2020 Political Buttons Part 8: Bennet & Patrick Items

The New Hampshire primary has now come and gone. President Trump easily won the GOP contest. The Democratic contest had a fair amount of competition. In the end, Bernie Sanders and Mayor Pete seemed to be the top two finishers. After the problems in volunteer reporting of the Iowa caucus the week before, politicos were excited about the first state-administered primary. Instead of taking days to report results, we had the results within hours.

Each election night we see winners move onto the next state and we see some candidates bow out of the race. The night of the New Hampshire primary we saw three prominent candidates end their campaigns.  Andrew Yang or New York, Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, and former Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts. We will look at a small selection of items from the campaigns of Bennet and Patrick in this post. Yang had a large following and produced many items during the primary. That we will cover in a stand-alone post.

Bennet Items

Senator Bennet used bumperactive store to fulfill items purchased from his campaign. Two buttons were sold via the online store. They both have a CWA union bug on the face. One is a generic Bennet for America pin and the other is a neat Bet on Bennet button. It is possible this button with the gambling theme was intended to appeal to Nevada, which is next door to Colorado.

Vintage Lawn Art: Roberts & Whiting

 I have been recently gifted two vintage lawn signs from the 1970s and 1980s. The first one that was given to me was from the campaign of a local Tigard office holder. Her name was Patricia Whiting. After the creation of single-member districts, she was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives. The owners of Whiting's former home found the sign in the garage when they purchased it. I traded them a Whiting bumper sticker for the sign.

Oregon's Measure 101: All that's left are the Mailers

Oregon just finished its first January Special Election in about a decade. Voters in Oregon got a ballot near the start of the month that had one quetion on it. The people voted and the YES side won. Was there anything leftover for collectors? Not much. My home recieved at least three different YES mailers. I picked up some walk lit and other campaign documents that I was involved in during the election itself and one button from my group. Other than that, it seems most collectors will only get a mailer to remember this election.

Vintage Wyden Lawn Sign

I normally try to avoid lawn signs. They are bulky, many don't display well, and they take up a lot of limited storage space. Still, on occasion, someone will mention to me 'hey Carl, I've got this old sign do you want it?' and I will usually say yes just to see the sign.

Most of us know lawn signs as either these hard rigid plastic things that just have the name of the candidate on them. Or they are disposable plastic bag signs that you can toss in the recycle after the campaign. Lawn signs use to be a big deal. They were made locally out wood, particle wood or other tough materials. Often, they were hand painted. When a friend asked me if I wanted an old Ron Wyden lawn sign, I wasn't sure what I was getting. I was glad I said YES!