ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A 54-year-old Anchorage man suspected of vandalizing campaign signs of an Anchorage mayoral candidate has been cited for criminal mischief.
Joshua Whittaker, who ran for an Anchorage Assembly seat in 2010, denied damaging signs belonging to Amy Demboski, an assembly member and the only woman in the eight-person race for Anchorage mayor.
Whittaker claimed a sign by Demboski was illegally placed in a public easement, the Alaska Dispatch News, an Anchorage newspaper, reported (https://bit.ly/19VwzYC ).
“What she’s got is going to be dismissed,” Whittaker said, speaking to a reporter out of the window of his car, after acknowledging he had been cited Friday. He called signs by Demboski and other candidates “basically litter.”
The Demboski campaign on Friday reported to police that vandals had defaced 18 of their large signs between Chugiak and Anchorage. The candidate’s face had been cut out of signs or crossed out in red paint.
In an email, Demboski said she spotted a “man with a box cutter” on Friday night approaching her 4-foot-by-8-foot campaign signs near East Fireweed Lane and Denali Street.
Demboski confronted the man and recorded the conversation with a video camera, her campaign said. A man in a video she released tells her, “If you’d have put ’Demboski’ without the pretty face, the pink lipstick and the ’Amy,’ you might’ve had a better chance of winning.”
He also made disparaging remarks about Elvi Gray-Jackson, another female Anchorage Assembly member, Demboski said.
“The vandal’s apparent motive was sexism,” her campaign’s statement said.
Police at 7:22 p.m. Friday cited a man who “appeared to be cutting an Amy Demboski sign with a box cutter,” police spokeswoman Jennifer Castro said by email.
The Anchorage municipal election is Tuesday.
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Information from: Alaska Dispatch News, https://www.adn.com
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