Missouri politician’s campaign signs mysteriously appear in Long Island
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Within the past month, campaign signs for Missouri State Rep. Aaron McMullen (R-Independence) have appeared in Bethpage, located on New York's Long Island.
McMullen lost the Aug. 6 primary election for the Missouri State Senate to Joe Nicola and appears to have no ties to Long Island. However, residents say it is rare to go anywhere in Bethpage without spotting a sign with McMullen's name or face. Hugh Gordon has lived in Bethpage for 22 years and says he has never seen anything like it.
“People say they're going to write in McMullen for president,” Gordon said. “ I mean, there are more McMullen signs than Trump and Harris combined. Every time I'm driving or doing anything, going to work I see these signs along the street and I'm forced to think to myself, ‘Why in the world would a Missouri state politician put his campaign signs up on Long Island?'”
The signs first began to appear in mid-August. He first noticed the signs when he woke up one morning to find one on his neighbor’s lawn. When asked if she was supporting him, Gordon's neighbor told him that the sign appeared overnight and she had no idea who put it there.
It’s not just campaign signs, either. Banners for McMullen appear over highways, and flyers for him are stabled to light posts, according to Gordon. Some people have speculated it was a shipping error since there is a Bethpage. However, not only is Bethpage, Missouri, more than 1,000 miles from New York, it is over an hour away from the district that McMullen represents in the state house, and the district he was running for in the state senate.
“If it's a shipping error, that's one thing. But who's who's putting them down? You could ship to the wrong Missouri but who's opening that box? Reading Missouri State Senate and putting hundreds of signs down. It doesn't it doesn't make any sense, “ Gordon said.
ABC 17 News reached out to McMullen and his office. He has yet to respond. The treasurer of McMullen’s campaign, Kim Koskovich, said the campaign was not responsible for the signs but added that he does not know how, or why they ended up in New York.
“I know there are a lot of specific rules for your signs. It has to be so far from a street, it’s got to have been paid for by the treasurer and all that stuff. I don’t think those signs have any of that stuff on there” Koskovich said. “I don’t know why they chose Aaron McMullen.”
Gordon estimates there are roughly 300 signs scattered across the area, leaving residents confused.
"I thought it was a practical joke. You see five, 10 signs on the highway exits or whatnot,” Gordon said. "But at the point where you're seeing 200, 300, and there's a banner on the highway, you'd have to be you have to be a loser to do this, and you would have to have a big budget behind you.”
