I have helped with sign distribution and placement for a lot of political campaigns over the years. So I wonder why it is that some campaigns/individuals seem to engage in poor sign etiquette?
The picture above is an example of what I’m talking about. It’s of a Rick Santorum sign that I placed at my precinct polling place the night before our primary here in SC (January 21.) When I was placing my signs, there were no other signs that had been placed, so I placed mine without any issue.
But when I went to vote the next day, I found that as seen in the picture, Newt Gingrich supporters had placed 4 of their Newt signs all around my Santorum sign in an obviously distasteful manner. There were plenty of good places for them to place their signs in the area, or respectfully alongside of mine. But no, they had to make a nasty point by crowding mine out with theirs.
Back in 2010 I put out signs for a lot of different republican candidates. I noticed that in several places my signs would all disappear, and magically a sign for the democrat candidate who was running in my district for statehouse would appear in their place. If this had happened once I wouldn’t have thought much of it. But at the end of my road it happened 3 times. So I finally decided that if he would not leave my signs alone, then I was going to take his down. But I didn’t replace any of mine there. I actually called this guy and confronted him about it, but of course he denied that he was involved. I guess karma caught up with him though, since he lost the election 19% to 81% to my friend who ran against him.
Another thing that I find to be in very poor taste is when a street corner is plastered with dozens of signs from one candidate. OK we get it; you want your candidate to win. We would have gotten that same message with two or three signs, instead of 5 dozen!
In Michigan in the days before the primary there this year, it seems that the Mitt Romney campaign paid workers to remove dozens, if not hundreds of Santorum signs alongside a highway and replaced them with Romney signs. If you watch the video on this link you will see how it was caught on camera as the Santorum signs were removed and taken to a dumpster, then the Romney signs put up in their place.
Here’s a photo I took after a Rick Santorum event here in Greenville at Stax’s Restaurant back in January. As with any such event, the campaign had placed a number of signs around the building and roadsides. After the event, they were gathered back up and it was found that a lot of them had Ron Paul bumper-stickers placed on them as seen. But in this case I suppose the joke was on the Ron Paul minions because we simply peeled off the stickers, disposed of them, and kept our signs. Ron Paul’s campaign probably lost a good bit of money on that one since bumper-stickers cost a lot.
I understand that this type thing probably happens to most candidates’ signs at times. But I have never once removed or interfered with any signs of another campaign, even though I may have great disdain for the candidate. I have no desire to win by engaging in such tactics. I implore everyone to consider the words of Matthew 7:12 – “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.”
Is it too much to ask that everyone respect each other enough to not resort to destroying/defacing each other’s signs?
I suppose the lesson to be learned is to not bother other people’s signs unless you want your own signs messed with……
By Javan Browder
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