BlogaBarbara

Santa Barbara Politics, Media & Culture

Friday, October 31, 2008

A History of Dirty Tricks?

A reader sent the following images from a MySpace page claiming that this is State Senate candidate Tony Strickland -- one picture clearly shows him very happy that he had stolen a few lawn signs during a political campaign. It certainly looks like him.

Years later -- perhaps his tactics and techniques have gotten a bit more sophisticated with mailers which prey on Proposition 13 fears and call other candidates names.

Unfortunately, the lower level dirty trick of stealing lawn signs will always be around. Candidate wives even do it too (although the following might have been a misunderstanding).

I got this from a different reader about the race in Goleta (with an appropriate YABBADABBA):
I was at the Storke Drive-In dropping off signs for John to put on the pole and I was talking to the guys working on the driveway. They told me a woman in a Bronze Honda SUV had come and taken the signs on Tuesday. As we were talking, the van pulled up and I walked toward my car and the SUV. I was going to get paper to write down her license number. She got out of the car and I said I understood she had taken our signs. She said she had permission to have signs there and we didn't so she was removing them. I explained that John had given us permission and that she was stealing. She said she only checked on the Drive-In and across from Costco. She asked my name and I told her and asked hers. It was Don's wife Deanna Gilman. The guys told me afterwards that she had also taken down the signs at the gas station on Hollister. The guys wrote down her license for me. It is YABBADABBA. The guys will be working the rest of this week and Monday of next so we should be safe during the day.

John came by and I told him she said she was going to call him to check that we had his okay. Neither he nor I expect that to happen. I guess they don't have any help and have to do it all themselves.


They are talking about the property owner of the gas station on Fairview who also owns the old drive-in property across from Home Depot on Storke. Deanna Gilman should probably check before she chucks...

Labels: , ,

9 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

We've had "No on 8" signs stolen from the front of our house -- our solution: every time they are stolen, we replace them with double the number.

10/31/2008 8:02 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The detailed story is at Calitics

http://calitics.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=7339

(a live link would be nice, Sara)

10/31/2008 11:10 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm no fan of Tony Strickland, but I think it's unethical to run a photo that someone claims is him showing signs he has allegedly stolen.

Can you prove this is Tony Strickland and can you prove these are campaign signs that he stole?

If not, I think both the post and the photo should be removed.

10/31/2008 12:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sara:

You might want to rethink this post, YABBADABBA is to many letters to be a license plate. So either someone was playing with you, or the driveway guys didnt like your "source".

You should just take the post down until you find out what is actually up and you might think twice about posting things until you do some fact checking. I mean if I send you something that says Marty Blum and Wendy McCaw were at the zoo beating the monkeys would you just throw that one up?

As for whether or not Strickland stole the sign as you state do you know if that is true? Seriously if you are going to blog do some research before you post allegations that you dont know if they are true or not.

Whats the next posting going to be Obama is a Muslim?

10/31/2008 6:37 PM  
Blogger Sara De la Guerra said...

David -- I can't edit your comment but the link would be http://calitics.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=7339

I didn't know about that post before I did this one...

10/31/2008 8:24 PM  
Blogger Sara De la Guerra said...

Frequent Reader -- I said "claims" and that it "looks like him" but made no representations, the link that follows shows him with a room full of signs with a foolish grin on his face, and now the post above points to a book where the pic was published. I think I am safe there...

10/31/2008 8:56 PM  
Blogger Sara De la Guerra said...

Chupacabra -- same goes here.

I point out that it might have been a misunderstanding and point out that I got the information from a reader -- which means take it as you will! YABBADABBA was never meant to be the exact letters of the license plate -- I put that in as the numbers weren't necessary and more information than any reader would need.

I've used YABBADABBA for a couple of years now and it was never meant in the way you suggest.

10/31/2008 8:57 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

my apology then...

10/31/2008 9:42 PM  
Blogger Sara De la Guerra said...

Thanks for saying that -- I try to be careful :)

11/01/2008 5:58 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home