A District government agency last week removed hundreds of campaign signs showing support for an upstart political candidate who’s challenging a well-funded D.C. councilmember in the June Democratic primary. The agency now says the mass removal of 248 signs from street poles was an “honest mistake” by new employees, but its account of the incident has shifted since reporters and the candidate’s campaign began asking questions.
The D.C. Department of Public Works says it was responsible for removing the signs, which displayed the name of Janeese Lewis George, a former attorney for the District government, and had been posted on major corridors in Ward 4, where George is running against incumbent Brandon Todd. George’s were the only campaign signs taken down during the incident, even though Todd and third Democratic candidate Marlena Edwards also have campaign signs posted throughout the city’s northernmost ward.
The affair is bringing fresh attention to the Ward 4 race, one of the most closely watched D.C. Council contests in an unusual election year. George is backed by her old boss, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine, and claims to be the first person to have ever reached the maximum funding match under the District’s new public elections financing program, thanks to more than 1,000 small donations. Todd, meanwhile, is a close ally of Mayor Muriel Bowser and has amassed a hefty campaign war chest through traditional fundraising, including from businesses and developers. With the exception of campaign sign wars, the coronavirus pandemic has significantly disrupted campaigning-as-usual in this race and others, as in-person canvassing and meet-and-greets have been suspended.
“The removal of the campaign signs was an honest mistake made by new employees to the Graffiti and Nuisance Abatement team, the unit responsible for removing illegal signs and posters,” a spokesperson for DPW says in a statement. “A couple of our newer team members mistakenly removed campaign posters. DPW has apologized to the candidate, explained the situation and signs will be reposted in the near future.”
Although most of George’s signs have since been restored, only 150 of the 248 that were taken down were salvageable, according to the department. The remainder were damaged, and George’s campaign would have to file a claim with D.C.’s Office of Risk Management for any compensation.
When the signs were initially posted, representatives for the campaign say they received confirmation from the D.C. Board of Elections and the District Department of Transportation that they had been posted correctly. But on April 8, the campaign got reports from volunteers and community members that George’s signs were being removed by city workers. In a tweet that day, Michelle Whittaker, George’s campaign manager, said the campaign heard that a DPW employee had told a resident that they had been instructed to remove the signs by their supervisor.
https://twitter.com/mcwspeaks/status/1247989161828777984?s=20
When George’s campaign followed up with DPW, the department said a new driver had removed the campaign signs and that someone had “submitted a service request for an illegal poster, which do fall under us,” according to an email Whittaker posted on Twitter. In D.C., election posters are allowed to be placed in public for up to six months before a given election, and DPW inspectors are charged with providing written notice to candidates to dispose of any improperly posted signs or face citations.
“Someone absolutely needs to explain this,” George stated at the time. “Political speech is not supposed to be censored by government agencies in any way. Full stop.”
https://twitter.com/Janeese4DC/status/1248020162353094656?s=20
Then, DPW told the Washington City Paper, which first reported on the signs’ removal, that the agency had not received a service request about the matter after all. (Todd denied to the paper that his campaign had submitted any such request.) But there was another discrepancy in the department’s pronouncements: At first, it told local reporters and George’s team that just two of her signs had been taken down. Later, it was discovered that in fact 248 signs had been removed. DPW says an internal review revealed the higher total and that it can’t disclose the names of any employees involved in the incident.
One hundred fifteen other, non-campaign signs were also collected in the sweep, per the department, but details weren’t provided. Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh, whose D.C. Council committee has oversight over DPW, is inquiring about the episode with the department’s director, Chris Geldart, a spokesperson for Cheh tells DCist.
The District’s primary elections are scheduled for June 2. Due to the coronavirus crisis, the Board of Elections is encouraging people to vote by mail through absentee ballots and restricting the number of polling places to limit the spread of COVID-19.
