Sign-stealing illegal, discouraging, expensive

By Guy Page

During every contested election, campaign signs are trashed, removed and stolen. This year is no exception. Vermont Daily Chronicle is hearing reports from all over Vermont about the removal or destruction of campaign signs.

Election signs 2022

“My yard signs; dislodged, defaced and/or stolen at the Waterbury roundabout last night,” Republican House candidate for Waterbury Kathi Tarrant sent VDC in an email this morning, with the photo attached. “I will be filing a police report shortly.”

“A friend owns a small business in downtown Waterbury and witnessed someone move my sign way back off of Main St.,” The culprit is a minor town official who, she says, “came to my door on Halloween eve, madder than a hornet, and was banging in a threatening manner. I am starting to feel unsafe in my current environs.”

“Many friends/acquaintances/supporters refuse to display my signs for fear of retribution,” Tarrant said. Republican party officials have contacted the state police, she said – noting that “the state police are stretched pretty thin, by design.”

Like newspaper articles, letters-to-the-editor, Facebook posts, Tweets, campaign signs are media. They are a platform for the candidate to send a message to the voter. Unlike those other media, they are not free. Each costs several bucks (exact amount depends on size, material, volume, etc.), plus the wicket and the time taken to stick them into the ground. Many candidates dip into their own (meager) funds to pay for them. Tarrant paid $716.24, she confirmed.

Sign-trashing is, as the advocacy PR writers like to say, “a non-partisan initiative.” Progressives may have little in common with MAGA candidates but on this fact they agree: someone’s taking their signs, and they wish it would stop.

Speaking with Kathi Tarrant and reading her campaign literature, anyone with an open mind would conclude that here is a person of moderate means who is running because in her heart she believes life in the State of Vermont would be better if she, and others like her, sat in the wooden swivel chairs of the Vermont State House. Progressives and Democrats think likewise about their own candidacies.

Kathi Tarrant has fire in the belly for making positive change in Vermont. What’s ironic is so does Brenda Siegel, the Democratic candidate for governor whose sign is left unmolested. (No suggestion is that she is involved with the theft/vandalism.) Her policies are abhorrent to pro-lifers and conservatives. But anyone who speaks to Brenda Siegel hears her intense, heartfelt conviction that the State of Vermont isn’t doing right by her people. Kind of like Kathi Tarrant.

So here’s an editorial suggestion: until next Tuesday at 7 p.m., let a thousand campaign signs bloom in VT. Voters’ thoughtfulness, not vandals thievery, should determine whether Kathi Tarrant wins the election.

Guy Page is publisher of the Vermont Daily Chronicle. Reprinted with permission.

16 thoughts on “Sign-stealing illegal, discouraging, expensive

  1. As a former liberal (remember inexpensive housing, healthcare and proper public education?) I have to say; My experience is seeing way more neo-lib extreme reactionary politics than I see from the conservatives. The neo-lib has morphed into the very example of what they themselves have been warning us about for the past 60 years.

  2. “People actually like our policies better on the economy.” – (Democratic blather)

    No, they don’t. Give us a break. If Democrats stopped talking about “the threat to our democracy”, they’d have to discuss their policy failures, which they don’t want to admit. And if they actually listened to voters, they’d have to reverse all their policies. They think all they have to do is “find the right message”, whereas America is saying they’re interested in results, and not a message that is at odds with results.
    Dems get rabid when they see Republicans endorsements…they are the elite, the self-appointed ones to pontificate on what others should think and do…that extends to lawn signs that they don’t like…rip ’em down, tear ’em up…they are a “threat to our democracy.” The Joe Zero drivel is becoming malignant and spreading into the minds of those potential voters who choose not to become informed on the issues and about the candidates…mindless sheep are already running the state and the country…we don’t near more…Vote Republican statewide and nationwide!

  3. This has been going on for some time, it would be nice to go on the offense. All we need to do is expose people, we don’t need to fight.

    Want to know what would be awesome fun? Make sure we have Trump signs in 2024, in the most liberal and exposed spot. Put trackers on the signs. Video the theft and prosecute.

    Do you know how many people this would get? Do you know how many people this would embarrass, only because a light was finally shown on their hearts?

    Here’s something very simple, very easy, inexpensive that people would have a ton of fun doing….and it would change the spirit and tide. We would be fun loving, and on the offense.

    there are so many fun things we could be doing. So many effective things that don’t’ cost money. We could be bringing people together, democrat and republican….the marxists probably won’t want to play, and that’s ok.

    SUN TZU, know your enemy and live to fight another day. Know the terrain upon which you do battle.

    • Could you imagine a cluster of Trump signs in public down in Bennington? Middlebury? Waitsfield? You’d have people stealing them as fast as you put them up. It would be like chumming the water for sharks, a liberal feeding frenzy…..

      and you’d have them all on camera….too much fun, wayyyyy to much fun.

