Hollister
– Several candidates for county office are finding their
campaign signs missing or vandalized, and while some see it as an
indication that a nasty undercurrent in local politics is bubbling
to the surface, others say that it is nothing more than meaningless
vandalism not motivated by politics.
Hollister – Several candidates for county office are finding their campaign signs missing or vandalized, and while some see it as an indication that a nasty undercurrent in local politics is bubbling to the surface, others say that it is nothing more than meaningless vandalism not motivated by politics.
Tracie Cone, a candidate for the District 4 Supervisor seat, discovered Monday that yet another one of her signs had been vandalized. This time someone had spray painted a large, black “anti” symbol – a circle with a diagonal line running through it – on the large sign standing on Fairview Road. A campaign sign for incumbent District Attorney John Sarsfield that was next to Cone’s received the same treatment.
“It just kind of makes you sick to your stomach that that’s the level of political discourse in this county,” Cone said.
Since she started to put them up in March, Cone said that her signs have been a target for vandals. They’ve been slashed, torn down, tossed into fields and run over by cars, she said.
“I think it’s childish,” Cone said.
Sarsfield said that the vandalism is a symptom of a “poison political atmosphere” that exists in the county.
San Benito County Registrar John Hodges, who has overseen county elections for more than two decades, said that vandalism of campaign signs hasn’t been a widespread problem, but it does happen.
“It’s not real common,” he said. “It’s just sporadic.”
San Benito County gained nationwide attention in 2004 when a Free Lance story about vandalized Republican campaign signs was picked up by the online blog the Drudge Report. In that instance, campaign signs for President George W. Bush hanging at the local republican headquarters were spray painted with profanities.
Vandalizing a sign is a misdemeanor that could land a person in jail for up to a year, Sarsfield said.
Hodges, also a candidate for the District 4 seat, said that many of his signs also have gone missing recently. He said he replaces them.
“People are taking my signs. But I’m thinking it’s because they want to put them up,” he quipped.
While they condemn the vandalism, some in the county say that it is a normal, unfortunate as it may be, byproduct of having an influx of signs placed in easily accessible places.
District 2 supervisor candidate Ron Stubblefield said that some of his signs have been stolen, and one was run over.
“I think it’s just teenagers,” he said. “They do that type of thing.”
Incumbent Reb Monaco, who is seeking to retain his District 4 seat, said that some of his yard signs have been stolen too.
“I attribute it to children or something,” he said.
Supervisor Anthony Botelho said that his campaign signs didn’t make it through unscathed in 2004 when he was running for his District 2 seat.
“I ended up having a couple of signs go missing. And some yard signs were thrown all over the neighborhood and street,” he said. “I’m afraid that’s just part of the election process. Some people have class and some don’t.”
Botelho said that he doesn’t think the vandalism of campaign signs is necessarily politically motivated.
“I don’t believe any of the candidates had a hand in that or condone that,” he said. “It could be just a handful of vandals. It probably happens to real-estate signs too.”
For Cone, however, their is little question about the intent of the vandalism.
“For some reason some people have a problem with my candidacy and take it out on my signs,” she said.
District 2 Supervisor Pat Loe, who is seeking reelection, said that she thinks people do vandalize signs for political reasons.
“I think it’s juvenile,” she said. “Part of it, I think, is intimidation.”
While she hasn’t had many problems with her signs this year, Loe said that when she ran for her first term in 2002 at least 50 of her signs were defaced and several others stolen. Signs were altered so that a slogan reading, “Aim high, elect Loe,” was changed to read, “I’m high, elect Loe.”
Cone said that she won’t be intimidated by the vandals who defaced her sign. In fact, she said, she’s not even going to take the spray-painted sign down.
“I’m going to leave it up,” she said. “It shows the mentality of the people against my campaign. I think it will backfire and work to my advantage.”
Sarsfield also said he would leave his defaced sign up.
“I think people should remember on election day that these are the tactics of the people who support the opposition,” he said.
Luke Roney covers local government and the environment for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext.335.
