With the general election less than two weeks away and early voting in progress, both Republican and Democrat campaigns are giving it their all, including a local group of less than 10 who are setting up roadside campaign signs.
Former Nye County Republican Central Committee Chairman Joe Burdzinski and his team are a part of the Trump Force 47, an official campaign committee to re-elect former President Donald J. Trump. Burdzinski and other Pahrump residents have noticed that something has been happening to their campaign signs.
Many of the Trump signs installed by the campaign were found knocked over with tire tread marks or in pieces, while other signs were nowhere to be found. For over three weeks, the team has been going out every day to check on their signs and replace the damaged ones.
So far over 50 signs have either been damaged or taken and a police report has been filed with the Nye County Sheriff’s Office, according to Burdzinski.
“In one day there were 22 signs that were knocked down,” Burdzinski said. “You can tell they were knocked down because they had tire marks on them.”
Unrattled Trump support
Burdzinski is disappointed and believes this is a new level of temperament between the two political parties which should be toned down.
“They’re removing the signs hoping that would discourage the Trump supporters because they won’t see the signs up,” he said. “In reality, all it’s done is made the Trump supporters more strong and committed to voting for (former) President Trump because they know someone is intentionally taking the signs down.”
Nye County is a deep Republican area of Nevada where Republican voter registrations lead the county over Democrats by nearly 30 percent.
The team is dedicated to supporting Trump’s campaign as they have driven to Las Vegas and back over 15 times to bring back replacement signs to Pahrump.
“I would not at all be surprised if people that are coming to destroy the signs are probably coming in from Vegas,” Burdzinski said. But no one has seen who has been responsible for the destruction. However, he doesn’t believe this is the actions of all Democrats. “It’s a radical few that ruin it for everybody,” he surmises.
Burdzinski manages a booth at the Bob Ruud Community Center that shares space with a Democrat booth and says they are respectful and have had no arguments. “That’s the way it should be,” he said. “We can have our different opinions, but that shouldn’t mean we hate or want to hurt or destroy the other person’s campaign or candidates.”
“We have a lot of very good people that live here in Pahrump and Nye County, whether they’re Democrat, Republican or Independent,” Burdzinski said. “And when we see signs being destroyed or real personal negative comments, that just hurts everybody, not just the candidate, but it hurts the system and the country.”
Contact Jimmy Romo at jromo@pvtimes.com. Follow @JimmyRomo.News on Instagram.