Illegally placed campaign signs & what to do about them

[Mabus]

Every election cycle since 2000 a few friends of mine and I scout out illegally placed campaign signs. For some reason, Republicans like to put their campaign signs on publicly held properties, usually public right-of-ways along busy streets and in parks. Here are three things you can do to help rid your city of these signs.

1. You can call the city and report them.
This is what you are supposed to do. In my city, they contact the candidate's campaign office and tell them to get rid of them or they send the cops out to remove them. To me, this wastes the time and resources of the police and my city officials. And letting the campaign pick them up only means that they will reuse the signs again. Not only that, but removal of signs by the campaign officials always seems to take too much time for my taste.

2. You can go remove them.
This is a pretty good idea because you know for that the sign is no longer there. The pukes will usually try to replace them but since each sign costs them, each sign you take means less money they can spend later on ads, mailers, etc. Plus, you can take the sign home, remove it from its frame, turn it inside out and reattach it and all of a sudden you have a blank sign for your own use. They're great for announcing garage sales or using them to for posting the current death toll in Iraq. Or, you can take them to your nearest recycling center.

3. You can leave it where it is but send your own message.
We started this back in the 2002 cycle. We used some signboard we had obtained from earlier races (see #2) and painted them to say various things like: "Another Illegally Placed Republican sign", "This is public land, now under GOP control" or "Stop the War". Then we would staple them on top of the illegally placed campaign signs along the public thoroughfares. You'd be surprised how quickly those signs came down after that but, like the freeway blogger signs, these "recycled" signs got some heavy commuter viewership before they were removed. One of the best times to do this is in the afternoon before the evening rush hour. This maximizes viewership and people are less likely to jump out of their cars to remove the signs because all they want to do is get home. It also works on other levels too. For one, the pukes stop putting signs there. It also gives people something to think about as they drive by.

[T Wolf]

1. Suggestions #2 and #3 are great. #1 is really a waste when the cops

are pukes themselves.

Of course, you left out the idea of plunging the metal frame into the heart (if you can find it) of any rethugs you happen to find.

[Mabus]

2. As much as that appeals to me

I think I'd get in trouble advocating it or doing it myself. Besides, I think silver works better on stopping the hearts of the undead.

[KansDem]

3. Good ideas!

One election day recently, I went out for breakfast at around 6:00 am. When I was returning home, I noticed a group of Repukes putting up signs for the Repub candidate (Snowbarger? Taff? Kobach? I don't remember) opposing Democrat Dennis Moore (3rd District--Kansas). They were planting them on the parkway (center island) of Shawnee Mission Parkway near a busy intersection. This was public land. I knew that the polls would open soon and that there would be 1,000s of motorists passing by there on their way to work and vote, so I parked by car and took down all the signs and threw them into a ditch! Ahhhhh, that felt good!

[Mabus]

4. They were Kobach signs in 2004, Taff in 2002

Taff's people placed a row of their signs along K-10 prior kick-off of the KU-K-State football game. My brothers saw them driving in from Lenexa. One of my brothers was in the process of calling in a complaint when he saw a Hi-Po up the road, alongside car, writing a ticket. He thought he'd pull over and make the complaint in person. As he pulled closer he saw that the signs were being picked up and returned to the car. The Hi-Po caught them in action, was writing them a ticket and making them pick up all the signs. My brothers were laughing about it when they came by on their way to the game.