Last modified: Wednesday, July 25, 2007 12:46 AM EDT FLANAGAN: Signs and center show lack of history So what can I say about Attleboro's coming mayoral election at this early - relatively speaking - juncture? Try this: YAWN. Yes, I know. When they say "you never can please some people," I'm one of the some they're talking about. After writing an uncounted number of columns and editorials urging more participation in the political process at the city level, I should be happy that they're talking politics at all in July in the former Jewelry City. But so far, the political arena has featured: A) A verbal duel between Mayor Kevin Dumas and his challenger, City Councilor John Davis, about whether or not Davis has put up too many signs advertising his candidacy. Puh-leeze. B) Darryl Hanlin continuing to thump about his idea that Attleboro should reverse course on its revitalization plans and concentrate on developing entertainment venues. One of the things I find annoying about these two lines of political talk is that they show a lack of knowledge of city political history. More than a nuisance, this bodes poorly for the future of politics in Attleboro. Let's take the sign issue first: Davis says he has posted 200 signs. I've probably read 100 of them and don't have any reason not to believe him. But at this mid-summer juncture of the 1976 mayoral election, there were 400 signs up - twice as many, if my math is correct - for the late Gerald Keane, who was running against Mayor Raymond Macomber. "Signs don't vote," Macomber supporters were fond of saying. And, of course, they don't. But Keane's first campaign goal was to create the perception that he was a viable candidate. He did that first by defying the conventional wisdom of the time that local candidates should not campaign AT ALL in the summer for fear of annoying voters during vacation time. Keane ran hard in the hot months, had advertising banners flown over the city on July 4, put on cookouts and such for supporters and had all those signs put up. When he came out victorious in the November election to oust Macomber after three terms and start three of his own, Keane's call for the firing of the public works superintendent of the time was probably the decisive factor. But the signs, and the idea they may have created that there was a Keane groundswell afoot, no doubt played a role in the win. Granted, this transpired a couple of years before Dumas was born, but he ought to restudy the sign factor. As for Hanlin's call for development of entertainment venues, he might want to talk to former Mayor Brenda Reed, who succeeded Keane in the corner office. During her term, she talked about the possibility of a civic or performing arts center downtown. Did we mention that it was her one term? The civic center idea alone was not what turned the election over to the late Kai Shang to start his three terms as mayor. But it factored in with other issues in a way that Shang supporters used to portray her as out of touch with the economic and cultural realities of Attleboro. Perhaps surprisingly, the performing arts center idea didn't die there. It has been talked up in the city's recurring revitalization plans, but has been dropped. And wisely, we think, when we look at the failure to come up to promise for such projects as the revitalization of the Orpheum Theater in Foxboro. In any event, reversing course on the plans to develop more housing downtown and therefore strengthen its position as a market, strikes us as unwise - and, thankfully, nigh on to impossible. Fortunately, this is an early juncture. Indeed, the number of candidates on the ballot can increase until Friday's deadline for filing nomination papers. Hanlin promises other proposals and we look forward to more from Dumas and Davis. Hopefully, this will evolve into a campaign of interest to the 23 percent of the registered voters who participated in the last mayoral election. Maybe they could even get the 77 percent of stay-at-homes off their duffs. One thing's for sure, signs and entertainment centers won't do it. MARK FLANAGAN is Opinion Page editor of The Sun Chronicle. He can be reached at 508-236-0335 or by e-mail to mflanagan@thesunchronicle.com.