Candidate in need of sign watchman

Candidate for Public Regulatory Commission Derrith Watchman-Moore holds a campaign sign while her campaign manager, Kevin Mitchell, attaches it to a post along Highway 491 in Yah-Ta-Hey Wednesday. This is the third time Watchman-Moore has put signs up on the highway between Yah-Ta-Hey and Tohatchi because someone keeps removing them. [Photo by John A. Bowersmith/Independent]

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Maybe there is someone out there who thinks Derrith Watchman-Moore signs will some day become a collector's item.

Watchman-Moore, who is running for the New Mexico Public Regulatory Commission, is wondering what's behind her missing signs.

So far, she said, 10 of the signs she has put up between Gallup and Naschitti have been taken down and it seems to occur on Tuesday and Wednesday nights for some reason.

This is Watchman-Moore's first effort at any political office; so she said she was surprized when she started getting phone calls from her supporters telling her that her signs which just give her name and the position she is running for have been disappearing from the landscape.

Whoever is doing it isn't having an easy time of it, she said, since the signs are being placed on hills and dug in about two feet. But whoever is doing it, she said, is persistent. She puts up a sign, which is then taken down, and when she puts up another sign, that sign eventually disappears.

She said this is becoming frustrating since the signs are expensive and it takes about four hours to prepare each one, not counting the time and expense it takes to drive to the location and set them in the ground.

Rick Palochak, the McKinley County election chief, said he has heard reports that Carol Sloan, who is also running for the Public Regulatory Commission, is having the same problem.

Watchman-Moore said she understands that because this is a state race, persons who deface or remove the signs of candidates are breaking a state law.

Palochak said his office doesn't enforce laws dealing with signs and said that the agency that deals with this is probably the county sheriff's office.

As for Watchman-Moore, she was back on State Highway 491 Wednesday afternoon putting up 14 new signs and hoping that this time, they stay put.

"This is the third time I have put up signs here," she said, adding that the stretch between Gallup and Naschitti are key areas for her election effort.

If these are taken down, she said she plans to put more up and will continue to do so until the persons responsible give up.

"The signs are being taken down in the night; so maybe I'll have to camp out and see who is responsible," she said.