by Rebecca Schmitz
There was an odd letter in the Missoulian’s Letter to the Editor column yesterday:
Why can’t anyone running for the Missoula City Council or anything else send people information about themselves or go around and talk to people instead of putting signs up all over town that are an eyesore. We hardly believe that anyone looking at a name on a sign is going to make them want to vote for that person without knowing something about them.
We planted some plants by our mailboxes that have taken several years to get as tall as they are now. Now, a Lewie Schneller sign was put on both sides of the mailboxes so they took it upon themselves to trim one of our plants 9 inches on top of one side. The signs are so big they could easily have been seen without messing with our plant. One sign on front of the mailboxes could have easily been seen from traffic going both ways. If we wanted our plants trimmed, we would have done it ourselves.
Jim and Lori Lucas, Missoula
It’s odd simply because I can’t imagine why a lowly City Council candidate would want to alienate a potential supporter and future constituent in this way. We’ve all heard of the usual campaign hijinks–last year, for instance, four Jon Tester signs disappeared from my front yard between June and November. In all fairness, one of the four vanished the day after the primary election, as did all the other signs, Democratic and Republican, on my block. I chalked up that loss to helpful volunteers cleaning up neighborhoods (if only everyone would take down their garage sale and Total Fest signs just as promptly). But a rogue gang of hedge trimmers? I don’t see Ed Childers trying to stir up trouble for his opponent Schneller like that. Perhaps someone from Schneller’s campaign, or Lewie himself, will apologize to Jim and Lori. And after that, they can swing by my house. I need someone to weed my side yard.
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August 30, 2007 at 10:09 am
I’ve had a couple of yard signs disappear from locations on Spruce Street and Rattlesnake Drive already. Maybe it’s just because I have a funny last name…
August 30, 2007 at 10:22 am
Right now, your cropped signs are in dormrooms all over campus!
August 30, 2007 at 12:09 pm
The whole story and I am sure there is more to it, than some candidate cutting someones plant. I believe the letter was a plant( pardon the pun). Rumor, and that’s all it is, has it that the person at that address requested the signs and there never were any plants under the mail box. I would like to know for sure as this is demo against demo and is sad. Could ther New Party, I mean Progressives, be involved in dirty tricks?
August 30, 2007 at 12:59 pm
Right, Ayn. The New Party has reunited after a six-year absence to whack at people’s shrubs and plant false letters in the Missoulian. That’s always been their modus operandi.
August 30, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Well said progressive Pete, couldn’t have said it better, in fact I didn’t. You can put boots in the oven, but it don’t make em cookies.
August 30, 2007 at 2:34 pm
“Progressive Pete,” huh? I like it. Has a nice ring. Thanks, Ayn.
August 30, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Missoula is haunted by the spectre of the spectre of the New Party.
September 1, 2007 at 8:40 am
grumble…
that darn Lewie’s following me around a fastening his signs to mailbox posts and trees and such.
The letter-to-the-editor writer seemed to not have given permission for signs and seemed to think people could fasten signs to the mailbox post anyway and really just complained about trimmed vegetation. I talked to a person who was kind enough to adopt one of my signs, and they said a Lewie had been stapled to their tree! That Lewie was removed.
Anyhow: I think it’s bad form to put signs where they’re not invited. I interpret the City’s littering ordinance/handbill ordinance to say it’s littering. You can read it for yourself: ftp://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/Documents/MissoulaMunicipalCode/08-HEALTH&SAFETY.htm#Health_8_28_090
(sorry, don’t know how to do links here). I also know there’s an ordinance that says don’t put signs in the right-of-way (mailbox posts seem to be in the right-of-way, but I haven’t surveyed any of them); I’d complain about that if only I was perfect in that respect. I try, but anyhow, mea occasionally culpa.
September 1, 2007 at 10:32 am
If the candidates would hang around the parties more, they’d learn not to do these things. At least on the Repub side there is a lot of experience and people who know the laws and local regs, if the candidates would only ask. I’m sure the Dems have their old vets who can help too.
But people are above all that party stuff now.
September 1, 2007 at 12:31 pm
I sure do agree with that “hang around the parties” comment, Carol. I’ve not seen my opponent Lewie at Democratic Central Committee meetings, even the one to which all candidates were invited to attend and give their spiel. (By the way, there’s a third candidate for the Ward 6 seat, and his name is Marty Guthrie.) Lewie and I both visited with the Pachyderms, where I learned that Thelma’s granddaughter can recite the Pledge of Allegiance word for word, which is pretty good for a 3-year-old. I’d invite her to start the Council meeting if it wouldn’t look like a blatant campaign gimmick. Maybe after the elections are over. But I digress.
On the other hand, as we’re mostly all aware, City Council elections, and positions, are non-partisan. That sometimes allows for interesting compositions when voting-time comes around, which I think is what advocates of nonpartisan elections were aiming for when they voted to put them in our Charter, and which is something that’s been pretty much absent from our state and federal legislatures lately.
September 1, 2007 at 4:02 pm
I agree with you, Ed. I don’t think trimming the shrubbery (or stapling a sign to a tree) was malicious so much as simply thoughtless. People working for their favorite candidate should know better than to alter someone’s private property without permission.
I do believe residents are required to trim any vegetation around a mailbox, and keep the area free of obstructions. My landlady has been doing a lot of remodeling to my house, and at various times over the last year cars and trucks belonging to construction workers and handymen have been parked in front of my mailbox. Each time I got a note from my mailman saying, in effect, “The box was blocked. No mail for you!”