By SARAH SUTSCHEK - ssutschek@nwherald.com
Tom Cynor spent $2,000 on a vandalized political sign.
It’s more than just a sign to him, though, it’s a “campaign artifact.” Three times an Obama sign was placed in front a rural McHenry County home, and each time it was defaced.
“The second time, they defaced it with spray paint and actually broke into his home,” said Cynor, the Democratic candidate for McHenry County state’s attorney. “What he decided to do was give the sign to the local party, and we had it framed and auctioned off at a rally on Wednesday.”
Throughout the county, political signs are being destroyed, vandalized or stolen, and it appears to be happening more as Election Day approaches.
“Within just the last two weeks, I’m sitting on 20 to 30 e-mails from people saying their signs have been removed from their yard,” Cynor said. “But those are just people who have written. I can assure you the number is much higher than that.”
It’s not just happening to Democrats.
John McCrory is a McCain delegate and works for the campaign as a county coordinator, including making sign purchase orders.
He said the campaign has names and addresses of about 50 people who have come back to the office to say their signs have been stolen from their yards.
On Thursday morning, when a Lakewood woman went out to get her newspaper, her McCain sign was still in her front yard. Two hours later, it was gone, and an Obama sign was in her neighbor’s yard, McCrory said.
Another person involved in the McCain campaign works for Waste Management. A garbage truck came in to drop off a load Thursday, and he counted 23 Republican signs in just that load, McCrory said.
But are the sign stealers really going to make a difference and sway voters to their side? McCrory thinks so.
It’s a sort of “sign theory,” he said.
“Most of the guys who have been in politics for a while swear by it,” McCrory said. “If all of a sudden there were no Republican but all Democratic signs, there could be a sign effect.”
Cynor said sign stealing happens in every election, but it has been more prevalent this year.
“I think a lot of it is just flat-out interest as well as people who have a lot of emotions and energy involved,” he said. “One of the things they do is lash out at the symbol of the campaign, which is the signs.”
There also is a significant financial investment in the signs, McCrory said. His campaign has spent more than $7,000 on political signs, he said.
McCrory believes there might be some organized effort in stealing or vandalizing the signs, but Cynor believes that it has been done on a more individual level.
“They’re rogue people out there for one reason or another,” Cynor said. “It’s counterproductive.”
McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren said a handful of reports are filed each year in connection with people tampering with the signs.
“You run the risk if you do steal them of being charged with a crime,” Nygren said.
He said a few people who have been arrested in the past simply didn’t like the way the signs looked on the side of the road.
“This guy was just sick and tired of the clutter and was taking the signs down,” Nygren said.
I had my Obama sign stolen off my car while I was parked in front of Starbucks in downtown Crystal Lake. I was so angry! Its a shame that this is even happening…it really is.