Everyone hates them.
Everyone wants them.
As with other political campaign techniques, the effectiveness of signs is hard to measure. It may be that whether they are helpful is a matter of where you live. In areas where voters are not well informed, the extra bit of name recognition can make a 1-2% difference.
And there is a big difference between road signs and yard signs. A candidate’s sign in your yard indicates that a real person – you – believes in them. Many yard signs for a candidate are a form of social pressure.
As we are all well aware, they can also be a form of intimidation. Road signs are mostly just annoying. Those 10-20 Arpaio for Mayor signs all spaced 3 feet apart on Shea just looked plain lazy and didn’t get him past the primary.
High profile candidates where the voters are well informed, areas like LD3, may not need the visibility. Katie Hobbs won two statewide elections without buying signs.
Sometimes it’s all in the messaging. Adrian Fontes won with signs that said “Save the Republic” instead of “Save the Democracy.” It was brilliant! Four years ago a neighbor put up one of those “Jesus is my Savior and Trump is my President” signs and aimed it at my house and that of my Jewish neighbor. I bought a couple of “Veterans for Biden” signs. A Republican neighbor helped install it and commented that he didn’t know we were veterans. I answered truthfully, we’re not but I know what sells around here. The second Veterans sign went to Jerry, who carried it around the bars in Cave Creek. Time to get a couple of new ones. Jerry – give me a call.
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