All good things must come to an end, and it appears the niceness of this year’s city elections has reached its closure.

For weeks the mayoral and aldermen races were relatively quiet. Candidates were knocking on doors, sure, but the mud was left quietly sitting on the ground.

Wednesday morning good clean politics ended and crime began. More than 100 of Ward 4 alderman candidate Tony Fields’ signs were stolen — some right out of his own yard.

Fields and his opponents are staying positive, blaming the theft on a childish prank and Fields’ opponents have even offering to help him replace them. That’s great news, and we hope the thieves out there can learn from this example.

Now that the first egg has been thrown, so to speak, it’s important to remember that the best election is a clean election.

Candidates and their supporters should talk about themselves, not other people. And as Fields’ opponent Donnell Newsome said, signs don’t vote, so leave them alone.

Often it’s not the candidates who sling the most mud; it’s their supporters. But that type of “support” only reflects negatively on the candidate. It can harm more than it helps.

Our city needs honest, upstanding leaders who have honest, upstanding friends and family.

Don’t ruin the chances of your chosen candidate by playing in the mud.