Election signs produced outside Del.

With the elections approaching, local candidates use signs and posters produced outside the state of Delaware to publicize their campaigns, according to local printer David O’Reilly.

O’Reilly, owner of Shamrock Printing Company located on East Main Street, said he believes outsourcing printing is a frequent occurrence. He said local candidates have resorted to producing signs out of state or online as opposed to supporting their local economies. 

“It’s about spending dollars locally, supporting the economy and providing jobs,” O’Reilly said.

O’Reilly said politicians do not currently utilize his services. However, he said he has produced posters for local campaigns in the past.

He said he did not know how many politicians use local printers, or where the politicians go to print signs instead. However, he said he was under the impression most politicians use online businesses to produce their signs because of the cheaper cost. 

Jennifer Bowman, 38, owner of Bowman Printing located on South Chapel Street, said politicians should be supporting their local economies.

“We haven’t [printed] anything political this year,” Bowman said. “As with anything, not only politicians but local citizens and business people [should be keeping] business in Delaware.”

Bowman said supporting local printing companies would only gain candidates votes.

“They can say that they used Delaware printers, and they kept the companies going,” Bowman said. “Technology is changing constantly. They would be able to say, ‘We keep Delaware strong. We support the manufacturers in Delaware.’ If everybody used [manufacturing] out of state, there would be no printing in Delaware. There [would be] no business to go into.”

Sue Adams, 47, manager of AlphaGraphics in Newark, said she has also not received patronage from local politicians. 

She said she does not believe printing out of state is cheaper than using local printers, so she is unsure of why candidates take their business outside of Delaware.

“It’s a misconception that we may be a higher price,” Adams said. “The one thing that I’m surprised about is that we haven’t even had an opportunity to quote [prices]. I’m not sure how they know that other printers [are less expensive].”

Junior Madeline Tusa said she does not know why candidates outsource their printing because she thinks that supporting Delaware printers would only benefit the candidates’ campaigns and the economy. 

“Supporting the local economy would be a good thing since the economy is important to everyone,” Tusa said. “Printing locally benefits the business very short term, but it helps candidates in the long run.”

Mayor Vance A. Funk III, who has been the mayor of Newark since 2004, said he believes supporting the local community is more important than saving campaign funds when it comes to printing. 

“All my orders when I ran, I bought locally,” Funk said. “It wasn’t a hard decision. I did notice in looking at different brochures, I could’ve saved about 30 percent from [a popular printing company] in Ohio.”