UPDATED – FRANKFORT – Call it a good old-fashioned “who done it,” with part comedy and all Kentucky politics, as one campaign alleges their foe in the fall election is lifting yard signs.
In the open seat 20th Senate District race more than a dozen of Gex “Jay” Williams signs have disappeared from Michael Davenport Blvd. in Frankfort, Kentucky in recent weeks and the campaign says it’s their Democratic competitor Teresa Barton who is caught red-handed removing the signage.
After multiple signs disappeared a Williams campaign volunteer placed a spy camera to catch the culprit.
On the night of September 13 at 7:54 PM, after two signs were placed that day, the camera captured multiple photos of someone resembling Teresa Barton getting out of a vehicle and removing the signs for Gex Williams. An image shows the woman carrying away Gex’s sign as she returns to her vehicle.
On the night of September 20 at 8:46 PM, after signs were placed that day at that location again, the camera once again captured multiple photos of the same woman resembling Barton removing a Gex Williams sign.
“This campaign should be about the issues affecting Kentucky families right now – Joe Biden’s runaway inflation, high gas and energy prices, the change we need to get Kentucky back on the right track,” Gex Williams told Kentucky Fried Politics. “Our supporters gave money so we could get signs, they volunteered their time to put them up, only to see Barton on camera taking them – it’s not what I expected. We’ve had hundreds of dollars’ worth of signs stolen. I hope she will return them and have the integrity to campaign on the issues and not by stealing signs.”
Last week, Williams campaign made a complaint to the Kentucky State Police about the theft of the signs. Multiple other signs were also stolen in Frankfort, which they estimate to be worth at least $500.
Barton said she had permission to put her sign in the area, and that Williams did not have permission at the time. Barton said her lawyer told her she could remove the sign which was zip tied to her sign.
“I removed one sign that was attached to mine,” she said. The Williams campaign says they attached the sign to Barton’s after the sign in that location had been removed multiple times. Barton says “I couldn’t tell you,” when asked about removing the sign more than once.
“I don’t call the state police and waste their time on just campaign stunts, that’s just ridiculous,” she said. “What has happened is someone tried to break into our truck in the driveway.”
Barton says her car has been damaged, though she did not claim that was Williams campaign – though she said she wonders if it isn’t associated to the campaign.
“When all these things have occurred in a week you can’t help but wonder,” she said.
Barton is also frustrated with the campaign Williams is running, and where he is placing his sign. They’re in the right of way, she said, which is illegal.
“It’s very unfortunate that there is zero integrity in his campaign,” Barton said.
“I’ve been told that he pays people to put the signs out, because they’re in every right of way,” Barton continued discussing Williams signs. “They’re all illegal. They’re in intersections. I woke up one morning he had them at all four intersections, one was a school, one was a hospital – which I serve on the hospital board, one was a nursing home, one was an apartment complex. I mean who does this? It’s trash.”
Kentuckians will cast their ballot for the next senator to represent Franklin, Owen, Gallatin, Carroll, Boone, and Kenton counties in November.
