Dems, GOP decry stolen, vandalized, smashed campaign signs

Call it a sign of the times – a campaign sign of the times, that is, as time moves on to the Nov. 5 general election.

Adam Gibbons is a Democratic committeeman for Geneva Precinct 11, so he had a big sign for Kamala Harris on his property in the 33W700 block of Hill Road, Geneva Township, facing Kirk Road.

Someone climbed his fence Sept. 19 and damaged it. Landed on a bush and squashed the shrub. Then took a cutting tool to the three-foot-by-three-foot sign and sliced it up.

Someone also removed a smaller Harris sign on the other side of his property – and even took out the posts which were pounded into the ground.

So Gibbons called police and replaced the signs

“This is the kind of thing that happens now,” Gibbons said. “I was an election judge for 20 years and I have not seen this until Trump came along.”

Gibbons said two of his neighbors also had their Harris signs stolen.

Kane County Democratic Chairman Mark Guethle said a few hundred signs for Harris have been stolen out of people’s yards.

“We just give them another one,” Guethle said.

Damaged signs is a bipartisan experience, however, as Kane County Republicans reported their signs were also damaged or knocked down.

In the 0S400 block of Illinois Route 47, Blackberry Township, someone drove a vehicle on the lawn and right over a Trump Vance sign, according to sheriff’s reports.

Someone spray painted the word “felon” over a Batavia Township homeowner’s large red Trump 2024 sign. But the homeowner responded by building a wall with 100 more Trump signs encircling the property.

Even GOP headquarters on Dean Street in St. Charles wasn’t safe, where the vandal targeted signs for Lance Bell and Andrew Sosnowski, said GOP Chairman Andro Lerario.

Bell is running for Kane County Board Chair and Sosnowksi is running for State’s Attorney.

“The Trump sign and the Gretchen Butler (for Circuit Clerk) sign were not touched,” Lerario said. “It’s a pattern. As you drive down North Avenue towards Randall Road, the signs are taken down and placed on the ground and left there. The larger signs that are four-by-four, the zip ties were being cut.”

Lerario said they caught a juvenile in connection with taking signs down in Campton Hills.

They didn’t want him arrested because of his youth, Lerario said.

“Some adult who is supposed to know better is having minors do it,” Lerario said. “Look how low this is. This worries me. They’re weaponizing the signs. ... For me, just stop the foolishness.”

Not seen for 150 years

Scot Schraufnagel, a political science professor at Northern Illinois University, said the last time the country saw this level of incivility was in the years before the Civil War.

“We saw this in the antebellum Congress. Incivility was even higher than today,” Schraufnagel said. “But this level of incivility that we experience today really has not been around since the antebellum era, 150 years ago.”

Between 1840 and 1860, Schraufnagel counted 70 incidents of violence between members of Congress, mostly over slavery.

In those days, the parties were Democrats and Whigs.

“In an era of intense party competition ... it brings out the worst in people,” Schraufnagel said.

The thing people should remember is that presidential signs do not help win elections, he said.

“We’ve done the research. They don’t help. They don’t win votes for presidential candidates,” Schraufnagel said. “Yard signs work in low-information elections and in non-partisan elections. ... For county clerk or judge, local signs do make a difference.”

A large percentage of all voting is partisan and because it’s so close, swing voters – those who vote Democratic in one election and Republican in the next – can carry an election, he said.

“In some respects, the signs are much ado about nothing,” Schraufnagel said. “They’re not winning any candidates. And tearing down their signs are not accomplishing anything, either. If anything, tearing down signs works against their candidate.”

Negative campaigning

For swing voters, negative campaigning can work against the candidate who’s doing it, he said.

“Why there is so much negative campaigning? ... We know it works. People don’t understand how it works. It influences voter turnout. It does not change people’s minds ... 75% to 95% already know how they will vote,” he said.

The purpose of negative campaigning is to rally their base and depress the opposition’s base so they don’t turn out to vote.

That is what can affect turnout, as 30% always votes, 30% never vote and 40% vote sometimes, he said.

“It’s much ado about nothing,” Schraufnagel said about sign vandalism. “These are people who are not affecting the election or the election outcome. They’re just making their neighbors mad.”

Schraufnagel recently published a book about the issue, “Conflict in Congress: A Call for Moderation.”