The Mountain Xpress published a good story on the vandalism of a Republican billboard, put up by The Action Club of Buncombe County.
At a press conference today, Buncombe County Republican officials and activists criticized the defacing of a “Vote Republican” billboard, which was spray-painted with “Drop bombs on families!!!?”
The billboard, at the intersection of Patton and Clingman avenues in downtown Asheville, originally read “Change the Culture of Corruption in N.C.” above a checked box stating “Vote Republican.” It was paid for by the Buncombe County Republican Action Club. Kathy Lack, the club’s chair, said the vandalism constituted an attack on free speech and was emblematic of the Democratic Party.
“This billboard was put up by the Buncombe County Republican Action Club to express a political opinion, and today our right to free speech was stolen,” Lack said. “It appears that the Democrat Party doesn’t believe the Republicans have the right to free speech.
“Really, what do we expect? The Democrat Party has been in power in North Carolina for over 100 years and they’ve done that through controlling the right to free speech. They use scare tactics to keep from saying things not in line with what they want. It’s common knowledge that people who want government jobs need to be a Democrat or at least pretend to be a Democrat,” Lack continued. “We put this billboard up with our own money, and they stole it for their use — they basically took away our right. Are those the kind of people we want to keep sending back to Raleigh and put in government positions?”
She took issue with the content of the spray-painted message, noting that the billboard was aimed at “state government, which has nothing to do whatsoever with the war.”
Read the full story at Mountain Xpress.
