Goodyear police investigate campaign sign damage

The investigation remains ongoing, and we have not established a motive.”

— Sgt. Mayra Reeson, Goodyear Police Department

Liberty Elementary School District governing board candidate Paul Bixler says all nine of her campaign signs have disappeared, taking away a key part of her effort to reach voters before the Nov. 3 election.

Bixler said the nine signs she put up in Goodyear and Buckeye are now missing. Goodyear police confirmed Bixler filed a report and said investigators are reviewing video footage. Sgt. Mayra Reeson said signs belonging to multiple candidates were damaged.

“The investigation remains ongoing, and we have not established a motive,” Reeson said. “It would be premature to speculate whether any particular candidate was specifically targeted.”

Bixler said her son came from Flagstaff to help install the signs, including one near the Safeway in Goodyear’s Estrella community around Sept. 30.

While she was traveling, a friend discovered that sign had been pushed to the ground, bending its metal supports, Bixler said. Her friend helped straighten it, but it was later spray-painted and then disappeared, she said.

Bixler provided a photograph showing black spray paint across her portrait and the sign’s lettering. She said she did not witness the damage or removal firsthand.

She recalled spending more than $900 on the campaign signs.

“I really depended on those signs. That was my biggest way of keeping my face in front of people,” Bixler said.

Bixler, a transgender woman, described the incidents against a backdrop of harassment she said she has faced since 2022, including demands that she resign during her previous board service. She said the disappearance of all her signs was more extensive than what she experienced during her last campaign.

“Nobody should be treated like this,” Bixler said.

She said she does not feel directly threatened, although her sons have expressed concerns about her safety.

Bixler served a four-year term on the board ending in December 2024 and lost her reelection bid that year. The district serves more than 4,500 students in preschool through eighth grade across eight schools in Buckeye and Goodyear.

Bixler, Maeghan Kinnan and Ashley Wright are competing for two board seats in the Nov. 3 election. The police investigation remains ongoing.

Noah Flug
Reporter | Litchfield Park and Goodyear

nflug@iniusa.org

Community: Litchfield Park and Goodyear

Education: Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication with a minor in Digital Audiences from Arizona State University

Random Fact: I only have one biological cousin.

Hobbies: Watching movies and TV, spending time with my friends, aspiring stoic.