By MERILEE DANNEMANN
Triple Spaced Again
©2024 New Mexico News Services

A few years ago I supported a certain candidate for City Council. I displayed her yard sign in my front yard. She won the election, and she told me three of my neighbors had told her they voted for her because they saw my sign.

This year I have not put out any yard signs. A yard sign left over from the last election is gathering dust in the garage. I have not been approached by volunteers from any campaign asking me to put up a sign or offering to give me one. I think there’s a trend.

I am seeing fewer yard signs this year than in previous elections. Even a nearby household that displayed its Trump signs prominently four years ago has no signs this year. I’m wondering if voters are reluctant, this year, to put their politics on that kind of display.

There are still plenty of signs for local candidates in public spaces and especially in the legally permitted perimeter outside polling locations. That’s fine, but it’s not the same as a sign in front of someone’s home announcing that the people who live in that house endorse that candidate.

Some candidates are charging money for them – something previously unheard of, at least in New Mexico. Yard signs have now become “merch,” items for sale along with T-shirts and coffee mugs, emblazoned with the candidate’s name or logo.

Nella Domenici is offering yard signs in your choice of three colors for $20 apiece. You can coordinate the sign with your landscaping. Her page is even selling lapel buttons, another item that used to be a giveaway, at $10 for two.

Martin Heinrich’s yard sign costs $5 more than Domenici’s and comes with a detailed  product description, explaining that it is environmentally friendly, recyclable, made in the USA and union printed.

Yvette Herrell has gone in a different direction. Instead of asking voters to vote for her, the signs she’s selling (as well as hats, t-shirts and bumper stickers) say “God, Guns, Green Chile, Real New Mexico Values,” and don’t mention her name. That’s an unusual choice for a political campaign.

Gabe Vasquez’s merch also includes imaginative items, but they all mention “Gabe for Congress.” While he and Herrell have both used their dogs in their TV commercials, Vasquez wins the dog-lovers’ competition by having a dog bandanna for sale.

(I’m not trying to help anyone sell these things; it’s too late in the campaign for that.)

There’s a bigger concern about why there are fewer yard signs this year. Our politics have divided us as never before. 

I’m wondering whether some voters are worried about creating long-term enmity against neighbors who vote the other way – or even worse, that they might invite a rock through the window. Passions about this election have become so heated that that is not unrealistic.

I think something similar started happening to bumper stickers a while ago.

 Political bumper stickers are not common this year. It’s understandable. One insurance company study says cars with bumper stickers are more likely to incite discourteous behavior or even road rage than cars without, depending on how the other driver feels about a bumper sticker’s message, and when parked in public could also lead to that rock through the window.

Election Day is almost upon us.  I admit that when the election is over, if the candidates I prefer don’t win, I will probably still be angry. But I will try to remember – and I hope you will, as well – to focus that anger on the politicians who deserve it, not the neighbors across the street who voted the other way.

Contact Merilee Dannemann through www.triplespacedagain.com.