LYNN — In an effort to shed light upon an ongoing problem, candidate for Ward 2 City Councilor Elizabeth Figueroa posted videos and images to Facebook of her campaign signs being stolen from lawns.
Figueroa accompanied this post saying “it seems some within Lynn are on a mission to remove our @elizabethforlynn yard signs,” and asked people to repost the images to find out who was at fault.
“I am so disappointed with their games, they don’t have any plans to take us/our city seriously,” Figueroa said in the post. “Enough is enough… It’s 48 days until the primary. Fair is fair, if you can’t play fair, it shows your true character.”
Following this post, Ward 2 Rick Starbard said he thought it was implying people from his campaign were stealing the signs because of a similar post by candidate for Ward 4 councilor Natasha Megie-Maddrey regarding the same issue last week.
Megie-Maddrey posted on Facebook saying she put two signs at a couple’s home and drove by shortly after to see that both her signs were gone, but her competitor’s sign — Richard Colucci — remained in place.
“Can we have a fair fight? I’m all set with dirty politics,” she said in the post. “Fair is fair. If you can’t play fair, maybe it’s time for you to get out of office.”
Given the context of this post, Starbard said Figueroa’s was very similar, which is why he assumed she was implying his campaign was responsible for stealing her signs.
He posted on his page that he had nothing to do with the stealing of these signs and would never do something like that.
“If someone is going to imply something like that about me, they better be able to back it up,” Starbard said. “We all lose signs. It’s part of every campaign. I think it’s mostly kids but it appears to me like she is using it for fundraising.”
Starbard said he only posted something about the incidents because people started sharing Figueroa’s post and implying that he was to blame for the stolen signs.
“This is kids stuff but once people started sharing it all over, I felt I had to say something,” Starbard said.
Following the comments and shares regarding the stolen signs and Starbard’s campaign, Figueroa said her intentions weren’t meant to be directed towards her competitor.
“My post had been a poor choice of words,” she said.
Figueroa said she was disappointed in having been sent videos and photos of sign stealing, saying this was the third time she’s witnessed foul play regarding signs she’d put up within the community.
“I do not think Rick Starbard had anything to do with any of these situations, nor future situations at that,” she said. “I respect my competitor; I just don’t respect individuals like these.”
Figueroa messaged Starbard apologizing for the confusion.
Allysha Dunnigan can be reached at [email protected].
