“I said it was a sad day for Geauga County to have this happen to anyone running for public office.” – Jim Dvorak
Jim Dvorak, a Republican challenger in the May 8 primary for Geauga County Commissioner, was out of the country last month due to a death in the family.
When he returned on March 27, he began to receive messages from friends and others regarding a hate symbol that had been painted on one of his new political signs.
“Russell Township police left a message concerning the vandalized sign. They had received calls about every half hour for two days,” Dvorak said. “So, they took it down and placed it flat on the ground.”
He learned one of his signs on state Route 306, north of Music Street, in Russell had been defaced with an anti-Semitic symbol.
“When I got a picture of this sign with a swastika on it I about fell off my chair,” Dvorak told the Geauga County Maple Leaf. “I couldn’t believe it.”
The design on Dvorak’s signs incorporates a GOP elephant symbol into the ‘O’ in his name. That symbol had been drawn over with a black swastika.
“I said it was a sad day for Geauga County to have this happen to anyone running for public office,” said Dvorak. “Hate is behind this action. It is a hate symbol, no doubt about it.”
He added, “I can only speculate who is behind this action. I will pray for this person who ever did this.”
Dvorak, who has served as a Burton Township trustee for the past 10 years, said he has put up hundreds of campaign signs over the years.
“Eleven years ago when I ran for Burton Township trustee, I had 200 signs out in residents’ homes. Two weeks before the election 80 signs where stolen and destroyed. I found them on a side street in another township,” he recalled. “My recourse was to buy more signs.”
But he never had one defaced, let alone with a swastika.
“I have never seen this action of hate in Geauga County in the nearly 40 years living here,” he said.
Russell Township police have opened a criminal damaging case over the defaced sign.
“I will put my head down and keep on working harder everyday for the great people in Geauga County and pray for the ones who are negative,” Dvorak said.
