MoDOT told Amy Ryan this morning that her sign was never stolen. Why isn't she correcting her statement so voters know?
Yet, she did not provide transparency or truth when she told voters that her campaign sign was stolen. (It wasn't.) And, she did not provide constant communication to us, to correct that assertion, even after she learned that her claims weren't true.
A MoDOT (Missouri's Department of Transportation) supervisor told us at 9:00 am today that she had already told Ryan her sign was never stolen and that MoDOT had removed it because it was placed where it's not allowed, in the right of way that bordered a high visibility area of Highway 141 in Fenton.
Yet, Ryan's announcement that her sign was stolen is still up on her Facebook page at the time of this writing, 7 hours later. We finally asked on Ryan's page why they said the sign was stolen when it wasn't. The campaign replied that they had talked to the wrong MoDOT office when they got their information.
We then asked when they were going to update voters. We are waiting for a reply.
Ryan and candidate Deborah Stine both posted on social media Monday that their campaign signs were stolen.
Both announcements are still on their Facebook pages.
Their claims were a shift in the spotlight away from a video that showed a supporter of theirs was caught on video removing their opponent's campaign signs.
After that video went viral, Rockwood's teachers union essentially denounced stealing campaign signs. We reported that information Monday.
Next, both Ryan and Stine, who are endorsed by the teachers union (RNEA/Rockwood's National Education Association) claimed that THEIR campaign signs were the ones that were stolen. It must be so, they said, because MoDOT confirmed that it had not removed their signs from along Highway 141.
It is now clear to all parties involved that MoDOT actually DID remove their signs, and that their signs were never stolen.
It is not clear why Amy Ryan and Deborah Stine aren't clearing up that matter with voters.