The tip came last Friday from an alert reader:
Illegal Chuck Redpath campaign signs are posted on Dirksen
Parkway. This was easy enough to check. Sure enough,
the caller was right. Out there, for the whole world to see, were
campaign signs for Democrat Redpath in front of the
Teamsters’ hall and the laborers’ union headquarters.
Not only that, but state Rep. Raymond Poe, who holds the seat
Redpath covets, also had a sign out, in a vacant lot next to King
Pin Lanes on Dirksen. The nerve. It’s illegal to post campaign signs
more than 60 days before Election Day in Sangamon County and the
city of Springfield, where the illegal signs were posted. Yet
Redpath and Poe, both veteran pols, claim ignorance. Each candidate
says that he knew about the city’s 60-day rule but not the
county’s. By Monday afternoon, the signs had been taken down.
But not for long. The ubiquitous
litter-on-a-stick that comes with each election season will be
legal on Jan. 20. Whether it does a candidate any good is open to
debate. “Does it really sway anyone?”
asks Randy Armstrong, Sangamon County zoning and building
administrator. “Maybe some people, it burns in their brain,
and that’s the way they vote.” Poe, a Republican who has no opponent
in the March primary, has planted signs even though he won’t
be in a real race until November. “It’s just to make sure voters
know who’s running in the other party,” Poe says.
“I’ve always been a big proponent of signs. Maybe it
works; maybe it doesn’t. It’s very cost-effective.” Aside from public shaming, scofflaw
candidates need not fear fines or other punishment. Armstrong says the county has never fined a
candidate or anyone else for violating the 60-day rule. Few people
complain unless a sign is obstructing the view of motorists.
“Political signs, you hate to even deal with them,” he
says. “It’s one we’d just as soon stay away from
as long as they’re not a visibility problem.” Joe Gooden, Armstrong’s counterpart in
the city, says that the city has asked that two illegal campaign
signs, including one touting Redpath, be taken down, but regulators
weren’t planning to do anything about the ones on Dirksen,
which Gooden learned about from Illinois
Times. Gooden explains that he would have to go out
and confirm that an illegal sign was in fact in place. Then the
city would have to issue notice to the property owner to take the
sign down. The property owner must be given time to respond. All
told, the process takes at least 10 days, so the city usually doesn’t bother with illegal campaign signs if
opening day is less than two weeks away. “Really, it would be
wasting our time,” he says. Noting that the city has received just two
complaints, Gooden says that the city’s ordinance restricting
campaign signs has started to take hold. “I think there’s been an
improvement,” he says. “Two complaints is doing pretty
good.” As a Springfield alderman, Redpath in 2000
introduced the city ordinance restricting political signs. Back
then, Redpath said campaign signs are unsightly. He favored a
30-day rule and also proposed that the city be notified before any
campaign signs go up. As a candidate, Redpath sings a different
tune. His signs, he says, will reappear the moment they become
legal. “Name recognition is the best thing you
can have,” he says. “You need to remind people that
there’s an election coming up and that you are a candidate.
My signs were in front of the union halls. You want people to know
where your support is.”
This article appears in Jan 12-18, 2006.
