Almost any professional campaign consultant will tell you that yard signs are not important. People steal them, direct mail and television are far more effective, and, the ultimate mantra is, “yard signs don’t vote.”
They do get stolen. In a two-mile stretch of Pohopoco Drive, we had five Clinton yard signs. On Friday night three of them were stolen, including one from my front yard. The two that weren’t were far off the road.
Nonetheless, as a campaign worker in the trenches, I can tell you that campaign consultants are wrong about yard signs. They are important for two reasons.
The first is that volunteers want them. It is a way to show public support for a candidate that is impossible in any other way. If the signs aren’t provided, the supporters feel ignored.
The second reason is that it makes supporters feel good. I think one of the reasons Trump is as popular as he is in Carbon County is because everywhere you drive, you see his signs. A friend of ours who came down from Long Island to campaign for Clinton said , “This must really be Trump country.” She based that on the number of yard signs. The Clinton campaign has provided almost none; the Trump campaign was already passing out free signs at the Carbon County Fair and the Redneck Festival.
Most of the few Clinton signs you see in Carbon were purchased by the county party, not provided by the Clinton campaign. The one you saw at Forest Inn that read: “Trump, make America grope again,” was a homemade one that lasted only about a day before someone stole it.
When the campaigns do not provide signs (and yes, I’m also talking to the McGinty campaign), supporters feel like they are being ignored, which they are. So, to all the consultants out there: Signs don’t vote, but people do, and the people would really like some yard signs.
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