Imagine, if you will, this fall without political signs.
No ”Vote for So-and-So” or ”Re-elect Somebody”in your face every time you`re idling at a stoplight. None of those red, white and blue handbills fluttering streetside, vying with tens of others for your attention. No bumper stickers rudely pasted on stop signs.
Nothing but clean telephone poles, unobstructed sidewalks and street signs that bear only the messages the highway department put there
intentionally, as far down the roadways of Lake County as the eye can see.
Imagine it if you will. But don`t bet the mortgage.
Because even though a County Board member is floating the idea of banning political signs in road rights of way, its chances for getting voted into reality are pretty slim.
For one thing, political signs are tradition. Signs plastered on everything that doesn`t move are as much a hallmark of democracy as free elections themselves.
No matter what the calendar says, it`s the appearance of the wall-to-wall handbills and signs that heralds the real beginning of the campaign season. Then, when all the rhetoric is done, it`s all those signs lingering on the roadways for months that voters remember.
And don`t forget that those Lake County Board members who would ultimately have to give their OK to such a roadside sign ban are all running for re-election.
No one knows just exactly how much the signs affect voting patterns, but, judging from their proliferation each election season, politicians apparently count on them for some success.
Nonetheless, County Board member Larry Leafblad (R-Grayslake) still is asking that the ban be included in the county`s revised sign ordinance. A zoning panel is scheduled to look at the set of regulations for the first time on Thursday morning, but it is likely Leafblad`s proposal will not be seriously considered.
”Signs don`t change one vote,” said Leafblad, who drafted the proposal in March. In a primary election in which Leafblad won despite the well-financed campaign of his challenger, ”I beat all their dollars by knocking on doors.”
Leafblad`s proposal would do away with political signs as well as some other promotions outside the property line of a homeowner displaying it. They would be strictly forbidden on utility poles and in road rights of way because they are unsafe and annoying there, Leafblad said.
The general citizenry would like it, he thinks. How it would go over with colleagues is another matter.
County Board Chairman Robert Depke (R-Gurnee), for one, said he`s not sure he likes the idea. It would probably wind up favoring incumbents, whose names are better known than challengers, Depke said.
”You have to be fair,” said Depke, who mounted a successful challenge to regain his board seat two years ago.
A burning question
U.S. Rep. John Porter (R-Ill.) handled a barrage of hot questions in a recent session with local veterans. The Republican moderate, attorney and former serviceman deftly handled one fastball in particular, when a vet asked what could be done to stop the burning of U.S. flags in public demonstrations.
Porter, who joined congressional liberals in denouncing the proposed constitutional amendment to ban flag desecration in 1990, agreed with the speaker that flag burners are ”crazy.”
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”But it is a freedom the flag itself guarantees every one of us,”
Porter told the crowd. ”Maybe if you ignore these crazy people, they`ll go away.”
Easy ride
Lake County State`s Atty. Michael Waller, preparing for his first-ever campaign, found little sympathy from his old boss this week. Fred Foreman, former state`s attorney, and Waller, his former first assistant, marched together in the Lake Forest Days parade on Wednesday.
Waller was appointed to the job when Foreman left mid-term to become U.S. attorney. Waller now faces his first campaign for public office. Foreman, on the other hand, does not have to run.
Any advice from the experienced politician?
”He was just rubbing it in that he didn`t have to run,” said Waller.