Edited signs compare candidate to Nazis
Police confiscate non-official signs due to placement in public right-of-way
Edited versions of Broomfield City Council candidate Heidi Henkel’s campaign signs featuring Nazi imagery have been confiscated by police.
The edited signs, bearing the same colors, font and layout as the original design, read “Heil Henkel,” in reference to a Nazi greeting and chant. The sign also edited Henkel’s campaign logo to a single hand in a position similar to a Nazi salute.
Henkel, the incumbent candidate in Ward 5, sent a campaign email last week stating that a friend messaged her “in horror” after seeing the sign on a median on 144th Street east of Shannon Drive.
According to the Broomfield Police Department, another sign was found on Wednesday by members of the code compliance unit on a median on Lowell Boulevard between Broadlands Lane and 136th Street. The compliance unit removed the sign as they are not permitted in the public rightof-way. Both signs were placed improperly but neither was reported to the department.
At this time, no one has admitted to making the signs.
The Broomfield County Democrats released a statement condemning the signs on Friday, saying that editing the signs was a “grotesque act” harmful to Broomfield and the Jewish community.
A message from the Broomfield County Republicans was posted on Facebook Monday, expressing that they stand against hate and discrimination and believe in the “principle to love your neighbor as yourself.” The post did not explicitly mention the edited signs.
Henkel’s opponent, Adam Gobetti, posted a video to his Youtube channel Friday “unreservedly” condemning the signs as
well. He discussed his Italian family’s personal connection to the Holocaust and the suffering he witnessed from survivors telling their stories.
Gobetti also stated that comparing Henkel to “actual” Nazis and fascists minimizes “the horror of what happened.”
Although Gobetti opposed the signs, he does say
in the video, “I get the joke, she is an authoritarian. Say that outright in the public square, use these signs to protest her where you show up, put your name on them and state your grievances.”
Gobetti also told the Broomfield Enterprise he finds it suspicious that Henkel and her campaign were able to put out “statements, graphics, a marketing email and have paperwork filed (to the Anti-defamation League)” within 24 hours of seeing the sign.
“Those signs are impressively
perfect mimics of my opponents materials, it would be very difficult to mimic without the original files,” Gobetti said. “So I will also say, if this is yet another lie being put out by the Henkel campaign or its supporters, then God help you and I don’t know how you look in the mirror.”
Henkel took issue with Gobett’s statements in the video.
“It’s very disappointing to me that my opponent gives everyone a wink by saying he gets the joke. Our Jewish
community in Broomfield deserves better. It’s not a joke,” Henkel said.
She also responded to any insinuations her campaign was involved with the signs, stating, “No one associated with me or my campaign would do such an abhorrent action, especially when I’ve been working on resettling people coming here fleeing violence from Israel,” Henkel said. “We put our energy into sharing Council’s good work and policy development, not wasteful games that hurt our Jewish community.”