Lee County commissioner candidates Amanda Cochran and David Mulicka each pounced at the opportunity to put up campaign signs, more so than their Republican campaign competitors Mike Greenwell and Matthew Thornton, respectively.

Mulicka said he put up 127 double signs. He said that cost his campaign about $20,000, with $12,000 to print them, $5,000 for the wood and $3,000 for the labor.

Cochran said she spent about $15,000 on her 150 signs, plus more money for electronic signs and billboards.

The Lee County primary election ends Aug. 20, with early, in-person voting taking place Aug. 10-17. By law, 60 days before that, political signs are allowed to appear on commercial and residential properties across the area, as long as property owners give permission.

The signs on properties—with exceptions for commercial billboards—must be no larger than 32 square feet. All must be taken down within 10 days after the election, per county guidelines.

Although Cochran and Mulicka posted a similar number of signs, they did so in different ways.

Mulicka enlisted the help of local land brokers on many of his signs, public records provided by Lee County government show. Gary Tasman, CEO of Cushman & Wakefield Southwest Florida, was listed as the point of contact for 39 of Mulicka’s 105 signs on one of the location spreadsheets. The property owners were a combination of local owners and investment companies from California, Illinois, Kansas, Miami, etc.

“Because I planned ahead, and I ordered the signs a week ahead of time,” Mulicka, owner of Honc Destruction, said of how he put up so many. “And I had a mapping program. Because I’m in the dumpster and hauling business, logistics and trucking is part of my life. So I mapped out every location in Lee County and every access path for traffic. And I have friends in the real estate business on every corner. And customers who own the land. We had a good game plan from the beginning.”

Cochran had a different approach. All the property owners who gave her permission to display signs are local, public records show. They included Mary Lee Mann, widow of Frank Mann, who held the county commission seat Cochran hopes to win for almost 17 years until his death in 2022.

“I see in her a lot of what Frank was doing,” Mann said. “He worked hard to protect what he called paradise. I didn’t see that being carried on by the current officeholder of District 5. When Amanda said she was going to run, I could see she was supporting all the things Frank Mann supported all those years. And they’re my neighbors.”

Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida, said campaign signs aren’t of paramount importance to political campaigns. But they don’t hurt, either.

“I think broadly, they help,” Jewett said. “They’re still an inexpensive way to get your name recognition up in a race. In a presidential race, I don’t know that they do a lot of good, because there’s so much more information out there. But in a local race, there’s evidence that they help. You and I and your regular readers actually care about these issues.

“The unfortunate fact is most voters don’t have a lot of time to do a lot of research. Name recognition still is very important. Signs aren’t the only way to get it. Heavy advertising online. Social media.”

Mulicka and Cochran each had different reasons for the signage.

In Cochran’s case, she has been a lifelong resident of Lee County and is active in church and nonprofit communities. But her opponent, Mike Greenwell, played Major League Baseball for 12 years.

“I’m up against an opponent who has name recognition,” Cochran said. “Not necessarily in the political realm at all. He has name recognition.

“That’s what I had to combat. In that respect, my thought process was that I needed to come onto the scene with a splash. By doing so, I had a marketing team who helped me get billboards and signs up everywhere possible, so my name was more recognizable.”

Mulicka, also a first-time commissioner candidate, put up the signs, he said, because he could.

“We had a budget and a goal,” Mulicka said. “And if we had the money to do all of those things, we would do it all. So, I did.

“I have 127 double-signed locations around Lee County. I’m really proud of that, because that’s 127 people who want my name in front of their business or their home.”

Greenwell did not respond to calls or text messages for comment.

Thornton said he hoped his name would seem familiar to voters because of his family’s legacy. He only put up two signs in the early going, one on his North Fort Myers ranch and another in front of his Fort Myers Beach home. He didn’t file any signage paperwork with the county.

“My name is out there,” Thornton said. “My name’s out there in millions and millions and millions of copies of the Declaration of Independence. It’s the last name on the bottom right. It’s my family’s name. It’s been out there for 248 years.

“Having a sign to put out there, to me, when I have social media and all these other avenues, tens of thousands of followers. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”