Reused signs cause campaign brouhaha

What on the surface might seem like a simple example of reuse and recycle in Anoka County might not be.

In a primary race for the county board, Carol LeDoux is using signs that her husband, Scott, had when he ran for the same seat, which he held for six years before resigning because of illness.

Brad Johnson, running for county attorney, is using signs he received as a gift from Doug Johnson, who is retiring from the same post in Washington County.

Most of the LeDoux signs simply say "Vote LeDoux Anoka County Commissioner 5th District," alongside a pair of boxing gloves; Scott LeDoux is a former heavyweight contender. Some of the signs bore his first name, but it was redacted.

The signs Johnson is using say, "Johnson for County Attorney."

Both Carol LeDoux and Brad Johnson said this is a matter of practicality. "The signs themselves we would have just contributed to the landfill and thrown them away," LeDoux said. "So we're not contributing them to the landfill quite as soon."

But at least two of her four opponents in the Aug. 10 primary, Julie Trude and Becky Fink, aren't happy. Both said they've had to use precious campaign time to explain to voters who exactly they are running against before they can get to boosting their own plans and platforms. The other two candidates in the primary are Daniel Nelson and Michael Rohricht.

Scott LeDoux resigned from the seat in May as he battles ALS. His wife said the transfer of the signs from his campaign to hers was for efficiency because she probably would have chosen the same design, anyway.

"I'm running to continue his fight," she said. "He asked me to do that, and I'm doing it. That's the campaign slogan, 'Continue the Fight.'"

The rest of her campaign materials, she said, clearly identify her by name.

Brad Johnson said his signs were offered to him before he had settled on a design of his own. The Anoka County candidate said his goal was to find something that was not at all like the campaign materials used by his father, Bob Johnson, the current Anoka County attorney.

"Doug Johnson's signs fit the bill," he said. "So we kindly accepted his donation of the signs."

For his part, Johnson's opponent, Tony Palumbo, said he expects that all candidates would follow the law but declined to comment further.

Palumbo and Johnson are the only two candidates for the office, so there is not a primary contest for that office.

Potential issues

But there might be an issue here. In neither case did the candidate update the previous owners' disclaimer on the signs. That identifies who created and paid for the message. Those disclaimers are required by state law. In a few cases, Johnson's campaign did black out the information, but they didn't do that for all, he said.

LeDoux and Johnson said they left them because the previous owners' campaigns did create and finance the signs. Johnson added, however, that he has ordered additional signs that have updated information.

But Hamline University law Prof. David Schultz has a problem with that.

"The whole intent of that law is to give voters information regarding who is putting up these signs and what candidate it is and what political committee it is," he said. "I admire them recycling the signs, but slap a bumper sticker on the bottom with the current political committee."

In both cases, the signs were given as in-kind donations to the campaign committees. Depending on how their value is calculated, that could be a sizable gift, subject to the county's campaign finance laws.

Johnson, who said he did claim the gift in his disclosure documents, estimated that he received 80 to 100 signs. A single new, two-color 18-by-24 inch lawn sign costs $4.81 at Sign-A-Rama in Maple Grove, and that's with an order of at least 100.

LeDoux said that signs on the way to the landfill have no value.

Schultz disagrees.

"That wouldn't be accurate if they're actually able to use them and save money by not having to get more signs," he said. "I could make that argument about anything. The fact they are being used attests to the fact that they do have a market value."

But in the eyes of Trude and Fink, this isn't a discussion of campaign finance.

Trude said the question comes up in at least one of every three encounters. "I have to explain my opponent," she said. "That's the last thing a person wants to do when you're trying to convince people you're the best person to have the job."

Fink agreed.

"If it were me, I think I would have gotten some stickers that say my name," she said. "I don't know what she should do, but that's what I would do," she said.

Maria Elena Baca • 612-673-4409