Every election season sees its share of campaign materials, from the expected (yard signs) to the somewhat exotic (Kwame Brown’s campaign-mobile). But repeat candidate Michael A. Brown may have stumbled across the most frustrating in his current quest for an At-Large seat on the D.C. Council.

In recent weeks, small fliers for Brown’s campaign have appeared on the windshields of cars throughout the city. Last week, cars in Mt. Pleasant were targeted; today I spied blocks worth of leafletized cars along V Street near Busboys and Poets. Some windshields have even seen multiple fliers left behind at once, an apparent hint that the recipients should hand them out to their friends.

We get the idea: sending out a team to put fliers on cars is faster and easier than knocking on hundreds of doors, and District residents are bound to use their cars at some point between now and November, right? But in practice, drivers react the same way they would if it was a parking ticket or a cheap flier for a seedy business. Worse yet, many of Brown’s fliers invariably end up on the street as litter. Sure, that’s not exactly his fault, but it also doesn’t make his campaign look good. Add to that some noises we’ve been hearing about the frequency of his robo-call efforts, and the candidate, who currently leads in the polls for the 2nd At-large spot, could potentially start to feel some blowback.

We interviewed Brown during his 2006 run for mayor, and can attest that he’s a nice guy and a committed public advocate. But the flier-on-the-windshield thing has got to go.