A huge mahalo to everyone who has called and emailed us about wanting to get more of our “Elle for Mayor” campaign signs out. Our campaign is 100 percent grass roots, volunteer-driven, and your input is very much appreciated.

While I recognize campaign signs play an important part in gaining name recognition in any campaign, they are also considered unpleasant by many in the community when they are littered all over our beautiful islands.

Signs do very little to convey messages about what a candidate actually stands for and are made of plastic, which will eventually end up in the landfill.

We at Elle Cochran for Mayor Headquarters have made a conscious decision to consider the environment before promotion of self.

Plus, they’re expensive. For example, our last order of 200 signs cost $4,500 plus shipping. That’s a lot of money, considering we are a campaign of mostly smaller donations from people, not corporations or lobbyists.

So yes, our volunteers and I will use campaign signs sparingly in highly visible areas, to get my name out, but we have consciously decided not to spend the lion share of your generous campaign contributions to “win a sign war” that results in more plastic garbage in our landfill.

I am excited and focused on ways to better communicate my message to a broader audience. Please join me in finding the most visible locations to place my signs, and in finding creative ways to get our message out to the people of Maui County.

Elle Cochran

Lahaina