Several Democratic candidates for office had signs along
The stretch of the road north of Veteran’s Park is largely undeveloped land. It’s very dark at night, and dozens of sign line both sides of the road.
Several large signs belonging to Democratic state representative candidate Jeff Steinborn were cut in half during the weekend. By Monday afternoon, Steinborn had repaired the signs, which he said cost $50-60 apiece.
“I was the predominant beneficiary of this maliciousness,” Steinborn said. “The Republican signs were absolutely untouched.”
Steinborn said he will report the vandalism to police.
Republican Sheriff Todd Garrison, himself up for election on Nov. 7, condemned the acts of vandalism.
“It’s against the law to mess with those signs,” Garrison said. “Law enforcement will prosecute if they’re caught.”
Garrison said he has had some large signs knocked over and small signs stolen, but he knows the same has been true for his Democratic opponent, Ralph Misquez. Several days ago, Garrison said, he stopped to straighten one of his signs that was leaning over and, while he was doing that, he straightened nearby signs for Misquez and County Commissioner Oscar Vasquez-Butler, a Democrat.
On Monday, one of Misquez’s signs on
In addition, large signs belonging to County Assessor Gary Perez, District Judge Lisa Schultz and Al Kissling, the Democrat running against U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., were all destroyed. Smaller signs belonging to other Democratic candidates were also knocked over and cut up.
“It’s certainly disturbing because of the financial aspect, but the free speech aspect is much more disturbing to me,” Schultz said. “Who is so opposed to free speech and so opposed to the democratic process that they feel the need to damage signs?”