Updated, 11:48 a.m., comment from John Kydes.
NORWALK, Conn. – Finally! A scandal in this Norwalk municipal election cycle – the East Norwalk campaign sign caper.
An unusual number of campaign signs have disappeared in that part of town, according to both local Republican and Democratic party chair people. Republican Town Committee Chairman Art Scialabba has taken the matter particularly seriously, having taken the time to go to Norwalk Police headquarters Wednesday to file a criminal complaint.
“Should the Norwalk Police find the person or persons illegally taking our signs – we plan to press charges,” Scialabba said in a press release.
This is no laughing matter. The RTC has lost about $1,000 in signs, Scialabba said.
“We expect to lose a couple of signs here and there, but this election season it seems that it has been an organized and deliberate attempt to steal as many ‘Moccia for Mayor’ lawn signs as they can, off the property of our of supporters. This election season is the worst we’ve seen, losing more signs this year than all of my years as Town Chairman combined,” said Scialabba, RTC chair since 2002, in the release. “By our calculations, we have lost upwards of 150 signs throughout the city, but with a higher loss rate in East Norwalk. Signs cost campaigns anywhere from $6 to $8 each, and having to reorder signs boosts up the cost per sign even more.”
Police Chief Thomas Kulhawik said he wasn’t at headquarters Wednesday but that Deputy Chief Wrinn had confirmed that sign thefts are a focus of concern for police.
“Apparently it has been focused in East Norwalk and targeting Republican signs for the mayor,” he said in an email. “He has alerted our patrols to the issue. We have not received any similar complaint on Democrat signs as of this time so info is based upon what has been reported to us. It has been common during election time for complaints on signs being removed to be reported to the police. We will investigate any leads etc and as noted have alerted officers of the problem so they can be alerted.”
A spokesperson for Norwalk’s currently pre-eminent Democrat said no complaint would be made from their side.
“Like any campaign, the Rilling campaign has had many signs go missing from private property,” Harry Rilling for Mayor Campaign Manager Kevin Coughlin said in an email. “However, we have chosen to replace the signs when they are reported stolen instead of requesting the limited resources of Norwalk’s police department.”
DTC Chairwoman Amanda Brown said many Democratic signs have disappeared in East Norwalk as well, especially those advertising Common Council candidate John Kydes.
Kydes is popular in heavily Republican East Norwalk, making him a formidable candidate, reliable sources say.
“This is an interesting situation,” Brown said in an email.
“Kydes signs loss not related to our signs being stolen but imagine that some people may have removed his signs because he didn’t get permission to place them in their yards,” Scialabba said in an email. “We know this to be a fact.”
Kydes denied that.
“I have lost a considerable amount of signs in the last month but I have noticed that since more signs have been put out by other candidates, my losses have decreased,” he said in an email. “I personally know and have gotten permission from every resident who has a yard sign. I have a limited amount of signs and I did not want to take any chances of getting them thrown out because I did not have permission.”
Another Democrat, who chose to be anonymous, returned an inquiry with a reference to Tuesday’s Democratic unity press conference.
“It didn’t take long after the Democrats got some good press for working together in a positive way for Art to break out charges of bad behavior,” the candidate said. “We all lost a lot of signs this year, but the Democrats are focused on the future of Norwalk, not petty politics.”
Then there’s this thought from another nameless Dem: There never were that many Moccia campaign signs to begin with, especially in East Norwalk. He asked: Might this be a sneaky way to explain the situation?
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