Yard Signs

Have you noticed?  There's an election this November!  Who would have guessed?!

Michigan is not a designated "battleground state" this year.  President Obama is leading Gov. Romney by a reasonable margin at the moment.  No doubt that reflects the salutary impact of the Auto Industry Rescue three years ago.

Polling is an inexact science, and in the past few days many conservatives have started talking about polls the way some people talk about anchovies.  However, for what it is worth: on Sept. 18 MRG had Obama +6 points over Romney here in Michigan; on Sept. 19 CNN/Opinion Research showed Obama +8; on Sept. 20 the Detroit News indicated +14; on Sept. 24 Rasmussen Reports gave the President +12; and yesterday Gravis Marketing said Obama led Romney by +4.  Average these results and Obama is leading Romney by over 7 points in the Great Lakes State.

Perhaps this means we Michiganders will not be forced to watch as many political attack ads as those living in swing states.  (However, the Democratic send-up featuring Romney and the lobster is a hoot and may well prove this season's funniest political ad.)

All politics is local.  And politics in Presque Isle is sometimes not very pretty.  This year the position of Township Supervisor is up for election, with Democrat Patrick Pokorski, the incumbent, opposed by a young Republican.  In the past few days several of Patrick's yard signs have gone missing, and my friends Sharon and Attila are encouraging donations to replace them.

Patrick (right) served as master of ceremonies at the recent
dedication of the historical marker at the Presque Isle Lodge,
a former resort hotel now operated as a bed-and-breakfast.

On Thursday I chatted up a Michigan State Police officer about the legal implications of the theft of yard signs.  When I told him that Patrick's were being taken, he said that didn't surprise him.  The same thing happened during the recall campaign two years ago, when local Republicans tried unsuccessfully to oust Patrick from the Supervisor's job.  The police officer indicated that taking a political yard sign involves trespass, but would violate the state election law only if the deed was done by a candidate or someone in charge of the candidate's campaign.

What the yard sign pilferers don't realize is that each sign they take is eloquent (if larcenous) testimony to the good job Patrick has done as Supervisor, and their own fear that the election will not go their way. •••