Ninke Family Exceptional Blog: Scarry Harry Mitchell STILL seals signs
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Saturday, October 28, 2006
CANDIDATES BICKER ABOUT SIGNS
November 11, 2000
Section: Front
Edition: Final Chaser
Page: A1
CANDIDATES BICKER ABOUT SIGNS
Paul Matthews, The Arizona Republic
In an election year rife with intrigue, Tempe now has a legitimate scandal of its own.
In the company of a Tempe police officer, Republican state Senate candidate Gary Richardson discovered 37 of his campaign signs Tuesday in a dumpster behind the home of his opponent, incumbent Democrat Harry Mitchell.
When asked who might have committed such an offense so close to the District 27 election, Mitchell was direct and unrepentant:
"I did it," he told The Arizona Republic in a telephone interview.
A Tempe police detective interviewed Mitchell on Friday afternoon. Once the investigation is complete, it will be forwarded to the City Prosecutor's Office for review, said Sgt. Randy Fougner, a Tempe police spokesman.
Stealing campaign signs is a Class 2 misdemeanor punishable by up to four months in jail and a $750 fine.
The tale began Sunday evening when Richardson, whom Mitchell unseated two years ago, posted 70 signs throughout Tempe that read, "Voted for alt-fuels fiasco." Each sign had an arrow pointing up, and he placed the signs directly beneath Mitchell's campaign signs.
The sign referred to the controversial state program that compensated people for buying motor vehicles that could use alternative fuels. The program was supposed to cost taxpayers only $10 million and may end up costing more than $500 million.
By Monday morning, Richardson said, most of his signs had disappeared, so he put up an additional 60. When those signs were also pilfered, he posted another 60 signs, including three at McClintock Drive and Broadway Road in Tempe. Then he set up a surveillance in a grocery store parking lot across the street and waited.
Ninety minutes later, he watched someone in a gold Chevrolet pickup swing by, pluck his signs from the ground and peel off into Mitchell's neighborhood.
"At that point, I run across the street and I'm yelling at them, 'Stop, stop,' and they didn't," Richardson said.
The disgruntled candidate called 911. When a Tempe patrol officer arrived, the pair drove through the neighborhood looking for the gold pickup. When they didn't find it, they decided to check out the alley behind Mitchell's house.
"He suggests we look in the dumpster, and inside we see 37 signs," Fougner said.
In an interview Friday, Mitchell said the signs changed the meaning of his own campaign signs, and he viewed them as negative.
"I think it was very distracting to what I was trying to do," Mitchell said, adding how legislators voted on the program "was all in the paper; I don't deny how I voted."
Mitchell said he didn't consider Richardson's alt-fuels signs to be campaign signs. He said he and his wife removed several signs Monday morning, just before it started to rain.
"Some of them were right on my signs and some were leaning on my signs," Mitchell said. "Those signs by themselves didn't mean anything. The ones that were in front of my signs I took away."
Mitchell said he doesn't own a gold pickup and doesn't know who took the signs Tuesday morning.
This was Mitchell's 13th campaign for public office. He served as mayor or councilman in Tempe for 24 years and the city honored him with a 35-foot-tall statue next to City Hall in 1998. He won Tuesday's election with 56 percent of the vote.
Jessica Funkhouser, the state election director, said she didn't see anything wrong with Richardson's signs.
"I think those kind of signs are perfectly legal, and it's free speech," she said.
Richardson said he has no qualms about losing a second consecutive election to Mitchell but he's still fuming over the theft of his signs.
"He single-handedly decided to take away my First Amendment right to free speech," Richardson said. "That's his to interpret, huh? That's a real arrogant attitude.
CAPTION: Gary Richardson's campaign placed signs like this one under Harry CAPTION: Mitchell's signs.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright (c) The Arizona Republic. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Gannett Co., Inc. by NewsBank, inc.
Section: Front
Edition: Final Chaser
Page: A1
CANDIDATES BICKER ABOUT SIGNS
Paul Matthews, The Arizona Republic
In an election year rife with intrigue, Tempe now has a legitimate scandal of its own.
In the company of a Tempe police officer, Republican state Senate candidate Gary Richardson discovered 37 of his campaign signs Tuesday in a dumpster behind the home of his opponent, incumbent Democrat Harry Mitchell.
When asked who might have committed such an offense so close to the District 27 election, Mitchell was direct and unrepentant:
"I did it," he told The Arizona Republic in a telephone interview.
A Tempe police detective interviewed Mitchell on Friday afternoon. Once the investigation is complete, it will be forwarded to the City Prosecutor's Office for review, said Sgt. Randy Fougner, a Tempe police spokesman.
Stealing campaign signs is a Class 2 misdemeanor punishable by up to four months in jail and a $750 fine.
The tale began Sunday evening when Richardson, whom Mitchell unseated two years ago, posted 70 signs throughout Tempe that read, "Voted for alt-fuels fiasco." Each sign had an arrow pointing up, and he placed the signs directly beneath Mitchell's campaign signs.
The sign referred to the controversial state program that compensated people for buying motor vehicles that could use alternative fuels. The program was supposed to cost taxpayers only $10 million and may end up costing more than $500 million.
By Monday morning, Richardson said, most of his signs had disappeared, so he put up an additional 60. When those signs were also pilfered, he posted another 60 signs, including three at McClintock Drive and Broadway Road in Tempe. Then he set up a surveillance in a grocery store parking lot across the street and waited.
Ninety minutes later, he watched someone in a gold Chevrolet pickup swing by, pluck his signs from the ground and peel off into Mitchell's neighborhood.
"At that point, I run across the street and I'm yelling at them, 'Stop, stop,' and they didn't," Richardson said.
The disgruntled candidate called 911. When a Tempe patrol officer arrived, the pair drove through the neighborhood looking for the gold pickup. When they didn't find it, they decided to check out the alley behind Mitchell's house.
"He suggests we look in the dumpster, and inside we see 37 signs," Fougner said.
In an interview Friday, Mitchell said the signs changed the meaning of his own campaign signs, and he viewed them as negative.
"I think it was very distracting to what I was trying to do," Mitchell said, adding how legislators voted on the program "was all in the paper; I don't deny how I voted."
Mitchell said he didn't consider Richardson's alt-fuels signs to be campaign signs. He said he and his wife removed several signs Monday morning, just before it started to rain.
"Some of them were right on my signs and some were leaning on my signs," Mitchell said. "Those signs by themselves didn't mean anything. The ones that were in front of my signs I took away."
Mitchell said he doesn't own a gold pickup and doesn't know who took the signs Tuesday morning.
This was Mitchell's 13th campaign for public office. He served as mayor or councilman in Tempe for 24 years and the city honored him with a 35-foot-tall statue next to City Hall in 1998. He won Tuesday's election with 56 percent of the vote.
Jessica Funkhouser, the state election director, said she didn't see anything wrong with Richardson's signs.
"I think those kind of signs are perfectly legal, and it's free speech," she said.
Richardson said he has no qualms about losing a second consecutive election to Mitchell but he's still fuming over the theft of his signs.
"He single-handedly decided to take away my First Amendment right to free speech," Richardson said. "That's his to interpret, huh? That's a real arrogant attitude.
CAPTION: Gary Richardson's campaign placed signs like this one under Harry CAPTION: Mitchell's signs.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright (c) The Arizona Republic. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Gannett Co., Inc. by NewsBank, inc.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
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