Thirty years ago, the US Senate defeated anti-billboard legislation 60–39. Robert Campbell, currently a Lamar Regional Manager based in Mobile, AL, was in Washington, DC, when that historic vote occurred. Billboard Insider asked Campbell to tell us what happened. We thought of Robert because he’s from Alabama, home of Senator Richard Shelby, 86. Shelby — who voted in favor of billboards in 1991 — just announced that he won’t seek re-election in 2022.

That billboard showdown vote in 1991 . . . what was the Senate voting on?

A bad bill. It would have allowed removal of billboards without compensation (“amortization”), banned new billboards along Interstates and the Primary system, and more.  This vote was life or death for the billboard industry.

What do you remember about that day?

We were in Washington, DC, for an OAAA meeting in June of 1991. Nancy (Fletcher) came into the room and said, “Senator Barbara Mikulski put us over the top.”

On the floor of the Senate, Senator Mikulski said she liked billboards and she used billboards when she ran for Baltimore City Council. She said that cleaning up Chesapeake Bay was a real environmental issue, not billboards.

That 60-39 vote in Congress was 30 years ago; are any senators from that era still in the Senate?

Very few. Our senior senator from Alabama, Richard Shelby, is one of the last remaining senators who voted on billboards in 1991. He plans to retire. Senator Shelby is a great customer.  His campaign bought billboards statewide, and he won big statewide (Shelby was re-elected with 64 percent in 2016).

What lessons should we remember from that Senate vote in 1991?

If you look at the 60 senators who voted for billboards, they were all over the political spectrum — left to right — and from all over the country. So the lesson is: the Billboard Party is a big inclusive tent.

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