contest that would otherwise be decided by more than a few percentage points.” Cani noted that Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs didn’t plaster intersections with signs in either of her campaigns for secretary of state or governor — “Proof,” he said, “that you can win without the signs.” However, a 2011 study conducted by Vanderbilt University came to a different conclusion. The study posted signs near a school for a fake city council candidate named Ben Griffin and then surveyed resi- dents about their preferences. Nearly a quarter of respondents listed the fake candidate in their top three picks. That name recognition means something, Bentz said. “Signs alone do not win elections,” the Republican strategist said. But “it is a mistake for campaigns to not do signs at all.” Notably, Arizona also has a rich history of signs for fake candidates. Valley resi- dents have gotten to know “candidates” Gina Schuh, a wheelchair user whose signs promised “I’m not running for anything,” and Tyler Watson, whose signs said “is crossing his arms.” That’s to say nothing of Arizona mainstay Dixon Butts of “America needs Dixon Butts” fame. Whether campaign signs work or not, they’re indisputably everywhere during each election cycle. And each election cycle, they inspire some of the pettiest political turf wars imaginable. THE LETTER OF THE LAW Arizona’s campaign sign laws are fairly simple. A.R.S. 16-1019 says campaigns can post signs in public rights-of-way no earlier than 71 days before a primary election and no later than 15 days after the general elec- tion. Candidates who lose their primary must remove their signs within 15 days after the primary. This year, that meant signs can be up from May 20 to Nov. 20, though some cities such as Peoria allow signs to be posted earlier than that. Additionally, the law states that stealing or defacing a campaign sign is a class 2 misdemeanor, which carries a maximum penalty of four months in prison. Campaigns and political junkies are ever-vigilant when it comes to catching rule breakers. In 2016, a Paradise Valley man paid $4,000 to install security cameras in his bushes to catch people stealing his Donald Trump signs. Two years later, state Rep. Kelly Townsend installed a game camera — normally used to catch candid images of wildlife — after her signs in Mesa were repeatedly vandal- ized. Around that same time, signs for Arizona Corporation Commission candi- date Rodney Glassman were defaced by someone who cut off the first two letters of his surname, thereby instructing voters to support “Rodney assman” instead. In 2020, so many “Arizona Republicans for Biden” yard signs were stolen that property owners installed cameras or covered their signs with Vaseline or glitter to deter thieves. Working for Joe Biden’s campaign at the time, Cani purchased two website domains — theystolemysign.com and azyardsign.com — to allow supporters to request replacements. The same paranoia exists in nonpar- tisan races, about which the state’s sign law is less than specific. Many nonpartisan candidates do not face a primary election but can still post their signs during primary season, leading to erroneous too-early accusations this year against Kate Gallego and a slate of Scottsdale school board candidates. The latter instance prompted Scottsdale to look more closely at the law. “State law on this subject does not currently provide separate periods for primary and general elections, only that single span,” a Scottsdale spokesperson told Arizona’s Family in a statement. “State law supersedes Scottsdale’s local sign regulations, and the city must follow the State law.” But what happens when someone does violate Arizona’s campaign sign laws? Finger-pointing, handwringing and … not much else. NO ENFORCEMENT The job of policing sign violations falls not to the state but instead to local jurisdic- tions. Cities and towns mostly are limited in what they can do — and they often choose to do even less than that. The law says that if a municipality “deems that the placement of a political sign constitutes an emergency, the jurisdic- tion may immediately relocate the sign.” The law does not define “emergency,” though it does allow municipalities to remove signs “placed in a location that is hazardous to public safety.” When signs are removed under emergency conditions, cities must notify the candidate or campaign that placed it within 24 hours. If there’s no emergency, there are some hoops to jump through. When signs are placed when and where they shouldn’t be — or when they’re too big or don’t include mandated contact infor- mation — cities must give campaigns 24 hours to fix the issue before confiscating a sign. Even then, campaigns have 10 busi- ness days to “retrieve the sign without penalty,” though the law does not state what the penalty would be. In Phoenix, the largest city in the state, it seems nobody has ever found out what that penalty is. Arizona’s campaign sign law is enforced by the city’s Planning and Development Department. Despite the constant social media grousing about sign violations, Phoenix public information officer Teleia Galaviz said the department has not yet imposed penalties on any campaign. She noted that the department has received 24 sign-related complaints this election cycle. Because the city “priori- tizes education” over penalties when enforcing sing laws, all 24 complaints were “resolved without need for further enforcement,” Galaviz said. Sign stealing — or removing, altering, defacing or covering signs — is only slightly more enforced. According to A.R.S. 16-1021, the Arizona attorney general is in charge of enforcing all election laws regarding races for state office, including campaign sign laws. For local races, juris- diction falls to city or county attorneys. But don’t expect to see Attorney General Kris Mayes or Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell prosecuting sign thefts. The offices of both told New Times they’d send those cases elsewhere, likely to city courts or county justice courts. And while sign thefts happen all the time — “People get too obsessed with this, and now you’ve got people on your campaign going to take other people’s signs down,” Cani said — don’t expect those courts to do much, either. In Phoenix, charges were filed in just two sign theft cases in the last 10 years, according to city public information officer Dan Wilson. One of those, Wilson said, was a 2018 case that involved “a person experi- encing homelessness who claimed to have found the signs in the trash.” That charge was later dismissed. The second happened in 2022 after a police officer “saw an indi- vidual taking a bunch of signs down,” Wilson said. That resulted in a fine. Short of catching people red-handed — either in possession of a sign or by identi- fying them on camera or by their license plate — “there’s very little that can be done to these people,” said Bentz, the Republican strategist. Sometimes, though, justice actually is served. In July, the husband of Yavapai County superintendent candidate Kara Woods was caught on camera stealing a sign belonging to her opponent, Steve King. Steve Woods was cited with a misde- meanor, though the current disposition of the charge isn’t clear. The gambit didn’t even work. Kara Woods lost the primary race by almost 3,000 votes. THREE MONTHS TO GO As far as campaign sign scofflaws go, if Hamadeh’s sign was in a public right of way, his boldness would stand out. He posted his sign in Surprise on May 2, a whopping 18 days before Surprise allowed signs to be erected in rights-of-way. It’s not clear if the city removed the sign, but it hardly mattered. Hamadeh won his primary and is expected to sail into the House of Representatives in Arizona’s deep-red 1st Congressional District. That sign may not have contributed a single vote to Hamadeh’s campaign — there is no way to know for sure — but at least it created a social media fuss. “I don’t think they’re the most important part of a campaign,” Bentz said, “but they’re certainly the most visible part that brings out the most passion among people.” Residents of Hamadeh’s district now can expect to see those same signs — as well as those of everyone else on the November ballot — for the next three-plus months. After Nov. 20, all campaign signs finally are supposed to come down. Not that anyone will be paying attention. It’s a class 2 misdemeanor to deface or vandalize a campaign sign, but almost no one is ever prosecuted for it. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Republican state Rep. Kelly Townsend once installed a game camera to catch people who vandalized her campaign signs. (Photo by Jacob Tyler Dunn) Sign Wars from p 16
