Bees can’t talk. They can dance, but they can’t talk. So there’s no way for them to communicate to humans whether they supported an incumbent or challenger.
But John Ashbaugh doesn’t care. No matter the bees’ political leanings—which, let’s be honest, likely don’t even exist, considering the queen they serve under—the San Luis Obispo City Council victor is aiming to build them homes.
On election night, though it was hours before polls closed and his next stint as a public servant was cemented, Ashbaugh invited supporters who displayed his campaign signs in their yards to bring the now-useless plastic sheets to the law offices of Stein, Casciola, and Galambos at 1119 Palm St. in downtown San Luis Obispo.
Scott Jeffreys, who teaches at Cal Poly and supervises the school’s Beekeeping Enterprise Project, will collect the green-and-white signs to use later in the year as a lab project focused on building temporary hives.
Ashbaugh noted that he’s now termed out, so there’s really nothing else the signs can be used for in his camp.
This article appears in Nov 8-15, 2012.