MONROE — Green County’s Highway Commissioner and chairman of the New Glarus Town Board was set to appear in Green County Circuit Court last Tuesday, accused of stealing a campaign sign and another misdemeanor count of obstructing police.
Chris Narveson, 62, has been the town board’s chair since 2015 and has been a member of the board for nearly two decades. He handily defeated Rob Ready, 401-351, the former Hazmat Team Leader for the Madison Fire Department, to win reelection last April, 2025. And as such, Ready is the alleged victim in the case.
According to a criminal complaint, Ready told investigators that one of his campaign signs had been removed from a location where the owner had reportedly given him permission to place it.
The report was made on March 24.
“It was reported that a political sign was removed from the property and a witness observed a subject removing it,” said an officer in the criminal complaint. “I made phone contact with the reporting person regarding this incident.”
Ready reportedly said he had received permission from a property owner to place the sign along Zentner Road in the area. The property owner told cops that Narveson had stopped by his property on March 22 to talk about his campaign. After engaging in a friendly conversation, Narveson then asked if he could place a sign. But the homeowner declined, and Narveson then left the property in his truck.
“(VICTIM 2) advised he had a ‘funny feeling’ and followed behind in his vehicle,” said the complaint. “He advised that as he was just about cresting the hill, he observed NARVESON’s black Dodge Ram truck pulled over and Narveson ‘throwing (VICTIM 1)’s sign in his truck’.”
Contacted by police a short time later by phone, Narveson denied the accusations. He was later arrested and issued a signature bond.
Fights over political sign placement is goes back centuries, but even in the digital age in local races, signs still have an impact.
A recent study led by Donald Green, a political science professor at Columbia University, found that political signs can make a difference of “somewhere between 1 and 2 percentage points on average,” according to NPR News in a published report.
Narveson’s margin of victory was 50 votes, or about 6.7 percent (53.3% to 46.6%).
Narveson filed a motion to dismiss the obstruction count, but the motion was denied by the court on December 5, 2025.
If convicted, each charge against Narveson could result in a nine-month jail sentence and $10,000 fine.
Narveson did not comment by press time.