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Controversial billboard in Calvert County raising eyebrows
A controversial political billboard in Calvert County is causing a stir, but local politicians say there's nothing they can do about it.
CALVERT COUNTY, Md. - A controversial billboard is causing a commotion in Calvert County.
Located near the intersection of Route 4 and Bowie Shop Road in Huntingtown, it depicts President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in cartoon feces. The sign then says, "DON’T BLAME TRUMP! YOU ARE STUCK WITH THESE TWO (expletive) HEADS!!!"
"It’s just vulgar," said Jeanette Flaim, who is the chair of the Calvert County Democratic Central Committee. "Kids are going to school, and they’re going by it every day, and parents are driving their kids. We just don’t think kids should have to see that or parents should have to explain that."
But Tuesday – as previously reported by the Calvert Recorder and Southern Maryland News – county commissioners said they may not have a choice, citing the 2015 Supreme Court Decision in Reed v. Town of Gilbert.
"There is nothing that we as county government can do for language that’s on a legal sign," Board of County Commissioners President Buddy Hance said. "You know this country was built on the foundation of free speech, and sometimes we like what that free speech says and sometimes we don’t."
But Flaim said in her view it’s not just a free speech issue, telling Fox 5 that pro-Trump and anti-Biden billboards have been going up in the same spot for years but adding that she takes issue with this specific language and imagery. So much so, she’d like to see a public pressure campaign aimed at getting the sign taken down.
"We have not complained about any other signs," Flaim said. "It’s this sign we think is, again, damaging to all of us, all of us in Calvert. The GOP, the Independents, everybody."
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Attempts to reach the person responsible for the sign weren’t immediately successful.