Campaign Signs and Political Yard Signs Blog

Republican Greg Brown Caught Stealing Campaign Signs

This is just too juicy.  Get this:

The thief candidate, Greg Brown, at one point tells his wife Jennifer, "Wait, your fingerprints are still on the ones laying down." They thought they were so savvy, worrying about fingerprints and cool spy stuff like that. Didn't check to see if see if there were any cameras several feet away, though!

Watch the 4 minute video here:

http://gawker.com/5597882/candidates-hidden-camera-immediately-catches-opponent-removing-campaign-signs

1,400 Campaign Signs "turn the tide"

Here's a guy who was being recalled from his City Council position and credits campaign signs, 1,400 of them to be exact, with thruning the tide of public opinion.

Good story here.

47 different campaign signs

Here's a sweet little video of a bunch of different campaign signs.

Flushing comptroller facing $543,900 in potential fines for illegally posted campaign signs

Now who wants to play by the rules?

City fines John Liu $544K for illegal campaign signs
By Connor Adams Sheets
Thursday, December 3, 2009 5:10 PM EST

City Councilman John Liu’s (D-Flushing) campaign for city comptroller is facing $543,900 in potential fines for illegally posted campaign signs in the city.

The city has fined City Councilman John Liu’s (D-Flushing) successful campaign for city comptroller more than $500,000 for illegally posting signs, according to the city Sanitation Department.

His campaign was issued 7,252 summonses, generating $543,900 in potential fines, for signs posted on light poles and along streets in ways that violate city law, Sanitation spokesman Keith Mellis said. The city levies a $75 fine for each illegally posted sign.

“It’s defacing the property of the city,” Mellis said.

Liu’s campaign raised nearly $3.55 million during the 2009 election cycle in the race for comptroller, but spent more than $5.21 million, according to the city Board of Elections. The campaign would not speak to issues such as how it plans to pay for the tickets.

“We are reviewing the summonses, and we are taking steps to resolve them. That’s all I can really tell you,” said Liu’s spokeswoman, Sharon Lee.

The mayoral candidates also received fines for illegally posting signs. Comptroller William Thompson, the Democratic contender, took the brunt, with $531,975 in potential fines for 8,665 violations resulting in 7,093 individual summonses, Mellis said.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s campaign, on the other hand, only received 70 tickets, or $5,250 in fines, down from the nearly $308,000 the campaign had to pay in sign-posting fines during the last mayoral campaign in 2005.

Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.comor by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.

Note: This article has been updated since publication to correct an error. City Councilman-elect Mark Weprin was not fined for any signage violations.

Texas Farm Bureau reveals materials numbers - interesting!

The Texas Farm Bureau has posted an article about how many bumber stickers, campaign signs, billboard, direct mail pieces and other campign materials they distributed on a recent issue campaign.

What are the numbers?  Take a look:

10,725 bumper stickers
3,500 polling place signs
2,100 11" x 17" door signs
100 auto magnets
350 4' x 4' road signs
100 4' x 8' road signs
8 billboards

Fascinating!  Rarely does anyone release the quantities of the campaign materials they purchase.

One of the biggest questions a candidate running for office has is "how many should I buy?"  Sometime campaigns get it right, often they don't. 

Two candidates running for the same office in the same size district need totally different amounts of materials.  It's all in how they candidate uses those materials.  One candidate could get away with 100 campaign signs and no door hangers, while his/her opponet puts up 400 signs and puts out 5,000 brochures at doors.  So, a lot of this question is answered by what the candidate plans to do with the materials, and how hard that candidate will work.

Read the full story about the Texas Farm Bureau here.  (I think they have the date wrong on the story - they appear to be two days ahead of the rest of us.  No?)

A guy actually gets charged with stealing campaign signs

Even though someone got caught stealing campaign signs, I stand behind what we've said previously; most signs are not stolen by thinking adults.  Read this article...

OCEANSIDE: Man pleads guilty, apologizes in sign-stealing incident

By RAY HUARD - rhuard@nctimes.com | Posted: Monday, November 30, 2009 6:45 pm

A carpenter charged with stealing Oceanside election campaign signs said he was sorry and pleaded guilty in Vista Superior Court on Monday to a charge of receiving stolen property.

"Had I known the seriousness of what I was doing, I wouldn't have done it," Eric M. Lebo told Judge Marshall Hockett. "It was a learning experience."

In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors dropped vandalism and petty theft charges.

Lebo, 35, was placed on three years'

Learn about Coroplast Signs

What are coroplast signs? 

Coroplast is a trade name for corrugated plastic material on which we print signs.  It's typically white, but can be purchased in many different colors.  Corosigns are made from about 20% post-consumer plastic.  They are plastic and very durable.  For a sustainable campaign, you should probably not use corugatted plastic signs.  The better route would be paper signs.

But, corosigns are great for smaller campaigns.  Get into the larger quantities and the bag signs become a sensible option due to the low cost.  Corosigns are easy to use and install.  An H stake (also called a step stake) is inserted into the flutes of the sign to hold it.

Here's a picture of the fluting on a corosign.

Candidate uses only his first name on campaign sign

Here's a link http://www.bus.umich.edu/NewsRoom/ArticleDisplay.asp?news_id=18011 to a great article about a guy names Rick Snyder who's running for Governor of Michigan. 

He's only using his first name on his campaign signs.  This is great.  He's got a very good reason too.  Read the full article; the sign quesiton comes last.

Michigan's primary is August 3rd, 2010.

Don't try to say too much on your campaign signs

Recently, we've seen a lot of campaign signs artwork come through with too much "stuff" on them.

One candidate nearly included her entire resume.  Don't do that.  It's not the job of a sign to carry a resume.  Save that for your website or brochure.

A sign should only contain your name, the office you're running for and a simple grapic.  Note the word simple.  Adding too much to your sign will only confuse people and make you look unprofessional.

Tom Smith, County Board, with some shooting stars - that's plenty.

You'll also need the paid for line if your state requires it.  Vist this link for a complete list of Campaign Sign Disclosure Laws.

If your signs looks a little cluttered, it probably it.  Eliminate as much as you can.  People often think then need a District number on their sign - not true.  Votes usually have no idea (rare exceptions to this rule) what district in which they reside.  Also, you don't need words like "elect" or "vote" - people know you're trying to get elected; it pretty much goes without saying.

New blog about political campaign strategy

There's a new blog about campaigning called Killer Campaigning found at www.killercampaigning.com.  The about us reveals the site was started by a fellow named Phil Van Treuren, a web designer, writer and City Councilman from Amherst, Ohio.

We like Phil A LOT because he has a "Request A Yard Sign" button on the front page of his campaign website.  Go Phil!!!