We’re entering the season of sign wars, when the on-the-ground volunteers for campaigns get really excited about where their guy’s signs are appearing, where their opponent’s signs are appearing, who is stealing whose signs, etc. So here’s a reminder that, when a few of your guy’s signs go missing, or mud gets splashed on them, or somebody drives over them: shut up about it. Put up new signs. Deal with it. Unless we’re talking about booby-trapped signs on other people’s private property or the disappearance of hundreds of signs in a single night, nobody cares. The fact that your Creigh Deeds sign is gone doesn’t mean that Bob McDonnell swept by in his SUV and stole it. Democrats don’t steal signs. Republicans don’t steal signs. Assholes steal signs. It’s not partisan, it’s just dumb.
Nobody cares that your sign is missing. No whining.
I wrote a column about signs, illegal and otherwise a while back. One thing I learned was that signs placed on vdot ROW are subject to a $100/day per sign fine…yet I could find no one who had ever been charged. And knowing where private property ends and ROW begins is not always so easy. ROW is set by a certain distance (that varies) from the middle of the road. It has nothing to do with any ditch. One would think that removing signs from row would be similar to removing trash. One one would object to removing a beer bottle in the ROW, but you sure can’t take someone’s disabled car. Signs fall somewhere in between. Technically someone could charge you with stealing their property (the sign) although I’ve never heard of that happening.
In sum, its a gray area, but I’d like to see VDOT be a little more vigilant AND I’d like to see a few people charged with placing illegal signs. I think others would get the point. Might be nice to see candidates make joint agreements not to place signs on row AND make sure their supporters know what ROW is.
A good Charlottesville Democrat who got tired of having her signs stolen decided to wrap her sign in poison ivy vines. A few days later she saw one of her neighbors with his hands bandaged, with steroid cream on the palms.
Amen. Although if one of those huge signs gets damaged, it can be a pain to replace (and maybe costly, depending on if the candidate charges for the big ones).
And let it be further known that no one cares which sign you display. In the spectrum of what qualifies as political speech as sign is a mere grunt signifying which race horse you like.