Lake Barrington adopts campaign behavior code
Lake Barrington's newly installed village board has unanimously endorsed a resolution aimed at setting behavioral standards for all future village elections.
Beginning his second term as village president, Kevin Richardson said the resolution advocating - but not requiring - fair campaign practices was inspired by this spring's election but intended to be forward-looking.
Had he really felt there were any campaign tactics grievous enough to be worth specifically re-examining, Richardson said he would have filed a complaint with the state board of elections.
The new resolution is not meant to inhibit robust debate but to take a stand against slanderous, personal or anonymous attacks, he said.
This includes not only mailed fliers and public signs but also Internet attacks, he added.
Village Attorney James Bateman said the resolution is intended to set a policy but is not a mandate on candidates' behavior. Its language is not meant to provide any basis for legal action against anyone.
"Illinois has a Fair Campaign Practices Act," Bateman said. "The language of this resolution is derived entirely from that act."
Trustee and former village president Connie Schofield, despite campaigning for former trustee Jean Vonder Haar in her unsuccessful bid to unseat Richardson, also supported the resolution.
She agreed with Richardson that there are many campaign tactics becoming commonplace in general society that are unbecoming for a community as closely knit as Lake Barrington.
"This is a small community," she said. "Everyone seems to be on the same page. People disagree, but you disagree as a gentleman or a lady."
Richardson said the problem of negative campaigning is becoming so prevalent that it's getting harder to attract optimistic and hardworking people to politics.
One thing that prompted the resolution was an anonymous flier posted in town before the election supporting Vonder Haar, Schofield and trustee candidate Javier Suarez - and spelling two of their names incorrectly.
Though the flier isn't overtly political - concentrating on such specific issues as a cellular antenna and off-track betting proposals - it is factually wrong and all the worse for being anonymous, Richardson said.