By Staff
To the Editor:
They're breaking the law. Yes, that's what a host of political candidates are doing in placing signs on the highway right-of-ways. The proliferation of these signs is alarming. If a candidate breaks be law in this manners can he be trusted in other matters, if he were elected?
While attending a recent rally, | asked a candidate (who is seeking a high office in our state) what his views were of the aforementioned signs The candidate's response was the he has asked the state highway department and was told that the signs were illegal but they did not remove them during the campaign.
My contentions are, first, the highway department did not make the laws neither do they have the right to permit it to be broken. Secondly, each candidate should be held responsible for removing his or her own signs.
I have been heavily involved in campaigns for a period of twelve years. Our strict policy was to place signs on private property only with owners permission, never on right-of -ways of highways, roads, and city streets. Oh yes, this person was elected in each of his campaigns. It seems there was something call "intergrity" involved.
It is my belief that voters are more inclined to support a candidate who abides by the laws rather than one who flagrantly disobeys the law. Each time I see an illegally placed sign that is all the more reason I would not vote for that candidate. It seems to me that a ground swell is beginning to occur to force a reversal of all illegally placed signs.
My challenge is that each candidate removes every sign that is illegally placced, and instruct his or her workers to discontinue his practice.
Harold Blackbum
Silverhill