Posted: Monday, September 1, 2008 12:00 am
We confess, when we first got the letter from a Philomath resident who said the city of Philomath told him to take down his campaign yard sign, we were skeptical. He must have misunderstood. This is America. The First Amendment protects our right to say pretty much anything. Property rights let us (in places without covenants, anyway) put up flamingoes or leave Christmas lights up all year.
So why target campaign lawn signs? You could even argue they are signs of our civic engagement.
But here's the shocker: For the past 25 years or so, Philomath has had an ordinance that prohibits people from putting up campaign lawn signs until the election date is drawn within 60 days. In Philomath, the magic date this year is Sept. 5.
Corvallis has a similar sign ordinance that calls for a 90-day limit, which means the signs became legal in early August. In Albany, the time limit is 45 days before ballots are distributed. Counties have sign rules, too. In Benton County, it's Tuesday, Sept. 2. In Linn County, it's Wednesday, Sept. 3.
But two Philomath residents, Clint Johnson and Jenifer Runnion, are risking fines of $250 a day to keep their signs just where they are, right now.
Our hat is off to them.
There's no good reason for these petty laws, but we suspect what prompted it: All police agencies in those cities and counties could probably enumerate many complaints of arson, trespassing, vandalism, harassment, fist fights and even serious assaults that all started because one neighbor loathed the candidate or measure that another was supporting on a lawn sign.
Cities might fear legal action by citizens who are harmed by such provocation, or maybe officials are just eager to ease the pre-election lawn sign-call-related burden on dispatch centers and police departments.
But fear and loathing over campaign signs is not defensible in a free society. We've said it before (usually when writing about events in Philomath, come to think of it): Democracy is messy. Deal with it.
Despite our nation's deep divide over politics, several things to emerge from this dawning controversy are encouraging:
Runnion and Johnson, who are Republicans supporting conservative candidates, have said they would fight equally for the right of Democrats to express their point of view. That's honorable. It's in our nation's best traditions.
We can't say it any better than Jenifer Runnion did: "I believe it's a violation of my First Amendment rights … This is about freedom and liberty, and not being micromanaged by our government."