I travel daily over the Casco Bay Bridge from South Portland into Portland. There are hundreds of political signs as you approach the bridge.

Imagine my shock one day last week when there appeared new signs saying “Retire Angus King!” next to every Angus King campaign sign.

I was so offended by the negativity of the signs that I stopped to look closely at the signs, and at the very small lettering, to see who sponsored the signage.

I was surprised to learn that the anti-King signs had been produced and posted by the Eric Brakey for U.S. Senate campaign committee.

This brought several things to mind: Should anyone be allowed to post signs against or insulting another candidate? Who oversees political ads so they don’t get out of hand?

If we allow signage insulting other candidates, then the number of political signs could double or triple or worse.

With the political rancor in the country at this time, we may need to establish a “Maine Political Advertisement Oversight Committee” (perhaps with two Republicans, two Democrats and one independent member), which would check over and OK all political signs, fliers and brochures.

We are getting to the place where campaign literature is stating falsehoods, or misleading information, about other candidates. We need “fact checks” on political literature. You could brag about yourself, but not insult the competition or mislead.

I wonder if out-of-state money was provided to the Brakey campaign to produce such rude signs. It doesn’t seem like a Maine thing to do.

If I had been inclined to vote for Brakey, this negative ad campaign would certainly bring doubt to my vote.

Lynne Beasley

Cape Elizabeth