Ubiquitous campaign lawn signs dot Albany's neighborhoods. While their presence may not have any bearing on elections, their absence tends to make headlines.
In the city's second ward, lawn signs for one particular candidate have all but disappeared. Resident Dannielle Hille says she's been putting placards out for about a decade and has never had any issues until now. She says she placed a “Derek Johnson for Common Council” sign in front of her house. When she noticed it was gone, she checked doorbell footage.
"I ran back my cameras, and what I actually found was a DGS driver who was driving far too fast up my street, hit the brakes, came to an abrupt stop, hopped out and took my sign and threw it in the cab the DGS truck and drove away," said Hille.
A spokesperson for the city responded to a request for comment via email, saying: "DGS was instructed to remove any signs that were located in the public right of way locations, which is a longstanding practice. We have no comment on the actions of private citizens and actions taken in regards to political campaigns."
Hille says she noticed Johnson signs were no longer visible in her area, while signs for Johnson’s opponent and certain other primary candidates seemed to be proliferating.
"I went down to South Pearl Street and Madison to the triangle, which is 100% clearly, city property like there's no ambiguity to it," Hille said. "That triangle that's there is maintained by the city. It's in the middle of a roadway, clearly, clearly, clearly, city property. There are a bunch of signs up there."
Hille provided a photograph of the triangle (at left), which WAMC emailed to DGS for comment. The agency has not responded. Incumbent Democratic councilor Johnson, who is being challenged by Josh Marcil, says he's focusing on things he can control. Johnson has been endorsed by the Working Families Party, and Marcil has been backed by Capital Women and Albany County Young Democrats.
"I have no control over a sign," said Johnson. "Once I put it down, what I do is I make sure I ask people permission to place my lawn sign in there on their property. And, you know, I leave it from there."
Marcil says candidates have first amendment rights to put signs up. "I've been seeing some of my signs disappearing as well whether or not it's from mistakenly putting them where they're not supposed to go or bad actors. You know it's disappointing to see.”
Meanwhile, uptown in the 15th ward, Common Councilor Tom Hoey noticed law signs placed on behalf of mayoral candidate Dan Cerutti were vanishing. The Times-Union first reported that Hoey hid a tracker on a sign, and it wasn't long before that sign was on the move. Awakened by a 3 a.m. phone alert, Hoey said he notified police of an address that was pinging back. Upon arrival police were greeted by a landlord.
"He let the policeman in, next thing we saw there were 60 or 70 signs taken off the metal frame and in the apartment. So we're waiting outside. So I happened to look in a car, and the back seat of the car in the driveway was filled with signs, so and that's where my air tag was. I made a chirp, and the door was open, so the policeman opened it, and he gave me back my air tag and sign and all the signs that we had put out."
Hoey says with a day left before the primary, he's now distributing campaign material by hand.
"The 15th Ward went with two candidates that we felt were the best for our ward, but we didn't stop people from putting up other signs. And even if the signs were in the roadway, we didn't touch them. I mean, a sign is a sign. My quote in the paper was correct. Signs don't win elections," said Hoey.
In Albany’s Democratic mayoral primary, Chief City Auditor Dorcey Applyrs, County Legislator Carolyn McLaughlin, businessman Dan Cerutti, and Common Council President Corey Ellis are running to succeed third-term Mayor Kathy Sheehan.
Primary day is Tuesday.
