Campaign Fun

Driving in Tulsa today I noticed a lot of the blue and yellow "Vote Yes" signs had the word "NO" glued over them. Probably the work of a juvenile that doesn't realize tampering with the signs is a misdemeanor. Not many people realize that it is also illegal for citizens to remove signs - from public right-of-ways. It's been a couple of years though since I heard of anyone being prosecuted on this law however.

Both the NO and the YES sides of the Vision 2025 campaign accuse each other of removing the others' signs and doing other nasty things to each other. There's probably a bit of truth to it but I've worked in enough campaigns to know how impossible it is to control one's "own people". Overly exuberant partisans get carried away and start running over the opposition signs or making harassing calls to their campaign headquarters. That's life in a campaign. It's interesting but not the conspiracy some like to believe.

I did go to one of the recent TV debates on Vision 2025. It was pretty interesting. Mayor LaFortune and Michael Bates both did well in presenting their cases. The producers asked the audience not to applaud until the end of the debate but I noticed the NO supporters had a particularly hard time restraining themselves and listening to the directions. At Batesline Michael gives his take on some of these events.

At the event I went to I noticed Todd Huston, Gary Richardson and Doug Dodd sitting in the back sniggering in each others' ears throughout the debate. This was before they lost the Huston lawsuit against the vote.