Belle Meade Police Chief confirms ‘signgate’ story.

In response to my request for additional confirmation of the political yard sign stealing incident in Belle Meade, I received the following email from the Belle Meade Chief of Police:

I can confirm that Ms Barclay had contact with Sgt. Dale Corter on October 21st at 9:14 p.m. Sgt. Corter observed her removing a David Hall sign from private property. The matter is still under investigation at this time and I cannot release any further information until the issue is reviewed by the DA’s office to determine if any charges can or should be filed.

There are still some questions about who had permission to do what. We hope to have this case closed by early afternoon at which time I will be happy to release the requested information.

Thank you,

Chief

Tim Eads

Belle Meade Police Department

The fact that someone is stealing political yard signs is not really newsworthy; it happens in almost every campaign. I have been the victim of it when I was a candidate and my opponents also claimed they were the victim of it and I know I have never stolen a yard sign. Yard signs do disappear. Sometimes, I suspect it is the work of over zealous supporters of the candidates; probably people not even associated with the campaign. Sometimes I suspect that a homeowner changes his mind or a spouse or other family member objects and removes it after one family member has given permission. And, probably some are just ripped up by mischievous kids.

What makes this case so interesting is that the person accused of stealing the yard sign is a lawyer, a person of stature in the community, someone with a reponsible important job, and someone who is closely connected to the candidate.

Krissa Barclay is not a kid or just some overly enthusiastic supporter who spontaneously decided to take a yard sign.

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Update on Belle Meade ‘signgate’

It is confirmed that indeed, Krissa Barclay was caught by Belle Meade police attempting to remove from someone’s yard a large David Hall yard sign in the early morning hours of Thursday October 21.

Krissa Barclay is not Jim Cooper’s campaign manager as previously reported but a campaign “field rep.” When captured by police attempting to remove the sign, she reportedly told police she was Cooper’s campaign manager.

Krissa Barclay is a well known person active in Democratic Party politics in Davidson County. She has been involved in numerous political campaigns. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Nashville Women’s Political Caucus, serving as the current Membership Chair of the organization. She is an employee of Ferrell McDaniel company, an association management and political action committee development firm.

Below is Krissa Barclay’s bio as published on the Nashville Women’s Political Caucus website:

Krissa is an independent campaign consultant and is also affiliated with The Ferrell McDaniel Company. Since January, 2003 she has managed political campaigns for Metro Council, Davidson County Judicial and Tennessee State Representatives candidates. Previously she worked as an aide to Congressman Jim Cooper during his 1994 U. S. Senate bid. She is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and Nashville School of Law. Currently she is an executive member of the Davidson County Democrat Party and the Immediate Past President. She is also a member of the Davidson County Democratic Women and the Delta Zeta Heart of Tennessee Alumnae Chapter. She is on the board for the non-profit Enplay and the Woodmont Christian Preschool Auxiliary Board. She volunteers with Mending Hearts.

David Hall’s campaign has been having a problem with large signs in Belle Meade be taken out of people yard during the night. Hall had contacted the Belle Meade police and asked them to be aware of this and keep an eye out. When caught in the act by the Belle Meade police, Krissa reportedly told police that she had permission from the property owner to remove the sign. The property owner denied giving her permission.

According to my sources, Krissa claimed to have an email from the property owner giving her permission to remove the Hall sign. Police have asked her to produce the email and if she cannot, she has been told she will be charged with a crime.

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