By Andy Ostmeyer
aostmeyer@joplinglobe.com
Dirty tricks aren’t unknown in a tight campaign, but over the weekend, someone crossed the line.
Specifically, someone crossed the property line and swiped the dozen or so campaign signs that Dr. Donald Patterson had placed in his yard at 210 Duquesne Road.
Patterson placed the signs in the yard to show support for the John McCain-Sarah Palin ticket, Kenny Hulshof, Peter Kinder, Roy Blunt and other Republicans.
“I had all my signs out, and it just annoyed the hell out of me,” said Patterson, 81, a former general practitioner in Joplin.
He initially placed the signs outside the fence along his frontage on Duquesne Road.
Patterson went to Republican headquarters Monday and loaded up with some new lawn signs, but the office was out of the ones for McCain-Palin.
“I put them on the inside of my fence, but you can’t see them as well,” he said.
“We have talked to dozens of people who have had their signs swiped,” said John Putnam, chairman of the Jasper County Republican Central Committee. He said workers have even put up a sign at the GOP headquarters advising people to report the theft of signs to police.
Jean Wienberg, regional press secretary in Southwest Missouri for the Barack Obama campaign, said Democrats, too, have been the victims of vandalized and stolen signs.
“Unfortunately, this is something that happens around every election,” she said, adding that Democratic officials have not noticed an uptick this year.
Cpl. Chuck Niess, spokesman for the Joplin Police Department, said the theft of signs doesn’t seem to be any worse this year than in previous elections.
“A lot of it is kids,” he said. “I don’t know that it’s a big plot to support one candidate over another.”
But for Patterson, the issue runs a little deeper than a mere prank. He was born in 1927 in Joplin and served as a gunner on a B-17 over Europe during World War II. He enlisted at age 17. He later acquired his medical degree and served as a flight surgeon during the Korean War.
“I’m being denied my First Amendment rights,” he said. “I fought two wars for that.”
Andy Ostmeyer is the metro editor for The Joplin Globe.
Local News
Related Photos
Discussion
Political-sign heists irk victims
- Local News
-
-
Electric bill to drop $6 a month in Joplin
The Missouri Public Service Commission has approved a request filed by The Empire District Electric Company, based in Joplin, to lower the fuel adjustment charge (FAC) on the bills of its electric customers.
-
Mo. Legislature officially ends its 2012 session
Missouri's annual legislative session has officially come to a close.
-
Strong to severe storms forecast for Joplin region
Storms developing across the central and southern plains this afternoon are expected to migrate into the Joplin region this evening.
-
Economic-development strategies posed for Joplin region
More than 30 people shared ideas Wednesday on ways to promote economic development in the seven counties that are participating in the Joplin Regional Prosperity Initiative.
-
Kansas primary filing deadline near
Kansas candidates have until noon Friday for file for county offices in the Aug. 7 primary.
-
Date set to reintroduce rare beetle in Missouri
An endangered species of beetle will be reintroduced in southwest Missouri on June 5.
-
Senators: Missouri River flooding unifying moment
Two U.S. senators who symbolize disagreements between upstream and downstream states over management of the Missouri River say last year’s historic flooding was a unifying moment.
-
First-ever electricity for parts of India
The solar power company SunEdison is launching a program to get electricity for the first time to more than two dozen villages in India.
-
Couple 'scoop out' ice cream business from the past
When 3-year-old Brynlee Rabel tried coconut ice cream for the first time Tuesday, it was love at first taste. “She got the vanilla, but when she tasted my coconut ice cream she had to have it,” said Kayleigh Daugherty, a Joplin resident who wanted Brynlee to share the same experience she had as a little girl when she visited Anderson’s Ice Cream.
-
Missouri National Guard releases records involving soldiers who looted from Wal-Mart
The Missouri National Guard has released records confirming that four soldiers were disciplined for taking merchandise from the ruins of a Wal-Mart store in Joplin one day after the tornado that devastated the city a year ago.
- More Local News Headlines
-
Electric bill to drop $6 a month in Joplin