    • Neil, but for God’s sake….NEVER, ever put a Trump bumpersticker on your car. It doesn’t come off, to steal, easy…so they will do next best thing….either they KEY the whole side of your car, or they will spike your tires. It is how Liberals/Progressives operate. I saw a nicely restored truck “keyed” on both sides, deep. The crime? A decorated, old, Korean War Vet dared have a Trump bumper sticker – in Montpelier. He was near crying, and cursing Vermont. VermontDigger (on State St) did not do an article on it :)… I think some of them read here for opposition research?…..

      • I know huh? But that’s how you win, by exposing their hate, not at the expense of your property or person. They are ENTIRELY predictable. They can’t contain their hate and they are so full of pride they can’t see where they could possibly be wrong.

        That would be even stronger bait and a higher punishment. Put out…say Hummer H-2 with Trump stickers on an open area. They would definitely key the vehicles…..

        They would definitely be prosecuted for crimes on that one!

        We all know this is true, because NOBODY puts out a Trump sign in this state for fear of physical reprisals. Granted it would fill the court systems with vandals……

        It exposes the hate. We don’t need to say it. It would shed light on their hearts. And it would show the public who is truly out of hand. Just like when Trump came to the Flynn. It looked like Beruit coming down the hill, chanting, lights, police everywhere, …..

        and then around the corner a line 1/2 mile long at very least of people quietly, peacefully waiting in line to see a candidate for president….

      • this is how Yuri Bezmanov described dealing with a much stronger more powerful force, it’s martial arts…

        Don’t block the force and take the brunt of the damage….use THEIR aggression and tactics..allow them to do what they do, just steer it away from you….exposing them and allowing their hatred to work against themselves.

        If we brainstormed together as a group, we’d have more fun and come up with some amazing ideas that would defeat them…….without any effort or expense on our part, they would do it all by themselves.

        Having a real reporter and press by your side would do wonders……

  4. An old friend and I were commenting on political signs on the way home through Tunbridge from our weekly old guys breakfast. We both noted how when we were young there was a bit of distaste for this kind of campaigning in rural Vermont. I think it might have been rooted in the belief that one “stood” not “ran” for office and you were elected based on your reputation and service. This probably goes all the way back to George Washington and the Revolutionary era adherence to the concept of virtue not factionism as proper basis for politics.

    My friend also mentioned how political signs can backfire, as when driving by people see a sign on someone they know property and think, “well if he is supporting that person, I sure as hell will vote for the other candidate”.

  5. I have had at least 150 signs stolen, run down, or thrown in the woods. In at least 5 places I have had them taken 5 or more times. I just keep putting more up…. the haters must be afraid of something…. So tolerant, and diverse.

    • John we had a case here in NH where that was going on with a particular candidate too.
      The man set up a game camera aimed at his signs and guess who he caught red handed stealing his signs- his opponent!
      It went to court and he won, how could he not- with evidence like that.
      Yeah, it was some work.. but what an opportunity to the news and show everyone the thievin’ thug that his opponent really was.

    • John, I’m not the least bit surprised. Liberals, and especially Vermont liberals are the most intolerant people. They foolishly believe they know everything and if you disagree with them then you have no right to speak your mind. A very sad group of fools.

  6. Geez…Hitler banned & burned “disagreeable” books in all of 1938 Germany. China harshly deals with any similar “signs” of dissent….jailed and beaten Russia’s KGB puts you in jail if you show signs of dissent.. Cuba? Venezuela?….similar. So welcome to VT…it is exactly same thing. No opposing views will be tolerated. Since the VT Socialst Left can’t arrest you…they just steal.

  7. As I drive by the homes of the obvious lefties, I wonder how they reconcile climate change by plastering their lawns with political signs, constructed with biofuels, and how are their signs recycled or repurposed? Are their signs raising their carbon footprint and how will this effect their social credit scores? The signs they steal, same questions. I’ll await their reply.

  8. Sign stealing is a form of denial of free speech, a violation of voting rights, likely perpetrated by mostly Dem/Prog operatives, who know a TSUNAMI of voter discontent, about the disastrous Biden in-the-basement policies, such as just-walk-in open borders, and trillions$ of money-printing, inflation-causing, deficit spending, will finally cause fed-up voters to turn out, en masse, at the polls, to oust the DemProg barnacles that have been sucking dry Vermonters with off-the-charts high taxes, and rules and regulations, and ruining the Vermont economy, oppressed by a bloated, centralized command/control government, for decades

    • Willem,
      Unfortunately we are dealing with a dictatorship, which by definition refuses to be removed by a popular vote. For the first time in American history a president actually threatens voters over their choice of voting! This is unbelievable!

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