It’s dirty politics as usual.
But it’s time to clean up, say officials in Chicago and the suburbs, who were hit hard this primary season by the thousands upon thousands of political posters strung up on public property by armies of campaign workers.
Although politicians have no legal obligation to pick up after themselves, they’re being asked to do the right thing. Otherwise, taxpayers will have to pick up the tab after municipal workers pick up the trash-a further affront to those already fed up with the election process.
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The posters, planted by campaign workers, were aimed at harvesting votes, and they are as seasonal as flowers in springtime.
But unlike flowers, the posters linger long after elections and are generally considered an eyesore as well as an environmental nuisance.
Perhaps the greatest hazard is posed to trees hammered with nails and staples, said Erma Tranter, executive director of the Friends of the Park organization in Chicago.
“It’s a wound,” Tranter said. “They’ll survive. But they are already under stress from cars and pollution. If there are four nails or eight nails and they keep coming at them, it does damage the tree.”
In addition, the paper-filled campaign season creates “a litter problem,” said Terry Levin, a Chicago Streets and Sanitation Department spokesman. “It’s unsightly, and depending on how signs are placed, they can get in the way of us maintaining street lights.”
In fact, days after Tuesday’s primary, a sea of campaign placards bearing mug shots of toothy politicians continue to stare out from highway overpasses, abandoned buildings and lightpoles across the area.
Even in the farthest reaches of suburbia, the average motorist could spot hundreds of campaign leftovers, crammed alongside more permanent advertisements. Some juxtapositions, however, raised perhaps more eyebrows than votes.
On Will-Cook Road, next to a sign touting the “Magic Weight Loss” method? “Aurelia Pucinski: She gets results.”
The Chicago sanitation department issued a press release this week urging political candidates to take down their own signs within the next week so that city crews wouldn’t have to.
And at least one suburb, Orland Park, warned earlier this month that “overhead expenses incurred for removing signs (will be) billed directly to the candidate seeking office.”
Posting political campaign signs on public property is generally an accepted practice, although in Chicago it remains a violation of a city ordinance and-theoretically, at least-carries a $10 to $200 fine for each offense. Few if any scofflaws are ever prosecuted, though, because campaign workers typically operate at night to avoid being caught.
“We will definitely prosecute if people come forward with information,” said Nina Cadsawan, a spokeswoman for the city’s Law Department.
The rule of thumb for political organizations that choose to ignore the law is: Clean up your own mess.
“The rule is: If you put it up, take it down,” said Wheeling Township administrator Jo Stellato. “That seems to be working.”
Still, in some areas, campaign posters remain stuck to light posts long after candidates have faded from public view.
At least one politician may have found a fitting way to hang a campaign poster in this age of environmental awareness.
State Rep. Clem Balanoff (D-Chicago), who lost his Democratic primary bid in the 11th Congressional District, relies on a potato. “You can take a boiled potato, rub it on a (street) pole, put a sign on it and rub the potato on the front,” Balanoff said. “That’s the environmentally conscious way.”
Balanoff said more tenacious glues may prevent even conscientious political cleanup crews from getting the signs unstuck.
“I’ve asked all my volunteers to take down all my campaign signs this weekend,” Balanoff said Thursday. “They’ve served their purpose, and it’s time to take them down.”
Steve Burris, 33, nephew of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Roland Burris, echoed that sentiment, although his motive seemed rooted in good politics rather than good will. He said he plans to organize a crew to help remove the 25,000 to 50,000 posters across Chicago.
“We’re going to get together and get everything with Burris down this weekend, so Dawn Clark Netsch will have the space to use to defeat Jim Edgar,” he said.
But despite some candidates’ good intentions, many of the posters will likely remain a task for city and suburban workers. And not an easy one at that, said Orland Park building director Bill Crabbe, whose inspectors have taken down more than 200 signs since Tuesday.
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Crabbe’s worst problems have come from signs posted at least 15 feet in the air, eluding not only vandals but village cleanup crews.
“They must be using ladders,” Crabbe said. “They seem to get higher every year. Or maybe we’re just getting older.”