More than 70 signs along Route 1 promoting the campaigns of senatorial candidate Jim Rosapepe and state delegate candidate Joseline Peña-Melnyk were intentionally destroyed Sunday night, just two weeks before a contentious primary.
The destruction of signs has become a mini-trend in a district where campaigns too small to afford television or radio advertisements use major roadways as a primary means for candidates to gain name recognition and entice voters. It also highlights the closeness of local races and the lengths to which some will go – however unseemly – to detract from or support a campaign.
Vandals cut out the centers of the signs, leaving the wooden frame and fragments of paper behind.
Sunday’s vandalism comes nearly a month after 34 of Rosapepe’s signs were stolen from similar locations. While police have not yielded any suspects, Rosapepe called the actions of his opponent, incumbent Sen. John Giannetti, “curious.”
“I do not know who actually wielded the saw or knife; what I do know is one night 34 signs were stolen and in less than a week John’s signs were up in the same locations, and in some cases the exact same location,” Rosapepe said.
On Monday, during a 24-hour sign-wave event in which Giannetti and his slate of candidates for delegate stood on the intersection of Calvert Road and Route 1 and waved to heavy afternoon rush-hour traffic, Giannetti denied any connection to the destruction of Rosapepe’s signs.
“My standing order is don’t touch any of Rosapepe’s signs or you’re out of the campaign,” Giannetti said. “The last thing I need in this race is to have someone connected to me taking down Rosapepe signs.”
While Rosapepe does not believe the signs’ destruction is indicative of the race heating up, he said vandals could be trying to “divert attention from the issues.”
“It’s not about politics; it’s a crime. You can have a heated race without theft,” Rosapepe said.
Giannetti campaign manager David Singer also expressed frustration about a perceived lack of debate on the issues. He said Rosapepe had so far not responded to calls for a formal debate between the candidates scheduled for Friday on News Channel 8 and had expressed little interest in taking on issues important to voters.
“This is the only issue Jim has been willing to engage in,” Singer said, referring to accusations over signs traded between the two camps.
Rosapepe strongly refuted those accusations, citing several meetings with community groups where candidates appeared together and a recent joint interview with The (Annapolis) Capital.
“I’d like no better than to debate the issues,” Rosapepe said. “I’ll probably go to the News Channel 8 if I can work it into my schedule.”
Referring to accusations about campaign signs, Rosapepe said: “It comes to a certain point where when 34 signs are stolen in one night – a lot of volunteers put a lot of work into those signs – and the police said whatever we could do to find who did it would help.”
“We were trying to help the police,” Rosapepe said of a mailing offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the sign thieves.
Peña-Melnyk, who is running independently of the Rosapepe and Giannetti slates, called the destruction of the signs “malicious” acts uncharacteristic of cleanly run political races.
“I would expect people to run on the merits and not vandalize or destroy people’s signs,” Peña-Melnyk said. “This is a democracy and this is disrespectful to the process.”
Contact reporter Steven Overly at overlydbk@gmail.com.
