The Sign Vigilantes Are After Juan Ciscomani!

And there are a LOT of them

Photos by author and courtesy of the Unseat Ciscomani Team

You don’t have to be a political junkie to notice when it’s campaign time in Tucson. The signs for or against candidates or ballot propositions start to overwhelm busy street corners. First, the candidates’ campaign committees erect theirs, bringing windfall profits to sign-making companies and comfortable revenue bumps to hardware outlets that sell steel reinforcing rods (“rebar”) and plastic zip ties to hold the signs to the rebar. Those signs have disclaimer phrases at the bottom, something like “Paid for by the Committee to Elect So and So.”

The JoAnna Mendoza and Juan Ciscomani campaigns have put up hundreds around the Sixth Congressional District, his a suspiciously Democratic-looking solid dark blue (he does like to think of himself as a “bipartisan” Republican), hers a gorgeous display of color, with an outline of Picacho Peak and a red sunrise peeking around the top of the mountain (the dawn of a Democratic era in the Sixth?), on a bright yellow background. Those are the signs voters expect to see as they motor around our streets.

But then the fun begins as other groups or individuals weigh in with their own displays, knocking the opposition. We call them the “Sign Vigilantes.” They’re not a part of anyone’s campaign, but they want to see their version of political justice done. Here the score is definitely running against Ciscomani.

Observe the two at the top of this article: “Juan + Donald” reinforces the idea that Ciscomani, for all his claims to the contrary, is a Congressional lackey, voting for Trump’s worst executive dictates. Those showed up early in the sign wars, when conflict on the street was relatively subdued.

“Liar!” is where the anti-Ciscomani faction stands now, since the Ciscomani campaign,  not his supporters, stuck up a second round of signs. In contrast to his rather attractive originals, these are a yellow that resembles the color of a healthy urine specimen.  They accuse Mendoza of offenses that, as the mainstream press often writes about Trump’s increasingly unhinged public utterances, are “not supported by facts.”

As the campaign has heated up, the Pima County Democratic Committee has put up two signs we’ve seen, shown above. The one on the left hitches Ciscomani to MAGA, a good summary of his Congressional voting record. The second, much tougher and showing up after his yellow signs, ties him and gubernatorial candidate Andy Biggs, currently a sitting GOP Congressman, to a particular vote against releasing the Epstein files.

Meanwhile, out on the streets, non-affiliated organizations and individuals have planted these signs at their own expense, further linking Ciscomani to Donald Trump.

And now two pro-Mendoza political action committee, the Save Democracy PAC and the Meet the Moment PAC, have gotten into the act.

Local Democrats, pro-Democratic party PACs, and private Pima County residents are spending time and money to defeat Rep. Juan Ciscomani, who, if the sign wars are any example, has nobody to go to bat for him.