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Soapbox Philosophy: Residents’ political signs tell interesting story
Op-Ed · October 23, 2024
Perhaps we are not as inundated with politics as we all think.
Yes, sarcasm.
But I’ve got some numbers to consider.
First, I bribed my longsuffering wife, Robin, with dinner out for her help driving the streets of West Branch and counting all of the political signs we could find.
According to Jessica Brown, deputy clerk of the City of West Branch, the Home of the Bears now includes approximately 1,000 homes, or “residential properties.”
Thank you for that number, Jessica, because it makes for easier math.
• 111 homes have political signs of some kind. That’s 11.1 percent of all West Branch residential properties.
• 87 homes had Democratic political signs, or 8.7 percent.
• 57 homes had signs in support of Kamala Harris, or 5.7 percent. (Hat-tip to the “Childless Cat Lady for Harris” for giving us a good chuckle.)
• 24 homes had signs supporting Republican candidates, or 2.4 percent.
• Nine homes posted Donald Trump signs, or 0.9 percent.
This isn’t a great comparison, but when I covered the Iowa caucuses for the first time in 2008, the participating Democrats outnumbered Republicans by almost exactly 4 to 1.
Looking at these yard signs in 2024, the participating Democrats outnumber Republicans by about 3.6 to 1.
In our tour of the town, we also broke the neighborhoods into sections:
• West-side families went for Democrats (32) over Republicans (9). This includes Golf View Heights, Greenview, The Meadows, Sagert Drive, Thomas Drive, Wetherell Street, West Orange, around Cedars Edge, and around Hoover Elementary and the old West Branch Middle School.
• East-side families went for Democrats (27) over Republicans (8). The east side includes homes east of Downey and north of Main streets.
• North-side families went for Democrats (12) over Republicans (3). The north side includes Downey Street, east of West Branch Municipal Cemetery, and north of West Orange Street.
• West Branch Village had the smallest difference between the two major parties, with Democrats (3) getting the nod over Republicans (1).
• South-side families, too, went for Democrats (5) over Republicans (0). The south side consisted of homes south of Main Street and east of South Downey Street, which includes the new Parkside Hills behind Parkside BP.
• Main Street, which is prime real estate for political signs, had 16 total signs, with 13 for Democrats and three for Republicans.
This road also had the largest signs, all for Republican Robert “Bobby” Kaufmann. He might get the nod if you’re looking only at square footage.
It is also interesting to note how many homes have Harris signs considering she replaced President Biden on the ticket on Aug. 6, two months before the Norfleets toured the town with pad and pen. How many folks simply took their Biden sign down and did not update their yard with a Harris sign?
Either way, the yard-sign industry made a bundle, as did the blue and red ink industries.
By the way, during our driving, we saw a lot of enjoyable Halloween decorations. When driving around at dusk, we got some confused with political signs. (Ha! I make joke!)
Also, the West Branch Times gets a lot of emails during election season. Normally, I get about 200 emails on a weekday and about 100 over the weekend, but political emails add between 100 and 150 per day.
I looked at emails over a 26-hour period about one month prior to the Nov. 5 election. I started around 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 2, and finished at 1 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 3. I planned to just look at a 24-hour period, but added those extra two hours just in case the campaigns forgot to hit “send” before heading to lunch.
Unlike West Branch, Republicans and their supporters dominated the electronic mail system, sending 115 emails while Democrats and their supporters “only” sent 23, a 5 to 1 difference.
Mercifully, Libertarians only sent one email.
A lot of the emails had nothing to do with either Iowa nor the presidential race. We received emails for candidates in Nevada, Arizona, Ohio, California, New York, and others. I never signed up for any of these, and I am bedeviled by Elise Stefanik and Sharrod Brown, the most frequent out-of-state politicians raining electronic messages on us.
At the time of this column’s publication, voters are 1 1/2 weeks away from Election Day. Hopefully, we can all hold up under the mass of politics until then.
Gregory R. Norfleet is the editor of the West Branch Times. You may reach him at gregory.norfleet@westbranchtimes.com or 319-643-2131.
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