Arriving back in D.C. a week ago from a weekend away, I was surprised to see a green “FENTY” for mayor sign in my yard.
It matched the overgrown meadow that is my unmowed front lawn. It even looked good against the brick house. But it didn’t match my political persuasions.
Despite a few cynics who believe I am in Adrian Fenty’s back pocket, I am an agnostic when it comes to the five mayoral candidates. I will vote on Sept. 12. Call me undecided.
I took the Fenty sign down. It’s somewhere in the backyard, lost in the weeds.
Candidate signs are sprouting like weeds on lawns and poles across the District’s 67 square miles. What with races for mayor, council chairman, a few council seats — not to mention School Board president— Washington could soon become impassable.
What do signs on yards and poles tell us about a candidate’s chances? Sometimes, very little.
In the case of Faith, they are a reflection of her political theater. I take it Faith is running for mayor again. Or D.C. Council. I’m not sure. I doubt she has collected the requisite signatures on petitions. I haven’t seen her at any forums. But she will show up at the occasion political rally and blow a few notes on her trumpet.
Amid the noise of the campaign, we need her playfulness.
The most obnoxious signs of the season were the annoying black-and-white ones that read: “Think Cropp.” They came out before Council Chairman Linda Cropp declared her candidacy for mayor. They raised questions more than answers: Think Cropp should stay out of the race? Think Cropp would make a great mayor? Who put these up, Adrian Fenty?
Using lawn signs as a barometer of voter interest, I took a nonscientific tour of the city. Marie Johns had a few stuck on spreads in Spring Valley, causing problems for the landscape companies that keep the lawns looking like putting greens. Fenty signs were big in his Ward 4 territory. Vincent Orange signs are all over Ward 5. I saw one or two Michael Brown signs in his neighborhood along Nebraska Avenue.
Ward 5 appears to be the most heavily adorned political landscape, which makes sense. There are at least five candidates competing to fill Orange’s seat, and each has put out lawn signs. Fenty’s sign-planting troops have been active in the voter rich region. Still, Orange is winning the sign game in his home turf.
But the yard sign skirmishes in Ward 3 are most telling. Here Cropp and Fenty are running about even. Streets are divided. Turn one corner near Lafayette Elementary School and you will see a Cropp sign; the next house sports a Fenty.
Title 24 of the District of Columbia Municipal Regulationssays signs can be posted on utility poles but not nailed into trees. And they “shall be removed 30 days after the general election.”
If Fenty drops one on your lawn without asking, just toss it.
Harry Jaffe has been covering the Washington area since 1985. E-mail him at [email protected]
