SIGNING OFF… Squid’s favorite part of campaign season, tentacles down, is the reality-TV-worthy drama that always crops up with the campaign signs.


Note the 5th District county supes’ race. Incumbent Dave Potter’s team has been moaning about Carmelita Garcia and Marc Del Piero signs, which they say have been illegally posted on telephone poles, road medians and county rights of way. 


Garcia’s signs have been cropping up all over P.G. for the past month, despite a city law forbidding political signage until six weeks before the election (April 24). Ironic, considering she’s the P.G. mayor.


“Potter’s campaign follows the code and ordinances,” one Potter aide whines. “When other candidates don’t follow them it makes us all look bad.”


But premature Potter signs have been just as prolific. P.G. staff say they’ve been pulling up signs for both Carmelita and Dave – a few more for Dave, in fact.


Potter takes the high road about his Pagrovian opponent. Almost. “I don’t want to say anything derogatory about her,” he says. “She’s certainly got a couple of douchebags working for her.”


STRANGE BEDFELLOWS… Almost as fun as sign wars: endorsements. And while Supervisor Jane Parker was camped out with a camera crew in front of the Cherry Bean in Oldtown Salinas last Tuesday morning, waiting for business supporters to show up to shoot a commercial (print company owner Tom Martella and Action Council chief Larry Imwalle eventually wandered onto the set), Squid’s colleagues were poring over the endorsement list of Parker’s opponent, Byrl Smith, if for no other reason than, well, it’s one hell of a list! 


Smith has backing from a who’s-who of power players, from “retired” Seaside Police Chief Steve Cercone and ex-Seaside councilman Darryl Choates to political shot-caller/construction company gazillionaire Don Chapin and Monterey Mayor Chuck Della Sala. But in a very long list, there were just a couple of names that didn’t ring true. Terry Uchida, the apolitical best friend of Weekly editor Mary Duan, says Smith is probably a nice person, but has no clue why her name is on it. Rebecca Barrymore, the somewhat apolitical head of the Forest Theater Guild, says she may have met Smith once, but doesn’t know what she might stand for. Herald writer Mac McDonald also was unaware of his presence on the list: “It’s not that I don’t like Byrl, I just have to remove myself from anything connected to politics/campaigns for obvious reasons,” he emails. “Not sure how my name got on the list.” Asked about the entries, campaign coordinator Rick Taylor sniffs: “I think we have 700-plus endorsements. I will do my best to figure out why these three are on the list.”