Video shows state Rep. Todd removing campaign rival’s signs

State Rep. Curry Todd acknowledges he is the person shown in a video removing a rival’s campaign signs along a busy road, but says he had the right to do it.

Todd’s opponent, Mark Lovell, says the shaky video was recorded by one of his campaign volunteers on July 17.

The video shows a man in a baseball cap, T-shirt and shorts walking up to three of Lovell’s campaign signs at Winchester and Shea in Collierville, quickly pulling them up and putting them in a Mercedes-Benz sedan parked nearby. The man then goes back to the area where the signs were, looks around, goes back to the car and drives off.

“He broke the law and the only reason I’m exposing him is the only reason I’m running for office,” Lovell said July 20. “We have too many people in office who think they’re above the law. Especially him.”

Todd, R-Collierville, confirmed July 19 that he is the man in the video.

“Yes, I did pick up the signs the other day, and I took ’em,” Todd said. “I wasn’t trying to hide anything. It was daylight.”

Todd said his campaign had received exclusive permission to place the signs on the property. “I got permission to put my signs up . ... And they told me if (Lovell) puts them up, you can take them down or have someone else take them down.”

Todd said he knows the area as the Porters’ property. He said he didn’t know the owners’ first names. “I just know ‘the Porters.’ That’s all I know. I have some friends of mine that talk to them.”

Todd said late last last Tuesday night that his friend’s point of contact with the Porter family, Joel Porter, had re-confimed the arrangement that day: that Todd could put his signs on the Porter properties and remove other signs.

The Shelby County Register’s office lists the small parcel next to the road as belonging to a homeowners association for Shea Gardens at Porter Farms. Efforts to locate a representative of the association were unsuccessful July 19.

Collierville police Lt. David Townsend said the department has taken a report related to sign theft and the report has been sent to the District Attorney General’s office, which is handling the case.

Todd is the incumbent state representative for House District 95 and faces three challengers in the Aug. 4 Republican primary: Diane George, a Realtor and former member of the Shelby County School Board; Dana Matheny, a former health care administrator; and Lovell, a businessman who’s best known locally as a promoter of the Delta Fair and other carnivals.

The incident follows several weeks of similar tit-for-tat sign placements and removals.

George said she previously filed a police report related to the disappearance of about 20 of her signs from various locations around Collierville and accused Todd of taking them.

“It’s really sad that (Todd) can’t learn his lesson. We’ve told him to stop doing it, but he keeps on doing it,” George said.

Todd said he hasn’t taken any of George’s signs, and he accused Lovell of violating sign ordinances, too. “I’m trying to do this above board, but he violates every sign ordinance throughout all the municipalities, Germantown and Collierville.”

Lovell said rules make it hard to distinguish what sign placement is legal and what’s not.

But he said Todd simply stole his signs, and his body language in the video is telling. “So if Curry Todd had permission, would he be walking up there, running like a little bandit?”