One of our Rostra bloggers was a candidate for office a few years ago. In the final days of the campaign, dozens of his opponent’s yard signs were taken down and strewn in the yard of his supporter. Not his opponent’s supporter, his supporter.
One could draw the conclusion his campaign had something to do with it, even if overzealous volunteers acting on their own as a prank.
Or, thinking it through, it could also be surmised something else was in play, especially given the candidate was faced with having to explain why his opponent’s signs ended up where they did.
Not unlike having to answer whether you’ve stopped beating your spouse. Except, of course, for the fact it’s not a spouse beating, it’s freakin’ yard signs.
Crap happens in hotly contested races. Unfortunate crap, which in most cases no one will ever be able to pin on anyone in particular and in a good number of instances may be quite different than first blush suggests.
That said, Rostra is not about to publish unsubstantiated comments alleging, suggesting or implying illegal acts on the part of anyone, especially from those only willing to make such claims anonymously.
Candidate A’s signs ended up in Candidate B’s yard and neighborhood? Unfortunate. Something like that can typically be substantiated. The signs are now there, after all.
Who placed them there and why? A different story.
If an actual candidate or his/her campaign would like to make a statement about vandalism, we’re all ears.
Until then, the anonymous obsessives presenting opinion as fact, trying to impugn a candidate’s reputation, based on their “law enforcement inside sources” and other laughable substantiation — they will be ignored.
Freakin’ yard signs.
Go walk a precinct.
Comments 5
Sign “attrition” is just a fact of life for any political campaign. Years ago, I ran for a local planning group. I was told to expect some of my signs to disappear. I kept maybe 25% of my order in reserve to replace signs that disappeared.
And sure enough, some of my signs went away. I’m sure that some of my signs might have not been legally posted and ended up in a Caltrans trash bin. Maybe my opponents or their supporters took some of them. I don’t know and never had a proof or personal knowledge.
That’s just life on the campaign. Some people just need to build a bridge and get over it.
Dear God, begun these Sign Wars have. I hope the casualties are few.
If this is what I think it is, the incident was not simply attrition, but placing several of one candidate’s signs at the home of another candidate and throughout that neighborhood, while tearing down the signs that were there. Does anyone think the first candidate would be that stupid? How about someone else trying to embarrass the first? Think it through, people.
Behold the Dark Sith Lord at work…
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GldXiJMTbY0
No one could be that reckless or immature to actually trespass on another candidate’s property and remove his sign…I mean, that’s just crazy talk…
You haven’t seen sign attrition until your dad runs for office with signs all over town displayed as “Dick Rider”. Every college kid with a sense of humor was after those and I’m pretty certain 91X even offered a reward for who could collect the most. Needless to say this publicity didn’t carry him into office. However, it did toughen up my brother and I during our middle school years.
In short, signs are a boring topic and most candidates have little or no involvement in the ground game that goes into them. Throwing around blame for something that opposition could have done, or could just be a neighborhood prank is a waste of time. Good job in shutting down the topic.