Political lawns signs sprouting up in Barrington
Parties break long-standing agreement to ban lawn signs in town
The deal is dead — bring on the lawn signs.
A long-standing "gentlemen's agreement" between the two major political parties in Barrington to not use lawn signs came to an end late last month, after a sign for Republican candidate Jimmy Kazounis popped up at the corner of Primrose Hill Road and Route 114 South.
Mr. Kazounis, who is running against Democrat Cindy Coyne for the Senate District 32 seat, said he was very surprised to see his opponent's party react the way it did to the sign.
"As a first time candidate, I am absolutely shocked that one lawn sign on the corner of Primrose would cause the uproar that it has," Mr. Kazounis said during a recent interview.
"The depths that some political candidates will go to, the argument they will make, it's ridiculous."
Mr. Kazounis works as a plumber and said one of his customers asked if he could put a sign up supporting the Republican candidate. Mr. Kazounis said he tried to talk his customer out of it, but the supporter was intent on placing the sign along the roadway.
June Speakman, the head of the Barrington Democratic Town Committee, said she heard about the sign shortly after it was installed. Ms. Speakman said she contacted the former head of the town's Republican party, Geoff Grove, and alerted him to the situation.
"He wrote me an email in which he said they had an extensive discussion and would not be abiding with the agreement," Ms. Speakman said, adding that further discussions with members of the Barrington Republican Town Committee confirmed that the gentlemen's agreement was null and void.
Ms. Speakman called Ms. Coyne and shared the news of the situation.
"I told Cindy they're not taking their signs down. Feel free to do what you want," said Ms. Speakman.
Mr. Kazounis said he plans to increase the number of his lawn signs in Barrington — he already has many signs in East Providence and Bristol, which comprise part of District 32.
"Given the state of affairs in Rhode Island, the bottom of the country business ranking for the state, given the 38 Studios debacle, perhaps if the majority party in this state would spend more time on those issues and less time on yard signs we may be able to find ourselves in a better position," he said.
Ms. Speakman said her party was simply reacting to the Republican's breach of the agreement.
"It's sort of like, who fired first?" said Ms. Speakman. "If we see Republicans signs coming up, it's likely we will answer with signs."
