No politics in public housing?

July 25, 2008

State Street in Bristol Virginia / Tennessee

Obama solicitors canvassing public housing in my home town of Bristol, Virginia were kicked out of the housing complex. The Obama supporters were told they were violating federal law by engaging in political activity in public housing:

When asked about the incident, BRHA Executive Director David Baldwin initially told the Bristol Herald Courier that federal law bans politics from public housing.

“We have federal regulations that we can’t have anybody campaigning on our development,” Baldwin said Tuesday. “We can’t have partisan activity on the site.”

Housing authority agents had the anti-campaign law in mind when booting away the Obama supporters, Baldwin said.

But the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which oversees and partially funds the nation’s public housing, says no such federal laws exist. [ No Politicking Allowed In Bristol, Va., Housing Complex ]

When the Bristol Herald Courier reporter followed up with Baldwin, he backtracked, saying he thought there was a federal law. Baldwin also claimed that there were signs prohibiting solicitation of any kind, but there aren’t — Baldwin was forced to admit that as well. It sounds to me like a case of acting first, justifying later.

BHC reporter Michael Owens goes on to say that Housing and Urban Development claims that individual property managers can decide to restrict federal campaigning on their own. But that’s a Constitutionally muddy area. I can see property managers being prohibited from campaigning, but not other non-government-affiliated citizens. Shouldn’t that be protected speech?

Posted in Politics