Signs of an election still can be seen

Saturday, Nov. 25, 2006 | 7:01 a.m.

Shelley Singal was taking a leisurely walk Friday along Sahara Avenue near Hualapai Way, enjoying a panoramic view of the valley - until she happened upon a vacant lot cluttered by old political signs.

"There are still so many campaign signs up. It's such a blight," said Singal, who is in town from Detroit this Thanksgiving holiday weekend visiting her daughter. "It is a shame because you have such a beautiful, clean city."

When told that political signs, according to local ordinances, should have been removed by Wednesday, 15 days after the November election, Singal was even less tolerant.

"That's too much time to give them (candidates)," she said. "If they really wanted to get them down they have crews that could have done that the day after the election. There is no excuse for not having these signs down by now."

The block around her had a sagging sign from defeated state treasurer candidate Mark DeStefano a few feet from where Assembly District 5 winner Valerie Weber's sign still stood.

Nearby, a huge collapsed sign of thrashed sheriff's candidate Jerry Airola lay in a heap, not far from forgotten signs for defeated County Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald and winning District Judge Elizabeth Halverson.

The irony was not lost on Singal that people who wanted to be sheriffs, judges and lawmakers could not obey a simple ordinance.

The Sun on Friday traversed 78 miles of thoroughfares in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson and eyeballed 57 signs - some the size of small billboards - on behalf of 33 candidates - 17 of whom had won their elections. Some signs were really old, forgotten by losers in the August primary election.

In our anecdotal count, Airola placed first among candidates with delinquent signs - seven. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dina Titus' signs were found at six locations.

Hilarie Grey, Titus' spokeswoman, said the campaign has "mobilized a corps of people to go around the state to take down signs. That effort is continuing.

"We think we've taken down the bulk of them. But there are still some stragglers. We sent around e-mails to our supporters asking them if they see signs to take them down or call the campaign. We've notified our precinct leaders and community leaders."

Airola did not return the Sun's phone calls.

Some candidates don't know where all of their signs are.

John Harney, a Republican who lost his bid to become Clark County public administrator, said he would personally remove any remaining signs if he was told where they were.

Hey, John, we found three of your signs on Nellis Boulevard - near Desert Inn Road, Vegas Valley Drive and St. Louis Avenue.

"We put up 1,250 signs total," Harney said. "We went out and made a concerted effort to take them down. We picked up the signs the day after the election."

But apparently not that many.

Harney said he has located only about 120 of the signs. It's unclear when or how the bulk of the signs disappeared. It's unlikely they removed themselves following Harney's 53 percent to 40 percent loss to Democrat John Cahill.

A Cahill sign, incidentally, was found uncollected among a cluster of signs belonging to other campaign winners at Carnegie Street north of Horizon Ridge Parkway in Henderson.

He was in good company: District Attorney David Roger, University Regent Mark Alden and State Board of Education member Cindy Reid.

Perhaps incoming Sheriff Doug Gillespie could arrest all of the sign scofflaws. But he first would have to cite himself for an uncollected sign at Charleston Boulevard near Torrey Pines Drive.

Fines for failure to remove campaign signs range from $75 to $1,000 in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and unincorporated Clark County. While those entities give politicians 15 days to remove signs, Henderson gives candidates just five days to do that job.

Sun reporters Michael J. Mishak and Mike Trask contributed to this report.