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The Web site promotes Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta’s controversial illegal immigration ordinance and seeks signatures of those who support it. Miller was asked to help the mayor’s office with the technical aspects of launching the Web site, Slusser said.
The Republican senator’s re-election campaign is not connected to the Hazleton ordinance, Virginia Davis, a spokeswoman for Santorum, said Tuesday. The work performed for Barletta is a “non-issue” since it was done on personal time, she said.
Barletta, a Republican, is a regional campaign coordinator for the two-term senator. As a campaign coordinator, Barletta works to raise money for Santorum’s campaign.
Slusser said it might seem “a bit ironic” that the two men who helped with the Web site also work for Santorum. The site was “not ever intended to be a site that was created at the behest of (Santorum),” he said.
The city’s official Web site was choked by increasing Web traffic, so Slusser said he asked Bernstein, who he described as a friend, to help create a new Web site dedicated to the immigration issue. Bernstein, who grew up in the Hazleton area, suggested Miller do the work, Slusser said.
Miller referred questions about the Web site to the senator’s press office. Bernstein did not return calls seeking comment.
Barletta said he was not involved in finding someone to create the Web site. The mayor said he didn’t know the site was created by a Santorum staffer until a reporter told him Monday.
Hazleton’s proposed ordinance — which has drawn national attention — would prohibit illegal immigrants from renting property, punish employers that hire these immigrants and make English the “official” city language. Barletta proposed the ordinance last month.
“This is something that I needed to do for Hazleton,” Barletta said.
Santorum has made illegal immigration a major campaign issue in the last month, said Dr. G. Terry Madonna, a political analyst at Franklin and Marshal College.
“(Santorum) thinks this can move voters his way,” Madonna said.
Santorum trails Democratic state Treasurer Bob Casey Jr. in the polls.
Barletta said he agrees with Santorum’s stance on illegal immigration, but did not coordinate with the senator before proposing the city ordinance.
Despite the connection to Santorum’s staff, it is unlikely the ordinance was created solely to help the senator’s re-election campaign, Madonna said. Barletta appears to be “passionate and committed to this view” on illegal immigration, said Madonna, who has been following Hazleton’s story.
The story about the ordinance broke June 12. The Web site address was secured two days later, according to the Web site registry records. The site will be transferred out of the Santorum staffer’s name soon, Slusser said.
Madonna could not recall another instance when a mayor’s office received help from a U.S. senator’s staff to create a Web site for a city ordinance.
“I am sure they had some other choices to go for Web site help,” he said of the city.
ndobo@citizensvoice.com
