by Birdie Jaworski

Election sign in Las Vegas New Mexico / Birdie Jaworski

A walk down Seventh Street offers more political posters per mile than any other road in Las Vegas this week before local elections. What if all you knew about any candidate was just what you could tell from their signs? Therein lies the “art” of politics.  For some voters next Tuesday, frequency and content of graphical advertising will determine which votes they cast, even if they don’t realize it on a conscious level.

The history of the poster goes back a couple hundred years. Theater companies and book printers in London and Paris were the first to craft advertising posters with simple slogans in the second half of the 19th century. Food and household items began to be advertised next, when the industrial age brought more goods competing for customers. The political poster developed, with a few exceptions, only around World War I.

Prior to 1914, political posters were censored in most countries. During World War I, however, they quickly became the most powerful propaganda tool. It’s hard to imagine a country today without them. With blunt and powerful messages stamped over iconic images, the political poster influenced history: it helped rally support, increase morale, raise money, recruit soldiers, defame the enemy and boost patriotism and support for the war. Every election in our country – regardless of size – counts campaign signs among its most visible trappings.

Seventh Street is ground zero for the hotly contested Third Ward City Council position. A quick walk reveals signs on fences, pick-up trucks, stuck in the ground on posts, even affixed high in trees that drape over the busy roadway. Candidates are given a set of guidelines outlining where and under which conditions signs may be placed, but any Las Vegas resident can see that these ordinances are probably not enforced.

Third Ward City Council Candidate Andy Feldman designed a blue and white sign with a squiggle for his campaign.

“The blue color and wavy squiggle symbolize water, which is one of the important issues in the city,” Feldman explains. “As far as campaign signs go, Northern New Mexico is very political. It’s a sport almost. We’re given specific ordinances to follow. The ordinance reads that signs can only be put on private property with the owner’s permission.  No signs are allowed on city or county public lands, but you see signs where they shouldn’t be. If a candidate can’t follow the ordinances for campaign signs, can they follow the rules if they are elected?”

Most candidates use vivid primary colors – reds, whites, blues – designed to catch a voter’s jaded eyes. This year several candidates have broken out of the standard crayon box with golds, electric and sky blues, some on a shiny black background. Signs around town include middle initials and nicknames perhaps to resonate with constituents or offer familiarity, dignity, and even humor. Some homeowners accept more than one candidate’s signs, even for competing positions.

“I have signs for three of the mayoral candidates,” Las Vegas resident Anne Martinez says. “I haven’t decided who I’m voting for yet, but I’m giving any candidate the opportunity to place a sign in my yard. Equal opportunity for everyone, I suppose.”

After the election, candidates have ten days in which to remove their signs, an ordinance that seems – judging by signs that remain in place months after an election – lightly enforced, if at all. Perhaps this is some losing candidate’s – or supporters – way of preparing or hoping for the next election, or maybe some voters are just sentimental.