CLEVELAND, Tenn. — A Bradley County Commission candidate has accused his incumbent opponent of “orchestrating” the removal of some of his political signs.
Adam Lowe, a candidate for one of two 4th District commission seats in the May 4 Republican primary, said Sunday at a news conference on the courthouse steps that incumbent Commissioner Jim Smith had some signs removed.
Mr. Smith said Sunday an elderly property owner asked him to remove Mr. Lowe’s signs from his property. Mr. Smith said he told the man he could not do so. He asked a supporter to take up the sign and lay it in the yard.
The supporter did so, but then took up some more on other properties.
The supporter, who faces no charges, said he simply got carried away. He said he apologized and offered to replace the other signs.
“It’s politics as usual,” Mr. Smith said.
Mr. Smith said he told Mr. Lowe on Saturday that the property owner wanted the sign taken down.
“The only thing I am guilty of is having a friend thinking he was helping me by taking down the others,” Mr. Smith said.
Mr. Lowe said one of his supporters called him Saturday about 10 a.m. after witnessing someone take down a four-foot-by-four-foot campaign sign near Oak Grove Elementary School. Mr. Lowe said he rushed over from his home nearby and found other signs missing.
He said he called the sheriff’s department and returned to the first site only to find someone “tossing our signs to the side of the road. I video recorded an exchange between myself and the individual in which he first lied, saying that I had personally given him permission to take the signs down.
“Mr. Smith has since confessed to me in the presence of several witnesses that he is ‘responsible’ for what happened yet offered little remorse,” Mr. Lowe said.
“Someone might steal our signs, but they will not steal this election,” Mr. Lowe stated.
Mr. Lowe said Mr. Smith “would rather run a campaign focused on removing my signs rather than a campaign of finding more folks willing to put his up.”
He also said Mr. Smith plans “to stick to his promise that he made in a fall commission meeting last year where he stated he could ‘play politics with the best of them … the good kind and the bad kind.'”
Four candidates are seeking the two commission seats in the Fourth District. They are T. Stacy Hayes, Adam Lowe, Jim Smith and fellow incumbent Howard Thompson. There are no Democrats seeking those seats, so whoever wins the Republican primary wins the election.