Despard said that they also received permission from Panchal to put their campaign signs on his lawn and did so. Despard said that when they saw the Republican campaign signs, he asked Panchal if he had given them permission and was told “no.”

“He said they didn’t … What we did is we picked them up … [the GOP signs] and delivered them to the Republican town committee headquarters, which is Ms. Kelly Hemmeler’s house, apparently that’s the public address for the headquarters,” he said. “And we left the signs there with a note that said ‘these are believed to be placed without permission and so we are returning them to you.’ That’s what happened.”

Despard also said that he feels it is disingenuous to say that the signs were taken, as they returned them seven minutes after they took them out of the ground.

“At the end of the day, it sounds like … people had different information. So that’s, that’s all the story as far as I’m concerned, okay. Nothing nefarious [was] going on,” Despard said.

Hopkins agreed.

“For me, it’s pretty straightforward. I’m assisting Matt with his campaign. We got permission to put signs at the Jug Shop. So, we put our signs up and then saw a few days later that there were a bunch of Republican signs as well,” Hopkins said. “So the Jug Shop owner was asked and he ultimately said, ‘No, I didn’t give them permission.’ Matt and I took those signs down, pursued his direction and took them to the RTC headquarters and left them there … on the the front yard with a note noting that we had done this. Now, I guess they’re claiming that these were stolen.”

About his response to the calls for him and Despard to resign, Hopkins said that he thinks this is being brought up because the election is less than a month away.

“I think they’re omitting the fact that these signs were returned. And that they didn’t have permission there originally. It’s easy to say, ‘you should resign,’ but I think that’s pretty ridiculous,” he said.

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