Democrat Activist: Political Vandalism Is 'Stupid'

Billy Joe Shannon, a local Democratic activist campaigning for his party's local candidates and presidential ticket, got up about 5:30 a.m. Friday and let "Romeo," his poodle, out into his front yard on Mackerel Drive.

That's when he looked over toward the oak tree that Romeo likes to visit and saw that his yard signs for presidential candidate Barack Obama and Highlands County Sheriff Susan Benton were missing.

Upon closer inspection, he found the tire tracks of a car or truck that had driven into his yard to knock down those signs, narrowly missing two adjoining signs for Mary Wilson, running for clerk of courts, and Jeri Canale, his party's candidate for county commissioner.

Shannon was disgusted by this type of vandalism that crops up in every election cycle.

So was Justine Devlin, chairwoman of the Highlands County Republican Party, who says both parties have to put up with this juvenile form of vandalism during political campaign seasons.

"I think it's stupid," Shannon said. "I hate to say it, but it's stupid. I think it's very immature."

While Shannon thinks Barack Obama is the answer to the nation's problems and Devlin thinks the same about John McCain, both agree that stealing or vandalizing yard signs for any candidate is definitely not a sign of intelligence or class.

"We do (have candidate's signs vandalized) in every election cycle, and we just get new ones and put them up," Devlin said. "Good Democrats and good Republicans don't do that.

"Of course, we never know who they are," she added. "But I think the people who do that are not your mainstream, they're people on the fringes."

Shannon said he can't know if the person who knocked down his Obama and Benton signs hates one or both of those candidates, or if it was just plain vandalism.

But, he said, he wonders if his yard was targeted because he is active in the Rosa Parks Political Coalition, a part of the Highlands County Democratic Party that is working in the minority communities to get more people to register to vote and to get to the polls.

Shannon said while he can't know who vandalized his signs, one thing is sure.

"This is not going to stop me," he said. "This is probably going to make me put up more signs, all across the front of my yard."

Devlin said if her party ever identified anybody stealing or vandalizing anybody's political yard signs, "we would tell them to stop it. And I'm sure the Democrats would, too."