“Just as the campaign season begins in earnest, reports are reaching us that not all candidates (or supporters of candidates) are playing by the rules. A few gentle reminders are in order: Campaign signs may be placed on private property only. Public property is off limits. Plus, you need permission of the property owner to post the sign. A campaign sign on private property should be respected. Tearing it down, defacing it, or stealing it violates property and campaign laws. Don’t mess with a candidate’s campaign signs. Flyers. It is illegal to place campaign flyers (or anything except U.S. Mail) in a mailbox. Campaign materials also may not be placed in the Herald’s (or any other newspaper’s) newspaper tubes. The tubes may only be used for newspapers. Even veteran campaigners and their supporters make mistakes. State Senator Betti Sheldon’s campaign materials showed up in North Kitsap Herald tubes this week. When we called her to report the infraction, Sheldon’s response was candid, Oh my gosh, we did do that. Quite honestly, we didn’t know it was wrong, or if we did know we forgot. That won’t happen again. Unfortunately, some campaign mistakes are not accidents or oversights. A Poulsbo woman is convinced that the bag of excrement that was burned on her porch this week is directly related to the campaign signs in her yard. She was upset enough by the incident to remove her campaign signs. If we’ve sunk to that level of dirty campaigning in North Kitsap, we should be vigilant about what could lie ahead. Let’s campaign enthusiastically and fairly. Dirty tactics have no place in our community. “