2014elections

Sorry, I changed my plans and will not be doing the legislative races just yet, since I was able to find signs for all four of the Democratic candidates for Judge of the Orphans’ Court:1 incumbents Anne Dodd and Leslie Smith Turner and challengers Shari Chase and Nicole Bormel Miller. (There are only two Republican candidates for the three Orphans’ Court positions, Ellen Harrison and Emma Travis-Howard, both of whom will proceed to the general election....

My next “sign-off” is for the race for Howard County State’s Attorney, in which incumbent Dario Broccolino faces fellow Democrat Rich Gibson in the 2014 primary. (There are no Republicans running for this position.) Unlike the race for Howard County Sheriff, each candidate has limited himself to one type of sign. (Broccolino has both large and small signs, but except for one small detail they’re simply different-sized versions of the same sign....

OK, the preliminaries are over, and here’s my first campaign sign 2014 face-off. I’m starting with the courthouse races, and in particular the race for Howard County Sheriff, which pits incumbent James Fitzgerald against challenger John Newnan in the Democratic primary. (John McMahon is unopposed in the GOP primary, and I wasn’t able to find a sign for him.) Both Fitzgerald and Newnan have multiple types of signs; I think I got pictures of all of Newnan’s but may have missed one of Fitzgerald’s....

Thanks to those who sent in pictures of campaign signs for Eric Ebersole; I’m still looking for signs for other candidates mentioned in my previous post. I’ll soon start posting my opinions on signs I do have. In the meantime I wanted to recap some of my comments from last time on campaign signs and what I personally look for in judging them. I should say up front that it’s not clear at all that campaign signs are actually effective in persuading to vote for one candidate rather than another....

Pity the poor political candidates of Howard County. It’s hard enough running a campaign as it is, but they also have pesky bloggers grading their performances in public forums, evaluating their direct mail pieces, and keeping track of their social media activities. In an upcoming series of posts I’ll be adding to their woes by rendering aesthetic judgements on their campaign signs. (I did this once before after the 2010 elections, but now I’ll be doing it in a more timely manner....