Crime & Safety

House Candidates from Woodbury Condemn Theft of Political Signs

The two 53B candidates considered sending out a joint statement, incumbent says.

They may have diverging views of how to run the state, but there’s one thing two House candidates from Woodbury can agree upon: the theft of political signs is getting frustrating.

Both Andrea Kieffer and Ann Marie Metzger say 40-50 of their lawn signs have been stolen recently.

     

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But it’s not simply the fact that they’ve been stolen that’s so troublesome—it’s that the thefts seems to be so well orchestrated.

“Methodical” is how Kieffer, the Republican incumbent, put it.

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“I think that’s the difference this time around,” she said, adding that signs have been stolen from entire blocks at a time.

Kieffer said she assumes it’s kids pulling pranks.

“Whoever is doing this might not realize that they’re breaking the law,” she said. “We can’t just turn a blind eye to bad behavior.”

Dennis Schneider, Metzger’s campaign manager, said there has been a pattern to the thefts and it may not be young people messing around.

“It seems too systematic,” he said.

Both Kieffer and Metzger—the DFL challenger—said the thefts take away attention from the issues.

“I believe Andrea Kieffer will agree with me that we would prefer to spend our time this campaign season meeting voters, rather than replacing stolen lawn signs,” Metzger said. “But let us be clear: Stealing a lawn sign is theft. And I join Andrea in condemning this behavior and urging any homeowner who has a lawn sign stolen to report it to the police immediately.”

Neither side seems to be targeted more than the other, Kieffer said, and she encouraged those whose signs are taken to call police.

Schneider said he’s been involved in campaigns for years, but it seems worse this year.


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