A political sign for an Irving City Council candidate was vandalized on the first day of early voting with a spray-painted swastika, leading observers to claim it was an attempt to warn voters against the alleged “Nazi-like” actions of the candidate.
On the morning of April 24, a sign outside of the Irving Arts Center supporting Matt Varble for Irving City Council District 5 was spray-painted with a swastika, a symbol of the German Nazi party led by Adolf Hitler during the first half of the 1900s.
Guy McCord, who used to live in the same neighborhood as Varble, has been charged by the Irving Police Department with two Class-C misdemeanors for allegedly defacing the large sign and removing several smaller ones. He has cooperated with law enforcement and will face his charges in the Irving Municipal Court.
McCord declined to confirm whether or not he committed the infractions but explained to The Dallas Express that he and Matt Varble have an extensive history of personal disagreement based upon his time living in University Parks HOA, of which Varble is the board president.
“I would bet the reason there’s a swastika on his sign is because he acts like a Nazi. What do Nazis do? They shut down dissent,” McCord told The Dallas Express.
McCord and Varble have a history of personal disagreement which eventually led to the HOA, headed by Varble, suing McCord for an expedited foreclosure against McCord over several thousand dollars of contested fines. The disagreement was eventually resolved by McCord agreeing to pay the disputed fines, which McCord was never refunded, after which he moved out of the neighborhood only a short time ago.
While serving as the University Park HOA president, Varble became a moderator for the neighborhood on Nextdoor, a community social media platform, and began to delete posts critical of his leadership, McCord claimed.
“He got himself appointed as a moderator on the Nextdoor website and what he would do was anybody that disagreed with his position, he would delete their posts,” McCord said. “That’s what he’s known for.”
“Don’t take my word for it—talk to everybody else,” McCord continued. “If he doesn’t like what you have to say, he does everything he can to silence you. That’s just like a Nazi.”
“He also sent messages to one of our female homeowners in the neighborhood basically calling her a Nazi because she was standing up to protect the innocence of children,” McCord added.
As McCord explained, messages obtained by The Dallas Express show Varble comparing his political opponents to Nazis for wanting to move allegedly pornographic books out of the children’s section of public libraries.
Additionally, several other residents took to social media to report that they too received similar messages from Varble.
Varble’s actions as board president, including censoring HOA opposition, have generated vocal outcry from long-term members of the community, as reported by The Dallas Express.
In another lawsuit by the HOA against a resident, Jason Broeckel similarly alleged, “Mr. Varble has extensively used Nextdoor to argue against the community’s criticisms. In 2022, he obtained ‘reviewer’ privileges on Nextdoor, which enable him to delete posts by community members.”
In messages disclosed in the litigation, Varble admitted to using his moderator status to remove resident posts, warning Broeckel, “If you don’t want that to happen then don’t insult me or other people and quit making disrespectful statements.”
In response to the incident, Varble has claimed that McCord is a “known supporter of my opponent,” and that one of his opponents, Mark Cronenwett, “chose to do nothing when he knew what was happening.”
However, McCord denies that he supports Cronenwett and explained to The Dallas Express that while he has met and briefly spoken with Cronenwett, he does not know the candidate very well or what his policies are.
While the two men encountered each other at the Irving Arts Center the night before the sign was defaced, McCord explained to The Dallas Express that the exchange did not go beyond basic pleasantries. McCord additionally did allow a neighbor to place a Cronenwett sign in his yard but noted again that he did not know much about the candidate.
“I’m not on the guy’s campaign,” McCord continued. “I don’t have anything to do with his campaign.”
Varble has further alleged that Cronenwett was aware of the defacement before it occurred and allowed it to happen. “Why did Mark allow this to happen in front of him and not contact the police or try to stop it?” Varble asked on social media.
Irving Police Department has refuted Varble’s claims, with public information officer Robert Reeves telling The Dallas Express that he was “disappointed to see those accusations. Mark was a witness and essential in helping us identify the suspect.”
“He neither condoned nor participated in this incident,” Officer Reeves said.
Regarding the incident itself, Reeves explained, “This definitely was not a hate crime. Just a very poor decision by the suspect, and once he realized that he contacted us to handle the situation.”
Irving PD confirmed that the case was closed after McCord went to the North substation, met with an officer, and received a citation for criminal mischief and theft under $750.
When presented with Irving PD’s confirmation that Cronenwett had nothing to do with the incident, Matt Varble did not respond to a request for comment.
McCord was insistent to The Dallas Express that “the likely reason Varble has a swastika on his sign is because he acts like a Nazi, by definition, as shown by his conduct over the last year.”
“My experience with Matt Varble is he never found somebody else’s money that he could not find a way to spend,” he continued, referring to the University Park HOA spending while Varble was president.
Financial documents show that the HOA overspent the 2022 budget by $348,805. When asked about the financial situation of the association, Varble told The Dallas Express, “Due to my legal responsibility and obligations to our association, I have no public comment.”
McCord concluded by emphasizing, “Varble was not good for my old HOA and he would certainly not be good for Irving based solely on his own conduct.”
Mark Cronenwett denounced the defacement, telling The Dallas Express, “Neither I, nor my campaign, nor the Families for Irving PAC, nor any of its volunteers have anything to do with this appalling event.”
“It has to do with a personal quarrel between two individuals who are not associated with me, my campaign, or the PAC,” he continued. “I have told the police everything that I know, and placed the matter in their capable hands.”
“All candidates and their campaign materials must be treated with respect. Irving deserves better than this,” Cronenwett said.