Towns County GOP targeted in ‘egging’ attack, signs reported stolen

YOUNG HARRIS, Ga. – FYN received information on Jan. 27 that the Towns Republican Party headquarters in Young Harris was targeted in an overnight “egging” incident. FYN spoke with Towns County GOP Chairwoman Besty Young, with Young stating that she is “shocked” by the political attack. “In all my years in politics, I have never had anything like an egging happen before,” Young said, concerned that the incident could be the start of an escalating situation.

Towns County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Terry Conner confirmed that an incident report was taken by a responding deputy and that the matter will be followed up with an investigation. Conner said that the offense is related to criminal trespass, given the fact that less than an estimated $500 in property damage occurred.

Young later informed FYN that a sheriff’s office investigator collected the eggshells from the scene to process as evidence.

FYN was additionally contacted by Jeanie Loiacono, an office volunteer for the Towns County Republican Pary. Loiacono reported that Trump campaign signs have been disappearing from the area. Loiacono said that the issue was brought to the attention of Towns County Sheriff’s Office Captian Jim Couch over the weekend at the candidate’s meet-and-greet event, with Couch advising the public to report the theft of campaign signage to authorities. “I guarantee that Couch is going be the next sheriff,” the GOP volunteer began, adding that the allegedly stolen Trump signs were secured with zip ties to prevent wind damage and deter theft. “If the signs are stolen from private property and the people are caught, it’s criminal trespass.”

FYN reached out to the Towns County Democratic Party, offering an opportunity to weigh-in on the alleged , overnight attack. The Towns County Democrats did not respond to FYN’s request for comment prior to publication.

It should be noted that no assumptions as to who may be responsible for perpetrating the incident were issued by the Towns County Republican Party.

“Throwing perishables in protest has a long and often illustrious history,” the Guardian reported in 2015. “In AD63 the Roman governor Vespasian was pelted with turnips by subjects fed up with his punitive policies. Eggs made an appearance in the middle ages when prisoners were regularly put in stocks and pelted with them. Elizabethan theatre-goers threw rotten eggs to protest against bad acting, which some might say is not so dissimilar to their use in the theatre of politics today. And in Middlemarch, set in the 1830s, George Eliot was familiar enough with the practice to subject Mr. Brooke to the humiliating fate of a substantial egging during an election speech: “Here an unpleasant egg broke on Mr. Brooke’s shoulder… then came a hail of eggs, chiefly aimed at the image, but occasionally hitting the original, as if by chance.”