Lawn Signs

State Rep. Mark B. Cohen, the chairman of the House Democratic caucus and one of the most powerful legislators in Harrisburg, yesterday found himself locked in a battle over a campaign issue with much less weight: lawn signs. His Republican opponent, Paul Brogan, sent a letter yesterday to the Fellowship Commission, asking the Fair Campaign Practices Committee to put an end to "trespassing, theft, intimidation and slander" carried out by Cohen and his supporters. The alleged offense: removing Brogan campaign signs and, in one case, replacing one with a "for sale" sign.

"I think that I shall never see A billboard lovely as a tree. Indeed, unless the billboards fall, I'll never see a tree at all. " - Ogden Nash, parodying Joyce Kilmer In the next few weeks, local and state campaigns will be ramping up for the election. It's not a big election year in Pennsylvania, but you won't be able to tell that from the proliferation of lawn signs, those mini-billboards that litter the shoulders of our highways and byways. One day you're on Roosevelt Boulevard, and the next you're tooling down the Schmidt-Butkovitz-Williams-Untermeyer Freeway.

Campaign signs for congressional candidate Robert A. Rovner have been defaced and torn down in Northeast Philadelphia, prompting the Rovner campaign to blame supporters of Rovner's primary election opponent, Charles F. Dougherty. Fran Shane, Rovner's campaign manager and press secretary, said paint- filled balloons were used to spatter an opponent's signs in a previous Dougherty campaign. Shane said that information came from a relative who had worked in a Dougherty campaign. "He knew on the inside that this was part of the plan, that they did this to opponents.

By anyone's standards, the Gaustad home on busy Chester Road in Swarthmore is a prime piece of real estate. But during the campaign season the home's worth increases, not only because of its well-kept appearance, but because of its location. Planted on the family's lawn is a blue-and-white sign calling for the election of David Landau to the Seventh Congressional District seat. It's one of many signs that having been cropping up across the county for Democrats and Republicans alike.

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign, especially when election season rolls around. This year's bumper crop of colorful campaign placards proves that while more and more politicians are leaning toward television ads to get their message out, there is still some life left in one of the oldest - and often most interesting - methods of political advertising. Name recognition has long been a top priority among campaign managers and political consultants, and lawn signs serve that need precisely.

Oh, to walk through suburbia in springtime, now that the alarm systems are in bloom. The daffodils have withered, but little lawn signs are in full flower, reading "Protected by . . . " The mockingbirds and cardinals are giving full voice to dawn's first hour, but so are the occasional "whoop-whoop-whoops" of alarms tripped by early- rising homeowners. And so springtime strolls, and bedroom windows open to springtime dawns, make homeowners more aware of alarm systems out beyond the dandelions.

OCEAN CITY, N.J. - Drew Fasy considers himself more practical than pious. But he's worried about the soul of "America's greatest family resort. " If voters pass a ballot proposal allowing patrons to "bring your own bottle" of wine or beer to local restaurants, now "dry" Ocean City could take a hit to its reputation from which it would never recover, said Fasy, 49. The town resident, who owns a real estate agency in nearby Sea Isle City,...

Missing signs show up in school In reply to Mark Doorley's letter ("Stolen freedom," Oct. 26) regarding stolen Democratic campaign signs, I ask him to not automatically blame their disappearance on fellow voters who happen to belong to the other party. I attended Back to School Night at one of our local high schools recently. On entering one of the classrooms, I was surprised to see those lawn signs plastered all over the walls and the ceiling! The teacher had instructed his students to bring in as many campaign artifacts as they could, and, yes, they are taking the signs off people's lawns!

The Democratic sweep of November's municipal elections here seemed impressive enough. Republicans had controlled the borough government for 104 years, after all, and registered GOP voters outnumbered Democrats by a ratio of 5-4. Now come campaign-finance reports that show the Democrats swept the six borough offices on the ballot while raising and spending less than half the money that their opponents did. The final tally shows the Lansdowne GOP...

The crowd at President's Bush rally in Erie earlier this month swelled to double what was expected, and Guy Ciarrocchi sensed there would be a problem. "Get more lawn signs," he instructed an aide on one of two cell phones. "I need more lawn signs. " No detail goes unnoticed by Ciarrocchi, executive director of Bush's reelection campaign in Pennsylvania. A former director of public affairs for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Ciarrocchi once worked to get legislation, like school choice, passed on behalf of the church.

