Carl Gatto Takes Over Diane Benson's Signpost

I made this large signpost back in late June. Here it was then, at the corner of Trunk Road and the Palmer-Wasilla Highway.


In early August, somebody came through one night and cut down almost all the political campaign signs on both sides of that busy intersection. Whoever it was destroyed signs from both political parties.

I checked out the scene then, noticing that whoever it was, had cleanly ripped away everything with something like a linoleum cutting knife.

This afternoon, I drove through the intersection, and lo and behold, the Republicans have started putting their signs back up. Carl Gatto is in a very tight, perhaps losing primary race, against wingnut David Parks. He put up a small sign a few days back on the north side of Palmer-Wasilla Highway, and had replaced it with a 3-foot by 6-foot sign today.

But my big surprise, was seeing my Diane Benson sign stand back up on the south side, with a Carl Gatto sign attached.

I called Carl when I got home. I'm a constituent, and our sons played on the same basketball teams - often coached by State Sen. Charlie Huggins - for years.

I explained that the stand had been Diane's and that I've been waiting to see if people started putting signs back up there. He said he had just taken the stand over an hour or so earlier. He said he had thought it had been a Linda Menard stand.

We agreed to do a sign switch together tomorrow morning.

Update - Friday 9:00 a.m: Carl and I switched the signs on the signpost. He and his wife were out there, waving and carrying signs.

We talked for about 45 minutes about how our kids are doing, and about Alaska politics.

Here's a picture of the new sign.