Ethics Commission Rejects Terry Keel's Complaint About Anonymous Blog

by: David Mauro

Fri Dec 26, 2008 at 06:16 PM CST

Remember when the Austin Political Report alleged that Terry Keel was helping the campaign of District Attorney candidate Mindy Montford?

It caused a big stir last spring when the author of the anonymous APR revealed himself to be Kelly Fero, a long time Democratic consultant who was advising Rosemary Lehmberg's campaign.

Terry Keel then filed a complaint with the Texas Ethics Commission. Keel argued that Fero's post had violated the state's truth in political advertising laws.

Earlier this week, the Ethics Commission ruled that it did not violate state law. The ruling establishes a precedent for the protection of anonymous bloggers and the rights of bloggers who are affiliated with political campaigns yet maintain their own personal blogs.

From the Austin American-Statesman:

Keel, who tracked down the creation of the Web site, argued that Fero violated the state's truth-in-political-advertising laws by hiding his identity. The Ethics Commission, however, dismissed the complaint, saying there was no violation because the anonymous posting made no representation of its true source.

The commission acted at its Dec. 4 closed-door meeting, but letters announcing the decision to both sides were not released until Tuesday.

Jason Nassour, Keel's lawyer, criticized the ruling in a written statement.

"The conduct was unethical," Nassour wrote, "and the Ethics Commission's failure to enforce statutes forbidding this conduct will undoubtedly lead to an increase of these sorts of unethical campaign practices."

In the spirit of the holiday season, Fero told Laylan Copelin of the Statesman, ""Mr. Keel's had a bad year, but I hope he has a good holiday."

This ruling gives bloggers something else to celebrate this holiday season, too.