Las Vegas Weekly

(S)Miley face

Dark Knight-inspired campaign-sign vandalism may actually be helping one candidate

It’s Miley, not Smiley.

Photo: Aaron Thompson

Candidates vying for office will try anything to get attention—sleazy campaign ads, political fliers slamming other candidates, ubiquitous roadway signs. But odds are many voters will remember District Court Department 23 candidate Stephanie Miley more as the victim of “Batmania.”

Not long ago, her sign on Rampart Boulevard near Summerlin Parkway was tagged by a Joker-influenced hooligan who added an “S” in front of Miley’s name, spray-painted a red smile over her lips and blacked out the eyes.

“I think it’s funny,” Miley says by cell phone. “I’ve [been] Jokerized. Usually I just get horns, a moustache or a goatee. [It’s] different.”

Perhaps surprisingly, Miley is leaving the vandalized sign up (minus the eye blacking). It’s been getting her more attention by passing motorists. More attention might translate into more votes. And several websites dedicated to The Dark Knight have posted pictures of the sign along with other instances of “Joker” vandalization worldwide.

While Miley hasn’t seen the movie, her children have and think the sign is funny. Still, the mother of two tries to act stoic as she drives past the sign with her kids, so as not to make light of political vandalism.

“I try not to laugh, but they notice,” she says. “It’s meant to be funny.”

Not that a sign linked to current pop culture will translate to votes (Miley has challengers to the seat, including embattled Judge Elizabeth Halverson), but the sign stands as a unique—and kinda cool—part of Miley’s political history in Nevada.

“I probably won’t put the thing in my living room [when the election’s over],” she says. “But I’ll take a picture of it.”