I agree about their nominal presidential downticket effect but I think the value of local/state election lawn signs is still there. If you’re not a straight partisan voter, you may see two unfamiliar names on the ballot for county sheriff or school board commissioner, recognize one from the 10,000 yard signs and think “Hey, that name sounds familiar” or “Well, a lot of people seem to like this woman so…” In an election that may only involve a few thousand votes, each one helps.
Coincidentally, our Democratic candidate for state rep came by yesterday and asked if she could pop a yard sign in our lawn later on.
Are you in a battleground state? Here in TX (not a battleground state), the active campaigning by the two Pres candidates is virtually nil, so signs and bumper stickers are all we get. If you want a sign, you have to go down to the party offices and pay for them - they don’t give them away for free.
In my area many lawn signs for Democratic candidates have been disappearing almost as soon as they are put up. By one count, in the town of Huntington, upwards of 500 signs have disappeared.
Republican signs, by contrast, seem well anchored.
Here in Iowa, I’ve seen metric tons of signs for local and state elections, but very few for the presidential election. They have mostly been Obama signs.
Curiously, one of the very few Romney signs (and the only one I see regularly on my commute) is on a completely vacant lot. No buildings or anything, just grass, and no other election signs – the two other Romney signs I’ve seen in town were on lawns with a half-dozen other signs for other Republican candidates.
Same here (northeastern San Francisco suburbs). Not only that, but, except for the national Obama and Romney TV ads, the only political TV spots I have seen are for ballot propositions; the main ones seem to be for banning required (but not voluntary) union member “donations” to union political funds, requiring most food with genetically modified material to be labeled as such, and a couple of competing state income tax increases (one only on the wealthy; the other pretty much across the board).
There is another one that I would have thought would have a lot of press about it, but I haven’t seen any ads either way - getting rid of California’s death penalty.
I also haven’t seen any ads - either signs or TV - for the race for Dianne Feinstein’s Senate seat; I have a feeling the Democrats realize she’s pretty much a lock (every poll has her up by double digits) and are taking a page from the Republican 2004 book by taking the money they would have spent on the campaign and using it in battleground states.
