By Clyde Noel
We are in the “silly season” during which political signs disappear in the dark of night. Removing election candidates’ signs from public property amounts to curtailing free speech. Recently, there were accusations of skulduggery in the Los Altos City Council race.
It is said that under cover of darkness people regularly skulk around neighborhoods and remove political signs placed on private property. There are two more weeks of silly season antics left before the Nov. 5 election.
The first battle occurred last week when Francis La Poll, running for a third term on the city council, insinuated that candidate David Casas may have had a hand in the removal of La Poll’s lawn signs.
Casas said he didn’t know anybody who would do such a thing, especially in Los Altos.
Lou Becker, retiring from the council, said, “They stole a bunch of mine the first time I ran, but the second time I only found a few missing.” Becker’s approach: “Replace the signs and get on with it.”
Conventional wisdom says the more signs a candidate has standing tall on lush green lawns, the better she or he will do at the polls.
When Roy Lave ran for a council seat in 1974, Los Altos didn’t experience antics like this.
“We made our own signs and didn’t place many around town,” he said. “Now the town is bigger, with different people.”
Stealing political signs is completely normal behavior for this time of year, but what is confusing to residents is why candidates would want to break the law when successful candidates become lawmakers.
“They stole about 30 of my signs and about 30 of King Lear’s signs when we ran for a council seat,” said John Moss, a current councilmember. “The day after election we found them behind the bushes on Altos Oaks Drive.”
With two weeks to go and eight candidates running for three seats on the city council, the usual smorgasbord of candidate signs is not visible in Los Altos.
Other candidates running are Val Carpenter, Curtis Cole, Christopher Friendly Nicholson, Ron Packard, Jeannice Samani and Steven Smiley.
