Carmel mayor draws fire over deletion of negative comments

CARMEL, Ind. (AP) - A central Indiana mayor is drawing fire after staff members deleted negative comments and blocked some users from his Facebook campaign page.

Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard says he wants his Facebook page to focus on his vision for Carmel and his success stories. But some posters are discouraged that the mayor won't address concerns about the city's debt and say he could be missing the opportunity to win over undecided voters who visit the page.

Brainard tells The Indianapolis Star (http://indy.st/1CJvhtS ) that it doesn't do any good to respond to posters in some cases because "some of the people posting are clearly very angry, upset people."

Experts say removing comments doesn't violate the First Amendment because Brainard's campaign page is considered a personal page.

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Information from: The Indianapolis Star, http://www.indystar.com