History has repeated itself, and Rufus Rose isn’t too happy about it.

Rose, a well-known Republican on the South End, has once again seen his campaign signs destroyed by vandals.

This time, it has been the McCain signs Rose raised on the northeast corner of Highway 525 and Maxwelton Road. Two four-foot-by-four-foot signs have been damaged; the first time about two weeks ago.

Then, someone spray painted “Old Ass” over the Republican presidential candidate’s name.

Rose said he left the damaged signs up for about a week before he took them home and tried to clean them off with solvents, with no luck.

“It’s my personal theory that a vandalized sign causes a lot of people frustration, including people on the other side,” he said.

Rose then put up a second set, with a good set of screws. Didn’t help.

“Somebody came along and stripped the sign facing Maxwelton Road completely off. The other sign was torn and left dangling.”

About a day later, Rose saw the missing sign had been returned. He put it back up and taped up the other sign.

“I came back the next day, and they were torn in half and the halves were left there.”

Later, as Rose was trying to put the pieces of McCain back together at the intersection, a man going toward Langley pulled over. He walked back and introduced himself.

“He said, ‘I’m a lifelong Democrat and I’m embarrassed about this; I think it’s shameful.’”

The vandalism hasn’t been isolated to the busy stretch of Highway 525 at Maxwelton. Rose said a sign on his Clinton property has been torn down three or four times, as well.

“Why is this only happening to McCain signs?” Rose asked.

Rose said he had not filed a police report on the vandalism. Though he said he couldn’t place blame on anyone for the damage, the sign vandalism shows a lack of respect for the political process.

“It’s somebody who is disrespectful of the process and feels that they have a right to destroy property.”

Rose has had his run-ins with sign vandals before, most recently in the primary when his wife Reece was running for county commissioner and a sign in Greenbank was slashed. In a letter to the editor that was published by local papers after the incident, Rufus Rose offered to meet with the vandal in person to talk about the damaged sign.

No one took him up on his offer, he laughed.