Both political parties seeing upswing in sign thievery

Echo Lake resident Bryan Green stayed by his front window Sunday evening, keeping a close eye on his front yard. Sure, the occasional deer, elk or bear make their way across his property, but this night he was on the lookout for another kind of visitor.

Green was hoping to catch a glimpse of the culprits who had stolen nearly a dozen political signs from his yard over the previous two evenings — an increasingly more common occurrence around the county as of late.

As Election Day draws closer, more and more area residents have found the campaign yard signs they've placed on their property vandalized or removed, prompting accusations from both political parties.

While Flathead Democratic Committee Member Scott Wurster says he can’t prove it, he believes the disappearing signs could be an organized effort to reduce the visibility of Democratic candidates in the area.

“It doesn’t seem to be impulsive vandalism, it seems to be more targeted than that. It’s coordinated, well-planned and malicious. It’s an attack designed to reduce the visibility of our candidates,” he maintained. “These candidates work hard and don’t raise a lot of money and these signs are their primary way of getting name recognition. Having these signs disappear could be devastating to their election chances, especially in a year with COVID, where we really can’t go out door-to-door.”

According to Wurster, Democratic candidates have seen more than100 signs worth more than $1,500 stolen or destroyed over the past few weeks with much of the mischief coming over the weekend of Sept. 18.

“We got wiped out across the valley that weekend,” he said. “They hit all of our high-visibility locations. Coincidence or not, that was immediately following the announcement of Justice Ginsberg’s passing. One could wonder if there is a connection there.”

FROM ECHO Lake to the field adjacent to the Blue Moon in Columbia Falls and beyond, the signs have been disappearing with their rebar holders bent to prevent future use, but according to John Fuller, chairman of the Flathead County Republican Party Central Committee, Democrats are not the only ones seeing their signs disappear.

“I’m fairly confident that most of the sign stealing is happening in one direction,” he said. “Our Trump signs are the ones being stolen. I don’t know that for sure without doing some research, but it’s not unusual in an election this heated for the sign stealing to be a little over the top. Of course, it’s a juvenile behavior, but politics is a competitive indoor/outdoor sport for adults and sometimes people act like kids.”

Fuller said political sign thievery is not unusual during heated election years and that he has seen two Trump signs vanish from his front yard recently, but added that there does seem to be more of it going on this year than during past elections. He even admits to having engaged in a “sign war” with former Gov. Brian Schweitzer when the two were neighbors. After waking one morning to find his Conrad Burns signs covered with Schweitzer bumper stickers, Fuller plotted his revenge.

“One night, using the skills that your government taught me, I went over to his front yard and put in 50 Conrad Burns signs. We struck a truce after that,” he said with a laugh. “We were worlds apart politically, but we liked each other. You see a lot less of that today, unfortunately. Times have changed.”

FLATHEAD COUNTY Sheriff Brian Heino reported his department has seen an increased number of theft reports for stolen political signs recently, but could not confirm an exact number.

No matter who is responsible, Wurster stressed the juvenile acts need to stop.

“We have heard from the Republicans that their signs are being vandalized. I can assure everyone that nobody that I know of is responsible for it and if I find out who is doing it, I will turn them in and make sure they are prosecuted. We don’t do that sort of thing. That’s not who we are,” he said. “It’s a crime and a violation of people’s First Amendment right to free speech. It needs to stop and it needs to stop right now — but sadly, it probably won’t.”

Reporter Jeremy Weber may be reached at 758-4446 or jweber@dailyinterlake.com.