Friday, July 29, 2011

Naming rights and wrongs

The thing I liked best about Mitt Romney as governor was that he refused to put his name on signs throughout the state.  You know, like the ones that say "Welcome to Massachusetts" as you cross the border. Why? Well, he felt that those signs were public property, not private bulletin boards for elected politicians trying to get more name recognition.  He also, I think, was offended by the idea of spending public money every time a new person was elected governor.

This is very unusual.  I recently drove through a number of states, and at virtually every border crossing, I saw the governor's name attached to the welcome sign.  Like this one:


In times of tight budgets, why are we spending taxpayer money on this kind of self-aggrandizement?  But even in more prosperous times, why should any elected person's name be placed in a public way like this?

Shouldn't there be a general rule that the names of elected officials should not be included in signs on public ways?

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