LEWISTON, Maine — Two controversial signs that briefly appeared on Lewiston buildings attacking a mayoral candidate are being widely denounced as racist.
The signs refer to candidate Ben Chin as "Ho Chi Chin," comparing him to the communist Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh.
The person who hung them up has taken them down for now. But he says he'll hang them elsewhere to fight back against what he says are Chin's abusive attacks on him as a landlord.
Ben Chin first heard about the signs placed at 134 Main St. and 101 Pine St. in Lewiston after he got a text from a friend.
"Sunday night — family time — my wife I are expecting a baby in a week and a half on Friday next week," he says. "And our conversation was about — our baby is going to have the same last name as what was up there on the sign, and we were thinking about what kind of a world is our child entering."
The signs are red, and say "Don't Elect Ho Chi Chin — Vote for More Jobs, Not More Welfare." They're emblazoned with the communist hammer and sickle symbol.
"It's clear it's a way of playing on old racial stereotypes about a lot of different things," Chin says. "I mean, belittling the Vietnam War, a racist caricature of what I assume is my face."
Joe Dunne has since acknowledged that he's responsible for the signs. He's a Lewiston property owner whom Chin has criticized as being lax in addressing substandard conditions.
As a Democratic mayoral candidate and as political director for the Maine Peoples' Alliance, Chin has made better housing one of his priorities.
Dunne did not respond to MPBN's requests for comment, but in a video recorded by the Lewiston Sun Journal, Dunne says he wanted to get back at Chin.
"I have a daughter that's in the Lewiston special ed department, and people started going up to her and telling her her parents were slumlords, and I thought that was unfair, so I thought I'd give a little bit back to him," he says.
Dunne took the signs down Monday after business tenants from his Main Street property complained. But he told the Sun Journal that he plans to hang them again, likely in a vacant lot.
He says he's not racist, and neither are his signs.
"I just thought that his ideas — the ones that he's presenting for downtown here — are more socialist and bordering on communism, so I basically did a little parody on that," Dunne says.
"The signs go way over the line," says Jason Savage, executive director of the Maine Republican Party. "We think the people of Lewiston deserve a race that's about the positions and the track record of the candidates, and they deserve better than what these signs are representing."
Maine Attorney General Janet Mills also denounced the signs in a statement released Monday, saying her office abhors "the message and the type of shady campaign tactics which these signs represent."
Mills is encouraging concerned citizens to file a complaint with the Commission on Governmental Ethics and Campaign Practices. Those complaints typically start at the city level.
"We have not received any communication from any residents of Lewiston, any citizens of Lewiston regarding concerns or complaints regarding the signs," says Lewiston City Clerk Kathy Montejo Monday afternoon.
But Montejo says she would contact Joe Dunne because he did not include a disclosure statement on the signs, a requirement when campaign communication expenditures exceed $100.
Meanwhile, Ben Chin says he stands by holding Dunne publicly accountable in his role as a landlord.
"As bad as this is for our family, it is so much worse if you're actually living in one of these buildings," Chin says. "And the only way this stuff stops is if people are willing to come forward and bring this out into the light. And I think that's really going to happen here."
Chin is up against four other candidates, including incumbent Republican Mayor Robert MacDonald.
MacDonald did not respond to requests for comment by MPBN. He told the Sun Journal that when he got wind of the signs before they were posted, he told those responsible, "Please don't do this."
Editor's Note: Ben Chin is married to Nicola Chin, who serves on the MPBN board of trustees.
