Candidate says campaign sign destruction is ‘dirty politics’

  by Andy - July 18th, 2008 - 2:17 pm| Uncategorized | 7 comments

Tommy Campsey is a long time Brentwood Police investigator.

As the I.D. tech carries his defaced CAMPSEY FOR SHERIFF yard sign out of the evidence locker, there are a few snickers from his co-workers in nearby cubicles.

At first glance, the campaign sign is funny.

In thick spray paint across the patriotic placard it clearly states: FAT ASS

Tommy Campsey laughs at the sign as he holds it up and talks about a wave of sign stealing that has affected his run for sheriff.

“It is aggravating,” he says holding the sign at an angle so the offensive word is less prominently displayed.

“If they don’t like me, personally, I would rather they call me than take my signs. I am a big boy. I can take a lick. I know not everyone likes you. Some of my supporters are elderly. In their late 70’s and they are worried about people walking into their yards. What else what will they do? There’s no reason for it,” he says.

Campsey tells me that about a 100 of his yard signs posted in private citizen’s yards, have either been stolen or destroyed.

“Those yard signs cost $3.50 cents per sign. That is why it bothers me, these people support me. I represent them in a hard honest campaign.

I ask if he thinks kids are tampering with his signs, or is it dirty politics?

“We are running a competitive aggressive campaign, and it is having an impact on the race,” he says, his supporters standing nearby.

“I am trying to run a hard campaign. I feel like the other candidates should do the same. And I know that they are. But it is the people supporting them getting a little emotional, I don’t know their motivation, but it is to cut back on the visibility of our campaign.”

Campsey will proceed to tell me, he knows this is dirty politics because out of a group of campaign signs, only his will be destroyed or stolen.

“Are we talking about people prowling around in the dark of night, presumably supporters of other candidates, trespassing and committing misdemeanor crimes?” I ask.

“Yep that is it,” Campsey says in his down home kind of way. “It is messed up Andy. Ain’t no way around that.”

Later that day I meet with another sheriff candidate, Kevin Carroll. The long time law man who worked on the FBI’s violent crimes task force tells me that he lost 42 campaign signs in a 24 hour stretch in the Fairview community.

Carroll is a bit dejected by the thefts and also suspects dirty politics.

“A few could be kids, but when you look at it that only my signs had been taken within the limits of Fairview from yards, and along the roadway, none of the other candidate signs were taken. just mine.”

Like Campsey, Carroll says he wants to run an honest campaign. “I am not a politician, I am a public servant. I am out here trying to run a good clean campaign and something like this happens. Sometimes it is a little hard to keep your head up. I have heard from other candidates that certain People going around the county late at night, and planting signs they didn’t want it. So that is not the way we run our campaign.”

I check with law enforcement agencies throughout Williamson County. Only Brentwood and Fairview police have reports of sign thefts on file.

Messed Up attempts to contact all the candidates for reaction:

1) Mike Bell’s campaign reports:

I’ve had probably 25 to 30 stolen from the Nolensville/College Grove area. I’ve had maybe 5 to 10 stolen from Spring Hill. I’ve had maybe 6 or 7 from Fairview. I’ve probably had close to 60 or 70 total signs stolen. Probably more I just don’t have time to look all over for them. I’ve had one sign, a bigger one, in Franklin destroyed, the stand was broken and the sign was kicked in. The small ones cost $3. The larger one that was destroyed was about $30 with the stand and the sign.

2) Dwayne M. Duhon’s campaign reports:

My signs are all on private property. I’m estimating right now 80 or 85 [have been taken]. I can’t put a definite number on that. They are on private property and the private property owners do not know what has happened to them. It sounds like I’m not the only candidate and that’s a good thing. My problem is they come up missing. I haven’t had any complaints of that [destruction]. I’ve had so many come up missing. I’ve had people call and say, “can I get another sign”, and I assume they’ve been taken and they need another one so I run out and bring them one.

3) Mark Mittermeier’s campaign says:

They have suffered some weather damage, but nothing major. The candidate did tell Messed Up that one of the candidates took down his signs at a local jewelry store. We called that candidate who said the owner of the jewelry store was going to throw Mittermeir’s signs in the garbage. The candidate tells us, he collected the signs and returned them to the campaign because as he says, he knows how expensive these signs are.

4) Tim Taylor’s campaign says:

I couldn’t begin to imagine how many signs I’ve lost. I’ve had friends help me put them out and the next day they’ll be gone. I’ve lost a couple dozen or so. I got an email from a guy (anonymous). He said there was a big sign out by the Waffle House and he saw another candidate both of whom had smaller signs and someone saw the guy and the other candidate take it and throw it in the dumpster.

When asked why his signs are being stolen: I kind of think a lot of it is because kids think my name is funny because it’s the name of “Tim the tool man Taylor” from the Home Improvement show.

The other candidates either did not respond to our query or did not have a viable phone number supplied to us by the Williamson County Elections commission.

In my estimation, the trespassing and nocturnal misdemeanors have only just begun.

The only one who will benefit from all this is the sign maker.

The election is August 7th.

July 18th, 2008 Posted by Andy | Uncategorized | 7 comments