Who's Taking Campaign Signs In Brick? One Candidate's Video Could Answer That

As the final days of the 2015 election season wind down, the barbs and criticisms have flown heavily among the candidates for both the Brick Township Council and the Brick Township Board of Education.

But two candidates say they have been singled out in a different way -- and one says he has surveillance video to back it up.

Both Victor Finamore, candidate for the Board of Education, and Bob Moore, a sitting councilman who’s running for re-election as an independent, say campaign signs they put out last week were removed. Both men said their signs were placed among groups of campaign signs that already had been posted in spots around town, and that only their signs had been removed from those spots.

Moore said he believes he can identify the person who did it, because he has surveillance video taken at one spot that captured the person walking up, looking around, and removing Moore’s sign, he said.

He declined to identify the culprit or share the video with the Patch at this time.

Finamore and Moore both said the signs were removed overnight Friday night into Saturday morning.

In other towns where campaign signs have been removed, candidates have filed theft charges against those responsible. In Holmdel last year, six men were charged with theft, accused of stealing the campaign signs of two women who were candidates for the Township Committee there.

Finamore, who moved to Brick Township in 2003 and is a member of the local Republican Club -- though the school board elections are strictly nonpartisan -- said he has no plans to file a police complaint over the removal of all of his signs, which he had placed so they were among groups of signs already posted.

“The police have drug dealers to catch and better things to do,” he said. “I expected this. It would have been nice if they had lasted at least a week, though.”

Moore, who filed as an independent after a falling out with the township’s Democratic Club left him off the ballot for the council, was still debating how he would proceed. He said more signs have been put out to replace those that were removed.

“I prefer to deal with people face to face,” he said, explaining why he was not willing to release the video at this time. “If you have a problem with me, come talk to me and let’s work it out.”