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Blagojevich uses state e-mail list to ask for support

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By Mike Riopell | Thursday, April 19, 2007 12:51 AM CDT | () comments

One state employee wishes Gov. Rod Blagojevich would stay out of his personal e-mail inbox.

Blagojevich’s office sent an e-mail to 40,000 people signed up for state updates urging them to publicly support his proposed tax increase and health care plan. The effort adds to a statewide bus tour and other means the governor has used to try to find support for the plan.

Robert Sloan, a state worker from Rochester, filed a complaint with the state’s top ethics officer over the e-mail. He said that when he signed up for information through a state Web site, he wanted government updates, not what he calls “political” materials.

“I didn’t sign up for these,” Sloan said. The message went to his personal e-mail address, not his state one.

He said that before, he got basic updates about topics such as why the American flag was being flown at half staff on a particular day.

Amy Rosenband, spokeswoman for the Department of Healthcare and Family Services, said the e-mail list is set up to give people who sign up “information and updates.”

Sent in March, the first full sentence of an e-mail asking for support reads: “Show your support for the Governor’s Plan by completing an endorsement form and writing a letter to your local legislator.”

Instead, Sloan said he sent letters to every state lawmaker complaining about the e-mail.

Rosenband said the 40,000 people that received the e-mail Sloan complained about were on a list from her department and the governor’s office.

She said the list will continue to be used. But to stop getting the messages, people can send an e-mail to HFS.webmaster@illinois.gov.

— Mike Riopell