Earlier Mayor Cox wrote his Council Corner article on the “silly season” as it relates to the perennial time of year when candidates seeking office sprout their political signs and paint the landscape with an array of colors aimed at achieving name recognition which might translate into votes. We all do it albeit not all in the same way.
Some of us politicos anoint official sign tenders to look after our “flowers” and some do it themselves. The sign tender’s job is to travel about and look after the signs to make certain they’re not flagging, lilting, knocked down, blown away or have simply disappeared. I chose to tend to my own signs when I ran for office simply because I took pride in their appearance and they were expensive.
Political signs and their placement is an interesting phenomenon when you stop to think about it. The colors, size, letter style, font and message are all aimed at attracting viewers with the hope of impressing them. Their placement is equally important. Certain colors imbue us with a sense of patriotism while other colors suggest environmental concerns or family values. I don’t know this for a fact however a friend who is an art director and graphic designer told me it’s true.
I do know a little bit about sign placement however and its importance. Political sign placement can have significant implications. It can be a waste of time, effort and money or it can help make a difference in the outcome of an election campaign.
Sign placement takes different forms. For instance there are “mushrooming signs” (this is when the signs are first planted), then there are “dancing signs” (that’s when they are moved about in an effort to get the most amount of coverage with the fewest signs) and finally there are the “jockeying signs” (this is when they are constantly moved in front of your fellow candidate’s signs in an effort to be viewed more clearly at the other sign’s expense).
All in all political signs are necessary or at least they’re not going to go away anytime soon. We’ve all managed to somehow get used to them and perhaps even acknowledge them as a piece of Americana. It is part of our heritage and freedom of expression. There are countries where they would be deemed illegal or simply not tolerated. I think our system is better even though not all political campaigns take the signs down following an election.
The point I really want to make is that Foster City is one of the more responsible cities when it comes to political signs even though there are occasional instances of mischief. While driving in Burlingame and San Mateo recently I witnessed numerous front yards boasting twice the number of signs as are candidates seeking office. Now that is truly silly.
I have yet to see one front lawn in Foster City housing more than three political signs for the city council election which is the exact number of open seats available. Why would someone want to have half a dozen sign on their front lawn when half as many people are seeking that office? My guess is they have a hard time saying no to the candidates even though they don’t support them or there are multiple voters in their household whose votes represent everyone seeking office.
For what ever it is worth, at least here in Foster City, we are consistent and orderly about how we conduct ourselves during elections and the season is not really as silly as it could be.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to serve you. You can reach me at home with any questions or comments at 650-349-2316 or you can leave me a note at jkiramis@fostercity.org
print 