The Republican race for Hillsborough County Sheriff has already been nasty, so why not add a little campaign sign controversy?

Former Hillsborough County Sheriff Deputy Charles Boswell is challenging incumbent Chad Chronister for his job this summer, and there has been a lot of mudslinging that has gone back and forth between the two camps.

The signs controversy goes back to the middle of last week, when Boswell asked Wheels and Accessories co-owner Mike Ayala for permission to place a campaign sign in front of his property on West Brandon Boulevard.

“Boswell came in himself, with his own hands, put his gloves on, his cowboy hat, put his sign up,” Ayala says.  Later that day, he says “some people” came by and asked him about the sign, which he said he had given permission to Boswell to place.

“Those people” were campaign volunteers, says Chronister. Boswell says they were “on-duty detectives.”

In any event, Team Chronister says they reached out to the owner of the complex (there are numerous businesses located on that piece of property) and were given permission to place their own sign, which they did sometime between the time Ayala left work for the day and when he came back the next morning. 

That sign was strategically placed directly in front of Boswell’s sign, effectively blocking anyone driving along West Brandon Boulevard from seeing it.

“I think it’s dirty campaigning tactics,” Boswell said Monday. 

Sheriff Chronister admits that the “optics” are bad.

“I certainly believe that some of our volunteers got a little overzealous. What I wish they would have done is just waited for the sign to be removed, before they placed ours, because if you looked at the optics, it doesn’t look good,” the sheriff told Spectrum Bay News 9 on Monday. 

“They should have just waited. But they had spoken to the owner of the property, not the tenant. But the owner has been extremely supportive of the sheriff’s office and has supported me over several years and said, ‘I own the property. Put a Sheriff Chad Chronister sign out there.’ Matter of fact, he had asked our volunteers to remove the Boswell sign and we said, from what I’m being told by the volunteer who was out there, we said, ‘we can’t remove the sign. We’re not able to do that.’”

The Chronister campaign then gave Spectrum Bay News 9 the telephone number of the man they claimed is the owner of the complex. However, that man (who does not want to be named, says he hates politics and does not want to be part of this story) says he is not the owner of the complex, but simply another tenant, like Mike Ayala.

In any event, the controversy should be over by Tuesday. That’s because Ayala says he’ll remove the Boswell sign and place it on top of one of his pickup trucks parked next to the right-of-way. So, it will stand above the Chronister sign, allowing motorists to see both signs.

“Both signs can stay obviously, but they both should be able to be seen,” Ayala said.