An Arlington County Board candidate claims to have begun placing “tracking chips” in his campaign signs after he says many of them were stolen.
James DeVita, who is challenging incumbent Takis Karantonis in the Democratic primary, spent over $10,000 on campaign signs in March alone, according to campaign finance records.
He told ARLnow that he has installed 500 signs around Arlington. Of these, he says that at least 200 have vanished.
“Most people love my signs and I have had many voters tell me that they are going to vote for me simply because they like what they have read on my signs,” DeVita said. “Unfortunately, those who oppose me also recognize how effective the signs are and they have responded by stealing them.”
In response, the latest batch of signs come with a new message in small print at the bottom.
“Stealing this sign is an assault on the first amendment and the democratic principles upon which this nation was founded,” they say. “Plus, it has a tracking chip.”
DeVita’s signs have been a source of interest and amusement for many Arlington residents this voting cycle. In contrast to his competitor, whose signs simply ask voters to “Re-elect Takis,” the challenger’s signs focus on a variety of specific issues.
Several have significantly more text than a typical campaign sign.
“The Missing Middle will not create affordable housing!” one sign on N. George Mason Drive declares. “Prices for new units exceed one million dollars! Don’t put six unit condo buildings in single family neighborhoods.”
Reference to the county’s Expanded Housing Options is a common theme for DeVita’s signs. As of quarter four of 2024, only three Missing Middle projects were still active after a circuit court judge overturned the controversial zoning changes last September.
DeVita alleges that at least 30 of his signs vanished from Washington Blvd the night that he posted them. One of his signs, he noted, later appeared on S. Walter Reed Drive — but had been doctored to read, with the name misspelled, “Annex Shrlignton.”
An Arlington resident who goes by the handle “ArlingtonAF” claimed credit for the alteration but denied stealing any of DeVita’s signs. He said he found it on the ground after a storm, and has seen other campaign signs scattered around wooded areas in Arlington.
“Anything that is missing… to quote Bob Dylan, ‘You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows,'” the anonymous trickster told ARLnow.
As for the content of the signs, DeVita said, “I want my campaign signs to be different.”
“Anyone can put their name on a sign,” he said. “I want to be able to communicate with voters. I use my signs to let voters know what my positions are on the issues.”
DeVita has invested significantly more in his signage than Karantonis, who spent $4,533 on campaign signs in March.
Longtime state Sen. Barbara Favola (D), who walloped DeVita in the 2023 Democratic primary with 84% of the vote, told ARLnow that “I think it’s clear he is trying to communicate his message in as many ways as possible.”
“I give him credit for his efforts,” she said. “But I do not think that median signs with lots of verbiage on them [help] his cause. For example, his median signs can be a distraction to drivers who are curious enough to try to read the signs while they are driving.”
Favola suggested that they might be more appropriate in private yards, where visitors could read them.
Allegations of sign stealing are nothing new in Arlington, and neither are complaints about improperly placed signs. On any given median strip, the Arlington County Zoning Ordinance allows for no more than two signs per candidate or political issue.
Last October, Arlington County staff removed around 300 improperly placed signs.
