BLOOMINGTON - The current mayor's wife denies allegations she threatened a Bloomington mayoral candidate's job, sparking an internal review by their employer, State Farm Insurance Cos. | Ward 7 hopefuls square off

Eric Decossas, a business analyst at State Farm, claims in a news release issued by his campaign that Linda Stockton said he may be violating company policy and could lose his job.

Stockton is a manager at the Bloomington-based insurance giant and married to Bloomington Mayor Steve Stockton, a retired State Farm vice president.

Decossas is one of two candidates challenging Steve Stockton in the April 7 election for mayor. Tari Renner, a political science professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, also is vying for the mayor's job.

Decossas and Linda Stockton said they could not elaborate on what happened because of the pending State Farm investigation.

But Linda Stockton denied threatening Decossas' job. She said she approached Decossas and his wife on a recent weekend morning during a local community fundraiser.

"I made a constructive suggestion outside of work about the role of our employer," Linda Stockton said. "I was doing it to be helpful, and it was not threatening."

Linda Stockton said she is not in Decossas' supervisory chain of command.

Chris Gramm, a local Bloomington attorney and a member of Decossas' campaign committee, said Linda Stockton was "stooping rather low with this."

The Decossas campaign referred questions regarding the incident to Gramm after issuing a news release about the incident Tuesday.

Steve Stockton, who said he witnessed the incident, said he thought the issue is being blown out of proportion for a political gain.

"Linda admittedly made a simple comment; it definitely was not made in a threatening way," Steve Stockton said.

Pam Decossas, who said she also witnessed the incident, said Linda Stockton kept cornering Eric Decossas and asking him if he had gotten permission from the vice president of his division about running for mayor.

Jeff McCollum, a spokesman for State Farm, said Wednesday morning the issue has become an internal matter that will be reviewed by the company. He could not comment further on the incident or the news release regarding the incident.

McCollum also could not confirm if a complaint had been filed with State Farm's human resources department.

McCollum said State Farm encourages employees to participate in their communities, including running for local offices. He said the company has general rules prohibiting the use of company resources, such as e-mail, telephones and copiers, for political campaigns.

Gramm said the campaign would not comment on what action State Farm may or may not have taken Wednesday.

Renner said it was not appropriate for him to get involved.

"While the conversation between Mrs. Stockton and Decossas has become a campaign issue, it wouldn't be proper for me to comment specifically, not knowing the facts," Renner said. "Our top priority in this campaign is to focus upon solution-based ideas for the city in a time of financial crisis."