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Article
published August 31, 2001
Stay above fray,
expert tells panel for clean politics
Advice on mayoral campaign
Rourke: He says
the panel must include people the community trusts. THE
BLADE/DON SIMMONS |
By FRITZ WENZEL
BLADE POLITICAL WRITER
A new
committee to monitor the conduct of candidates for the position of
mayor of Toledo must navigate carefully if it is to maintain
credibility with the campaigns and the public, a national expert on
the subject said.
Brad Rourke, vice president for public
policy for the Institute for Global Ethics, a Camden, Maine, think
tank, said yesterday it will be difficult to stay above the fray if
candidates Ray Kest and Jack Ford decide to take a nasty
turn.
Mr. Kest, the Lucas County treasurer, and Mr. Ford, the
Ohio House Minority leader, signed identical pledges - developed by
the Project on Campaign Conduct, a sister organization to the
Institute for Global Ethics - promising to run clean, issue-oriented
campaigns.
A monitoring committee is being formed by leaders
of the League of Women Voters of Toledo-Lucas County. Mr. Rourke,
who has produced a guidebook on monitoring campaign conduct pledges,
traveled to Toledo Wednesday to advise the league.
"This gets
technical," Mr. Rourke said. "There is no entity that is just right
to enforce a code of conduct in political
campaigns."
Nonprofit groups risk losing their tax-exempt
status if they wade too far into the middle of political campaigns,
he said, and must be careful not to engage in "electioneering,"
which is prohibited under federal law. He said it makes sense to
organize a new committee to monitor the campaigns.
Mr. Rourke
said it is important for such a committee to maintain its
independence from the campaigns. "If they are not careful, they can
become tools of the campaigns," he said. To avoid problems, the
committee must contain pillars of the community, he
said.
"They must have gravitas," Mr. Rourke said. "These
people must be listened to by the community at large. They must be
trusted. You want people of stature and no political
ties."
Mr. Rourke "was invaluable in helping us understand
the scope of the project," said Sue Nichols, administrative vice
president of the local league. "We are going ahead with it. We are
working on a plan. We are working to get nominations for the
committee."
Ms. Nichols said they are building a list of
organizations, including civic and religious groups, to be contacted
for help. "We are looking to get this committee as large as we can
to make sure it represents as broad a cross section of the community
as it can," she said. She said Mr. Rourke helped the group broaden
its concept of the committee.
"We had thought of this
committee in terms only of this particular [mayoral] race. We are
now thinking in terms of a committee that would continue" beyond
this year’s election. "There is a lot of work ahead," she
said.
Mr. Kest and Mr. Ford are among six people who will
stand for election in the Sept. 11 mayoral primary
election.
A poll commissioned by The Blade and conducted last
week by Zogby International showed Mr. Ford leads Mr. Kest by 11
percent , 39 percent to 28 percent, with one quarter of the
electorate undecided. The top two finishers in the primary advance
to the general election.
The other candidates are
restaurateur Rick Grafing, security company operator Armiya
Muhammed, math teacher James Harmon, and former thrift shop owner
Opal Covey.
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