Between Friday night and Saturday morning a couple of hundred signs appeared around Durham proclaiming “STITH: Right-Wing REPUBLICAN. Don’t Be Fooled!”

Since then, a great number of those signs have disappeared or been vandalized.

(Photo courtesy of Barry Ragin)

Message from Kevin:

The Durham County Democratic Party paid for the signs in question and was responsible for their placement throughout Durham. We purchased a grand total of 250 signs at the approximate cost of $541.00–a mere pittance compared to the amount of money Thomas $tith has paid to lie to the City of Durham about Bill Bell’s record, and his own. Of the approximately 70 or so signs I myself participated in putting out, 39 are now missing and 3 were vandalized. Another 36 signs from other routes have also gone missing, and I fully expect more to go missing by Monday.

I guess the truth hurts. I guess the Republican Right doesn’t really want the voters to know that their candidate was, until only recently, the VP of an organization that considers global warming to be a hoax, publicly-financed elections to be a communist plot, zoning to be the same thing as taking away property rights, or gay people to be second-class citizens.

We already have the license plate # of one potential offender, and a description of two vehicles, and that will be pursued to the fullest extent of the law. As for the anyone else, the Durham County Democratic Party is prepared to offer a $250 reward for the arrest and conviction of anyone tied to the illegal removal of our campaign signs. That amount will increase as donors agree to chip in, insofar as the amount they donate is paid out for apprehending the suspects in question. In other words, this is not a fundraising effort–money donated will be returned if no suspects are apprehended as the result of our efforts.