OCEAN CITY, N.J. - Drew Fasy considers himself more practical than pious. But he's worried about the soul of "America's greatest family resort. " If voters pass a ballot proposal allowing patrons to "bring your own bottle" of wine or beer to local restaurants, now "dry" Ocean City could take a hit to its reputation from which it would never recover, said Fasy, 49. The town resident, who owns a real estate agency in nearby Sea Isle City,...

The Autumn in Moorestown festival was supposed to showcase the town's old-fashioned, friendly character. White tents and tables brimming with crafts lined Main Street. But two booths off to one side clashed with that theme. On display was a sharp division over whether the historically dry town should go wet. One booth was staffed by representatives of a key corporate resident - the Moorestown Mall - that is pushing the idea, and the other by townsfolk who see such radical tampering with tradition as sacrilege.

"I think that I shall never see A billboard lovely as a tree. Indeed, unless the billboards fall, I'll never see a tree at all. " - Ogden Nash, parodying Joyce Kilmer In the next few weeks, local and state campaigns will be ramping up for the election. It's not a big election year in Pennsylvania, but you won't be able to tell that from the proliferation of lawn signs, those mini-billboards that litter the shoulders of our highways and byways. One day you're on Roosevelt Boulevard, and the next you're tooling down the Schmidt-Butkovitz-Williams-Untermeyer Freeway.

I'VE JUST conducted my own presidential poll, but it didn't involve any dialing. Just driving. I've informally surveyed several city and suburban neighborhoods with an eye on the yard signs. I'm not prepared to declare a winner, but Barack Obama has a problem in white neighborhoods, or I've just seen the reverse of the Bradley effect on voters' front lawns. Conventional wisdom is that people lie to pollsters in elections featuring candidates of different races. That's the Bradley effect, named for Tom Bradley, the L.A. mayor once believed to be a shoo-in for California governor.

Missing signs show up in school In reply to Mark Doorley's letter ("Stolen freedom," Oct. 26) regarding stolen Democratic campaign signs, I ask him to not automatically blame their disappearance on fellow voters who happen to belong to the other party. I attended Back to School Night at one of our local high schools recently. On entering one of the classrooms, I was surprised to see those lawn signs plastered all over the walls and the ceiling! The teacher had instructed his students to bring in as many campaign artifacts as they could, and, yes, they are taking the signs off people's lawns!

This was not suppose to be about partisan politics. At least that was what Elizabeth Smith said she had hoped four weeks ago. That's when Smith, 41, of East Nantmeal, who supports Sen. John Kerry, started a hotline (610-286-1975) for reporting the theft of political lawn signs of all persuasions. After loads of calls - by Friday morning, she said she had logged 136 that represented 340 missing or otherwise compromised signs - Smith decided to step up her effort, in between taking the car to the shop and her two young children to a Halloween parade.

Chris Alker is a freelance graphic artist who in this nastiest of political seasons represents the best of American ingenuity - and of the slogan, "Don't get mad, get even. " In a region gripped by a political crime wave - the wholesale theft of campaign signs from private property - Alker has a solution where others have only outrage and inflated rhetoric. His foil: He slathers roofing tar on the edges of his lawn signs. A dirty trick? Oh, yes, roll-up-your-sleeves down-and-dirty - dirty enough to make Donald Segretti of Watergate fame green with envy.

The crowd at President's Bush rally in Erie earlier this month swelled to double what was expected, and Guy Ciarrocchi sensed there would be a problem. "Get more lawn signs," he instructed an aide on one of two cell phones. "I need more lawn signs. " No detail goes unnoticed by Ciarrocchi, executive director of Bush's reelection campaign in Pennsylvania. A former director of public affairs for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Ciarrocchi once worked to get legislation, like school choice, passed on behalf of the church.

Talk about cutting corners to save a campaign. When it was learned early this month that lawn signs supporting Republican Township Council candidates Lois Downey, Harvey Howard and Larry Anastasi violated a zoning ordinance because they were less than a square inch too big, quick action was needed. And taken. Armed with scissors and sharp political acumen, Howard and a half-dozen of the candidates' supporters fanned out and cut corners from the cardboard signs - all 250 or so of them.

When Jon Barth returned home from a trip to Maine two weeks ago, he noticed something missing: campaign signs on his lawn backing Democratic legislative candidates Carl Cherkin and Peter Kostmayer. "I was teed off," said Barth, 74, a retiree who has lived in Northampton Township, Bucks County, since 1960. The missing signs were likely among hundreds, promoting candidates of both parties, removed by the township for violating an ordinance that prohibits signs of any kind close to public rights-of-way.