State House Candidate Ron Davis Accuses Opponent’s Campaign of Yard Sign Theft, Dreher Denies And Calls The Sign "Litter"

State House candidate Ron Davis is accusing his opponent Will Dreher’s campaign of stealing thousands of dollars of campaign yard signs — and over the weekend, they obtained video they believe proves it. 

However Dreher, who has reviewed the video, said the woman in the video is not the specific campaign staffer Davis's team alleges or anyone else on his team. Besides, Dreher believes the signs amount to "removable litter."

This yard sign fiasco is perhaps the penultimate installment in a bitter back-and-forth between the dueling challengers to Rep. Gerry Pollet’s 15 year reign in the 46th legislative district. The two have been duking it out on social media, in their mailers, and in text messages to voters for the last several days leading up to the election Tuesday Aug. 4.

Over the weekend, Davis’s team received video of a woman, who they believe is a paid staff for Dreher, removing two of Davis's yard signs.

"I understand signs are lost in every election, but this wasn't vandalism by some random passerby,” Davis told The Burner. “We have had thousands of dollars of campaign signs systematically ripped out in the last week. And now video shows it is Dreher's campaign staff. These signs were paid for by people here, in this neighborhood, not $225,000 in corporate defense and AI money from out of state.”

Davis added, “We'd like them back. Now."

The signs implores voters not to trust The Stranger’s endorsements. The Stranger’s* endorsements of Dreher in the 46th Legislative District and of longtime incumbent Sen. Jamie Pedersen in the 43rd raised questions about the independence of the paper’s once revered endorsements after wealthy politico Brady Walkinshaw bought it in 2024. Dreher described this as a "conspiracy theory [Davis] invented when he didn't get the Stranger's endorsement, and that not even he actually believes, which is something like 'Amazon controls the SECB.'"

"How sad - just explain why you're the better candidate!" Dreher wrote in an email.

At this time, The Burner will not be naming the specific campaign staffer Davis's campaign believes is shown in the video.

UPDATE 12:24pm: Davis's campaign also provided closer up video with a clearer shot of the woman's face. The Burner will not be posting up close images of the woman in the video or comparing it to a worker on Dreher's camapaign at this time.

Davis and his consultants told The Burner that this is not an isolated incident. Adam Tradii of Break Blue Strategies, a paid consultant on Davis’s campaign, told The Burner that candidates can expect to lose about 10% to 20% of their signs throughout a six month campaign. Tradii said he’s never before seen the kind of alleged theft Davis’s campaign has faced — an estimated 100 to 200 yard signs in the last two weeks. That adds up to “well over” $2,000 worth of damages. 

Typically, campaigns see their signs nabbed by the most fanatic supporters from their opponents, but to see paid staff participate in the bad sportsmanship would be a “completely different level” said C Good Strategy’s Matthew Lang, who was a paid consultant on Davis’s City Council campaign in 2023.

Davis’s campaign told The Burner they plan to file a police report and a complaint with the Public Disclosure Commission. 

Under state law, it is a misdemeanor offense to remove or deface a lawfully placed yard sign or other political advertisement. That “lawfully” placed part is important. Seattle law allows for yard signs on private property or on planting strips abutting private property, so long as the occupant approves. The law prohibits campaigns from propping up signs on any public property placement of campaign signs on all public property “including but not limited to: medians, boulevards, parks or public golf courses, greenbelts, rights of way to arterials or freeways, bridges or overpasses or planting strips that abut public property, such as schools, public buildings, parks or public golf courses.”

Dreher told The Burner that Davis has put up dozens, possibly hundreds of signs in the last week and "as far as we can tell always illegally, on public property or next to people's houses without their consent."

Dreher added, "People are treating those signs for what they legally are, which is removable litter."

Tradii and Lang both told The Burner they feel confident that Davis’s sign placement has been above board and therefore illegal to remove. This is probably too firm of a claim for the campaign to make about all their signs. Still, the signs in the video of what appears to be a campaign staffer seem to be on a planting strip in front of private property. The Burner could not track down the property occupant to confirm they consented to the placement. Even if they hadn’t, Tradii argued it would be up to the homeowner to remove it, not Dreher’s campaign. 

Besides the legality of the signs, Dreher took issue with Davis's campaign pushing secret footage of an unsuspecting passerby.

"It's also revealing that the source here thinks it is clever, rather than creepy, to rely on private surveillance cameras to capture someone in a public space and then try to determine their identity," Dreher wrote. "The city's surveillance cameras cover a tiny fraction of the city, but receive most of the attention. And yet most of us are subject to private camera surveillance every day, the moment we leave our house, leaving us subject to the whims of any nearby property owner in terms of how they use footage of us. That's exactly the kind of 24/7 surveillance in public spaces that I'd be looking at imposing limits on next year in the legislature."

The race in the 46th has shaped up to be a particularly heated Dem-on-Dem-on-Dem primary. Residents of the 46th LD (which includes Bitter Lake, Lake City, Laurelhurst, Maple Leaf, Ravenna, Sand Point, University District,  Wallingford, and other neighborhoods) have been inundated with text messages and mailers of Davis harping on Dreher’s connection to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Dreher accusing Davis of running a low-integrity, smear campaign. 

In the meantime, Pollet, seemingly the guy to beat, is floating above it all. 

“Are you sick of getting texts every day from candidates attacking each other? I know I am,” Pollet’s campaign wrote in a text to voters. “That’s why I’ve been running a positive campaign focused on listening to our neighbors and sharing the work I do for Washington.” 

We’ll see who the voters of the 46th LD chose to advance Tuesday evening. 

*Disclosure: I worked at The Stranger during the time of the sale and have big (justified) feelings about it. Lol.