Political activists are used to seeing campaign signs occasionally vanish from their yards.
But they're not used to having signs spray-painted with epithets, or having their cars keyed, their tires slashed, or being confronted by angry supporters of the other candidate.
That's the sort of thing happening this year, and both Democrats and Republicans say it's a sad testament to the heightened emotions surrounding this presidential campaign.
"This election has just taken a really nasty turn," said Shaun Kenney, of the Spotsylvania County Republican committee. "It's nastier this year."
That nastiness goes beyond sign theft, which happens in every election.
Delia Zisman, chairwoman of the Fredericksburg Democratic Committee and the 1st District Democratic Committee, said one of her members left a meeting to find that a new tire on her car, which had a Kerry bumper sticker, had been slashed so vehemently that the knife blade was broken off and still stuck inside her tire.
Zisman said another local Democrat, a veteran with a "Veterans for Kerry" sticker on his vehicle, was approached by a group of military men who ripped his sticker off the car.
Zisman and other Democrats blame inflammatory rhetoric from national Republicans for the vandalism.
"A lot of the animosity is coming from being named un-American or unpatriotic if you don't support the president," Zisman said.
Neither party encourages nor condones sign theft or vandalism.
"The sign theft and all that, that's not a Democrat thing, that's not a Republican thing, that's just dumb people stealing signs, and it should stop," Kenney said. "If you want to help a candidate, stick a sign in your yard. Don't tear down somebody else's sign. But it has gotten worse."
Kenney said Republicans, at least, almost budget for sign theft, ordering more signs than they need on the assumption that a certain number will vanish from lawns.
But losing signs to theft is an expensive proposition.
Last weekend, a vandal spray-painted a vulgarity across a large 4-by-8-foot Kerry/Edwards sign in Caroline County. Local Democrats had to order a new one, but for now, the defaced sign is still in place.
Ray Scher, a volunteer with the Caroline County Democratic committee, has to see it every morning when he leaves his gated community at Lake Caroline.
"You can read it. It's as big as the sign," Scher said. "It's like somebody stood in a pickup truck and did it. It's distasteful to me to repeat this story to you, but I'm upset."
Scher says the sign was up for four weeks with no problems. But then persons unknown put Bush/Cheney signs along electrical poles on Main Street in Bowling Green last Saturday before a fall festival.
Democrats protested that they were illegal, and while they were eventually taken down, Scher suspects the vandalism of the Kerry sign--which happened later that night or early the next day--was a form of retribution.
He said the tone of politics in Caroline has always been polite before this year, and added that many Republicans still are.
"I've had people call me who are Republicans who are sad. I'm sad," Scher said. "I guess they want to teach people a lesson who dissent. Of course I'm partisan, but I feel for my county."
Scher said the tone this year is much ruder than in years past.
"It's an emotional issue this time. I'm 56 and I've never seen or felt it was this important," he said.
Sign-stealing, defacing and other acts of intimidation aren't limited to either party.
Steve Apicella, chairman of the Stafford County Republican committee, said he's heard from people who say their cars were egged or they got nasty looks because they have Bush bumper stickers on their cars.
"Everywhere I've been, I've heard this complaint--it's never been this bad," said University of Virginia political analyst Larry Sabato. "This is an epidemic of sign-stealing and defacing. It just reflects the anger, the emotion and the polarization across the country.
"And this is on both sides, by the way. No one has clean hands, and I think that phrase is appropriate."
Stephen Farnsworth, an associate professor of political science at the University of Mary Washington, said the nastier tone has its roots at least back in the disputed 2000 election.
"I certainly get the impression that it's worse this year. Ultimately, the 2004 election, coming on the heels of a very partisan president and a very contested situation in 2000, has created an environment of much more combative politics," Farnsworth said.
"We are in an era where the Democrats and the Republicans are increasingly partisan, increasingly extreme, and increasingly competitive with each other, so you see a much higher level of partisan combat around the country--it's not unique to Virginia."
Farnsworth said polls show Bush is the most polarizing president in the past 50 years.
"The Democrats hate Bush more than they hate anybody, even more than Nixon," he said. "I think that's a part of it. And because the stakes are so close, too, it's particularly intense. Because everybody sees victory within their grasp, there's a temptation I think to maybe step over some of those lines of respectable behavior."
To reach CHELYEN DAVIS: 804/782-9362 cdavis@freelancestar.com