Vandalism has Basin parties up in arms

Burning, stealing and defacing of signs worse this year than in past races both sides say

MOSES LAKE — In the heat of a presidential race, both the Republican and the Democratic parties in Grant County agree on one thing.

They abhor the vandalism that takes place whenever it's time to go to the polls.

Both sides have denounced the burning, defacing and stealing of campaign signs throughout the Basin, seeing it as a clear assault on people's freedom of speech rights.

Tom Dent, chairman of the county's Republican party said that the levels of vandalism, though present at every election period, have never been as bad as they are now.

"It does not make you feel really good," he said. "It's disappointing."

Ellen Webb from the Grant County Democrats' Get Out The Vote initiative said she was "sad and furious" at the sprouting of vandalism.

"People are very upset," she said.

While Dent said favorite targets have been the signs supporting county commissioner candidate Ron Baker, as well as signs supporting President George W. Bush and U.S. Senate hopeful George Nethercutt, Webb said some of the signs supporting the presidential ticket of U.S. Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards have been the victim of repeated attacks

"We had a large sign on a private property at the end of Highway 17 going to Ephrata," she said. "It was taken down twice and about 10 days ago it was spray-painted black." The word "Bush" covers the candidates' names on one side, while on the other, the white block letters of the sign have been filled with black.

Dent said the Republican's tale was no happier.

"Four years ago we lost a single Bush sign," he said. "We had never lost a big Bush sign before." Now, he said that many times people have found the charred remains of signs.

Webb recommended people call authorities and write letters to the newspaper to get this phenomenon to stop. She said the destruction of Democratic signs looked like a concerted effort, which made her wonder where it was coming from.

"It's concerted because it's not just one sign. It's a lot of signs," she said.

Dent said that there is very little doubt in his mind that it was vandalism and not the weather, as some of its bigger signs had withstood severe wind without falling over.

Both Webb and Dent condemn the acts as an assault on what America truly is about.

"It made me feel like that the people that did this feel like that their candidate represents better our constitution and the future of our country," Webb said. "And it's ironic that they violate our freedom of speech. They take that away so that they can encourage the victory of their candidate."

Dent agreed.

"The whole idea of America is choice," he said. "It's freedom of choice what makes America great. It's disappointing that we can't accept choice."

Furthermore, the Republican leader said he saw the destruction of signs as an omen of a deepening division among Americans.