After the arrest of a Town of Oyster Bay worker on Nov. 6 for removing campaign signs, pols and strategists are looking more closely at campaign sabotage.

Nassau Police sources said that two 8th Precinct officers saw a Chevy pickup truck with its headlights off pull into a McDonald's parking lot in Plainview early Tuesday morning. The driver removed a campaign sign from the Plainview Diner. The officers then confronted him at a traffic stop and, after searching his vehicle, found 220 signs from Nassau Democratic candidates.

The man, Peter Guardino, 20, of North Massapequa , was arrested for allegedly stealing a re-election sign for Legis. Judy Jacobs (D-Woodbury). He was charged with criminal possession of stolen property in the fifth degree, for which he could be sentenced to fines and jail time. Guardino, according to Nassau Democrats, has ties to the Nassau GOP.

Campaign sabotage is nothing new. But rarely is someone caught red-, or in this case, blue-handed. Police say that Guardino also had in his possession many signs supporting Legis. David Mejias (D-Farmingdale), who just escaped with a narrow 220-vote victory against Republican Joseph Belisi. The rub, according to a Nov. 6 media advisory from the Nassau County Democratic Party, is that Guardino worked for Belisi as an employee of the Town of Oyster Bay , a GOP stronghold.

Nassau Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs said in the advisory, "The violation of free speech and democracy by the Belisi and GOP campaign is disgraceful."

Belisi denies knowing Guardino. "He's not an operative for me," Belisi says. In fact, Belisi claims, signs have been stolen from him, too. "I've had at least 250 signs stolen, maybe more. I've made police reports," he adds.

In other words, it happens to all sides. Political consultant Anthony Manetta dismisses campaign sabotage. "It's not really effective," he says.

Oyster Bay Town Supervisor John Venditto, a Republican, says that Guardino was not working with any campaign. "He's a laborer in the parks department," Venditto claims, saying they do know each other but denying any political involvement with him. "I've known Peter Guardino almost since the time he was born," Venditto recalls. "I'm very sorry to see him in a situation like this."

Manetta doesn't believe that stealing signs benefits anybody. "Signs do not win or lose campaigns," he maintains. More importantly, he says that the candidates are not engineering theft. "It's very rare that an elected official would ever direct anyone to vandalize or steal signs," says Manetta. "Many times it's people who think they are helping a campaign."