Campaignsigns

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. Here are the signs, in alphabetical order by candidate and from small to large for each candidate, along with my comments. ...

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. As a 2012 Slate article notes, some research has shown that non-specific campaign signs urging people to vote (though not for a particular candidate) can be effective, but that says nothing about candidate-specific signs. On the other hand, a Vanderbilt University study seems to indicate that signs can be effective in promoting candidates in races in which they are a large number of candidates and voters have little information about them. There are some political consultants who feel strongly that yard signs are a waste of money, and others who are happy to advise you on which types of signs are more effective. ...

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.) ...