Local

Grays Harbor commissioner accused of tossing opponents signs

A candidate for a commissioner's seat in Grays Harbor county claims that his signs kept disappearing from a street corner near the home of his opponent, so he and a friend decided to set a trap.
 
Commission candidate Randy Ross asked his friend Andy Mesojednik to help him find out why his signs on the corner of Sumner and Willow streets in Aberdeen kept getting pulled out of the ground and tossed into some nearby weeds.
 
So Mesodjenik put a trail camera high in a tree near the corner.
 
On Wednesday, Mesodjenik took out the memory card and claims he found pictures showing  Ross' opponent, incumbent Grays Harbor county commission candidate Frank Gordon, walking past some a cluster of campaign signs, then seconds later walking back in the other direction while carrying Ross' campaign signs.
 
The two men say they found those signs, once again, tossed into some weeds nearby.
 
"Our jaws hit the ground when we saw who it was," said Mesodjenik. "We see Frank Gordon."
   
Ross said he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
 
"My jaw just dropped. I was very disappointed to see my opponent would do this," said Ross.
 
Gordon admitted it was him in the photographs, but claimed he wasn't removing his opponent's signs, he was trying to help after finding them tossed aside.
 
"We have hundreds of signs in the harbor," Gordon said. "So I don't know what I would gain by pulling some signs down here."
 
Gordon lives just around the corner from the spot where the signs were taken down, but claims he was simply taking the signs back to Ross because someone else had removed them.
 
"I did pick up a couple of Randy's signs and put them with some other signs that are laying down by Duffy's," Gordon said, gesturing to a spot down the street.
 
Ross says up until now, he and Gordon have had a friendly campaign. But he said he's not buying Gordon story about finding the signs on the ground
 
"I'm just really disappointed. I thought we were working on the issues in the campaign," he said. "This is just grade school 101."
 
Ross said he has no intention of confronting Gordon about removing the signs, and doesn't plan to report the incident.  He said he simply wants it to stop.