> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Profiling and styling while making the political scene - URL: https://www.smdp.com/profiling-and-styling-while-making-the-political-scene/ - Published: 2006-10-25T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T21:46:50.000Z - Author: Melody Hanatani - Tags: Government & Politics, Santa Monica, #archive-import *Candidates play name game prior to election* CITYWIDE — It’s that time of year again. The signs are all around. All across the city, drivers and pedestrians are being greeted with catchy slogans and toothy grins as candidates make their final push to make an impression heading towards Election Day. Political signs of all shapes and sizes — spotted on lawns, fences, cars and businesses around town — are widely considered an effective supplement to typical campaign methods such as mailers and door-to-door canvassing. They show the public that a campaign has support, candidates say, while raising visibility and name recognition. “A campaign sign on a piece of property shows this individual supports the campaign,” said Rent Control Board candidate Robert Kronovet, who has 30 signs up around the city. There can be strategy involved in where the signs are placed. Major thoroughfares like Lincoln and Santa Monica boulevards boast the high volume of traffic that is attractive to a campaign trying to get the word out. Some campaigns place signs wherever there is a willingness on part of the property owner to host one. “When I see one of my signs, it means someone has chosen to personally support me and I’m proud of that,” said City Council candidate Kevin McKeown. The campaigns of School Board candidates Emily Bloomfield, Barry Snell and Kelly Pye plan to collaborate their signage, as the three share virtually the same endorsements. Bloomfield is the lone incumbent among the three. Still, those plans are on hold, as the Snell- Pye-Bloomfield trifecta has yet to receive the 300 signs they ordered and had hoped to put out this week. Snell said he does not believe yard signs have the same effectiveness as newspaper advertising and door-to-door canvassing, but hopes the signs might refresh his name in voters’ minds. Not every hopeful is depending on signs. Santa Monica College Board of Trustees candidate Andrew Walzer and incumbent Nancy Greenstein have decided against sig-nage for different reasons — Greenstein believes mail is more effective, given a limited budget. Walzer, on the other hand, said it is more important to engage voters in person. A sign cannot clearly convey issues that are important to the campaign, Walzer said, and offer little more than the name of the candidate. Walzer claims he’s spoken to hundreds of voters through door-to-door canvassing since September. “I knock on people’s doors and actually engage in the issues,” he said. “I think that is what politics is all about.” FREE TO BE YOU AND ME The placement of campaign signs is not the free-for-all many commuters might suspect. The city’s Municipal Code limits sign placement to private property. Any sign on public property, such as traffic medians and lamp posts, can be removed by the city, said Assistant City Clerk Beth Sanchez. The City Clerk’s Office has received complaints in the past few weeks of signs being placed improperly on public property. The calls are referred to various city departments, which then radio to employees out in the field to investigate the complaint. If the sign is placed in violation, they are confiscated and placed at an undisclosed location for the candidates to retrieve. There is no fine for violating the code. Sanchez declined to name the city departments, asking that the public only contact the City Clerk’s Office if they have a complaint. Some of the signs that appeared this weekend disappeared soon after. Signs supporting City Council candidates Terry O’Day and Bob Holbrook were placed on a traffic median along Fourth Street near Pico Boulevard. By noon on Monday, they were all gone. Santa Monicans for Sensible Priorities, a newcomer to the political scene, sponsored the signs for Holbrook and O’Day — two of the candidates it is supporting this year. The slate is a newcomer to the political scene in Santa Monica and sees itself as an alternative to Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights, the ruling party. Seth Jacobson, an SMSP spokesman, said approximately 30 of the 350 signs have gone missing, feeling they were either stolen by opposing campaigns or confiscated by the city for being in violation of the municipal code. Jacobson said he was aware the city could take down any signs placed on a median. “But they’ve been indiscriminate,”Jacobson said of the city. Holbrook said the signs he has paid for has a red bullet and are printed in black and white. “Anything else, I haven’t put up or know about,” Holbrook said. “My signs are all on private property with permission of property owners.” Several campaigns have spoken out against the illegal sign placement and say the tactic is unfair and in poor taste. “I think that’s a desperate move,” said City Council candidate Terence Later. One location that Later criticized specifically was at 20th Street and Delaware Avenue, where several SMSP signs hang on a chain-link fence surrounding a small field. The fence abuts an apartment complex on 20th Street. It is not clear whether the fence is considered private or public property. SIGNS OF A BACKLASH The illegal placement could result negatively for the code-breaking candidates come Election Day. Jennifer Polhemus, of Santa Monica, said she would never vote for a candidate who knowingly posted their sign illegally. “However, in this case, they’re all sponsored by Santa Monicans for Sensible Priorities and I wasn’t planning on supporting its candidates anyway,” Polhemus said. McKeown said some of the signs appeared to be professionally hung, but the offending candidates should still take responsibility. “Placed appropriately on private property with permission, lawn signs are deliciously retro, harkening back to old-style neighborhood campaigning,” McKeown said. “When they are irresponsibly and indiscriminately stuck on chain-link fences and road medians, though, they’re disrespectful visual blight.” BUSINESSES SHOW THEIR SUPPORT Pye does have one sign in Santa Monica. It was made by children and hangs in a crafts store on Ocean Park Boulevard. The sign asks for the public to vote for Kelly Pye and has a picture of a pie, an obvious play on her name. It hangs in the window at Crafts Around the Corner. Owner Lonnie Martinez knows Pye through Will Rogers Elementary School, where she is also an art director. “A lot of kids came in one day wearing Kelly Pye stickers and they all started making signs,” Martinez said. Martinez said she is not concerned about isolating customers who support Pye’s opponents because she has already established a loyal clientele. Many of the candidates say they have or are planning to place signs in businesses. Kronovet said he has placed signs in several motels and in Poptsis Realty, where he once worked as a property manager. George Poptsis said he had enough confidence in Kronovet to put a sign outside the office on Seventh Street. “I’m not concerned what anyone else thinks,” Poptsis said. “If I didn’t like him, I wouldn’t do it.” *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 25, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/102506.pdf?ref=smdp.com)