Local Election Opponents Stealing Political Campaign Signs?
Steven in Indiana has a question for Killer Campaigning about opponents stealing political campaign signs out of people’s yards:
“I love reading your articles and have gotten lots of tips from them. I work as the social media director for a state rep campaign. We have a problem. Our opponent is stealing our signs right out of yards. Not only stealing them but replacing them with his signs. One person told us that our opponent’s volunteers came to their door. Asked them who they were supporting (they had a sign out for us). They acted nice and told them goodbye. When our supporter went outside later that day our signs were gone and replaced with our opponent’s. How should our campaign respond? Our candidate says that he doesn’t want to divide the party by making a big deal of it.”
We’re glad you’ve gotten some good advice from Killer Campaigning, Steven! Here’s some more good advice: your boss is exactly right. Making a big deal out of opponents stealing your political campaign lawn signs is the worst thing you could possibly do.
I’m going to let you in on a little secret: most seasoned political consultants, campaign managers and candidates absolutely hate yard signs. Your preoccupation with with your candidate’s yard signs illustrates one of the reasons why: because supporters and volunteers waste way too much time and energy on them.
Yard signs, while a necessary part of any local election, are one of the least important aspect of a good campaign. Simply put: if your number one strategy is to put out as many lawn signs as you can, then you’re running a very poor, very lazy campaign.
And the problem you’re having with opponents stealing yard signs isn’t anything unique; there are thousands of local elections held across the country every year, and yard signs are stolen and vandalized in just about every one of them.
In all of the dozens of races I’ve been involved in, the candidates and volunteers have come up with conspiracy theories about the other side stealing or replacing their yard signs . . . and I guarantee you that their opponents did exactly the same thing.
Are your opponents really making a point of stealing your yard signs and replacing them with their own? Sure, they very well could be. But if they are, then it’s actually good news for your campaign. If the other side is wasting their precious campaigning time on stuff as trivial as yard signs, then you should hope they continue to do so.
In the meantime, you need to be out there doing things that actually earn votes: knocking on doors, raising money, making phone calls.
Of course, the really effective campaign strategies are also hard to do. Paying attention to something as superficial as yard signs is easy, and that’s why so many campaigns get caught up in it.
Take my advice: resist the temptation to waste your time worrying about yard signs. Your candidate will thank you for it when he wins on election day.
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