All around the city, neighbors have posted signs for presidential candidates on their lawns. Some households have two for different candidates, indicating spouses that disagree. But one East Side Drive lawn supports three signs, for Democrats Barack Obama and Bill Richardson and Republican John McCain.

Rep. Tara Reardon and mayor-elect Jim Bouley, both Democrats, live there. So it made us wonder: Who's the Republican in that household? That would be Reardon's son, Matt Flanders, 23.

"It's unfortunate how my other family members can't see the light," Bouley said.

The family had agreed to disagree and post no signs because of it, he said. Then, one day Bouley came home to find a McCain sign out. Flanders told him, "Just wait until I get the 4-by-8."

Bouley answered with his own lawn sign for Obama, and Reardon followed with her Richardson sign. As for 9-year-old Jackson Bouley, he's for Obama by default.

"I tell him if he wants Santa to come, he's got to be for Obama," Bouley said.

CHELSEA CONABOY

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