

By Andrea Zimmermann
Issue date: 3/27/07 Section: City

The city's site, which is considered a government resource, lists the names, phone numbers and e-mails of the mayor and City Council. Cole also included his Web site, teambrad.com, which accepts and encourages online donations to his campaign committee, Citizens for Cole. Cole immediately had the link removed after being questioned by a DAILY EGYPTIAN reporter.

Jay Stewart, executive director of the Better Government Association, said linking the site from the city's page is a clear violation of the state ethics act.

"Government resources are not to be used for campaigning," said Stewart, whose organization acts as a government watchdog. "If (Gov. Rod) Blagojevich did it, it would be a problem. It doesn't change because you are talking about a mayor in downstate Illinois."

Cole said he hadn't thought about linking the site from the city's official web page. Cole's personal site also includes archives of his speeches, newsletters and city proclamations.

"If somebody had a question, they should have asked me and this would have been solved a long time ago," Cole said.

Teambrad.com Webmaster David More said the donations portion of the site was added after Cole announced his candidacy in November.

Kent Redfield, a political studies professor at University of Illinois-Springfield, said while having the link on the city's site is not an egregious error, public officials must be held to a higher standard for ethics.

I think if there is any possibility of people interpreting it as a misuse of public resources, then you avoid it," he said. "The public is cynical enough about how government resources are used in this state.

"You can't be a little bit pregnant. It's either one way or the other," Redfield said.

andrea_zimmermann@dailyegyptian.com