Five Answers that Frame my Campaign (Updated)

Updated November 5, 2023

To Enfield’s Voters:

In May 2023, as it does each election cycle, the League of Women Voters (LWV) Education Fund asked local candidates for municipal office to answer five key questions.  I responded.  Then, again, in October of this year, the League renewed its candidate questioning in preparation for the November 7th General Election.  Again, I replied, one of the few Enfield Town candidates to do so.  The questions the League of Women Voters asked, and the answers I most recently submitted, are posted below. The League asked candidates about themselves, their campaign objectives, the key issues and challenges they sought to address, and how they planned to address them.  Candidate profiles and answers would then be published online as part of the LWV’s Vote411 project.

But for me, these answers stand far more important than just responses to one organization’s inquiry.  For me, they frame my campaign; each answer addressing concisely how I perceive Enfield in 2023, how we might make it a better place, and how my service on the Enfield Town Board may work toward our problems’ solution.

Other candidates may choose different approaches; identify different challenges.  Or they may choose not to respond at all. But here’s how I view our community’s political landscape.  Consider these responses cornerstones of a campaign not just for this candidate’s reelection, but also as we as a Community of One search of a brighter, stronger Enfield.

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LWV Question: Why are you running for elected office?

My Answer: An incumbent should run on his or her record.  And I invite you to review my record as you make your choice.  I’ve identified four key priorities of my campaign to continue as your Councilperson:  Inclusion; Open Government; Shared Responsibility; and Peace.

Inclusion:  We are One Enfield.  I am an advocate, not an activist.  I listen to you and seek to act on your behalf.  During the past four years, I’ve fought to keep the Enfield offices of Town Clerk and Highway Superintendent elected.  I’ve spoken before the Tompkins County Legislature on behalf of the Enfield Food Pantry and the Community Council.  And I’ve gone before the Industrial Development Agency in support of equitable taxation of solar farms.

Open Government:  I respectfully disagree with our Town Board majority’s decision to keep our Town’s advisory committees closed to press, public, and even to other Board members.  Enfield Government is the People’s house.  And the doors of Democracy should never be slammed in the public’s face.

Shared responsibility:  Housing developers and solar farms should bear their fair share of our community’s burdens in exchange for the benefits we provide them.  We should foster freedom, but also pay respect to Enfield’s rural tradition.  That includes a neighbor’s right to water, clean air, and the ability to farm.

Peace:  The one, most common complaint I’ve heard these past four years is that we in Enfield government fight too much and cooperate too little.  I believe we’ve improved in recent years, but we still have a ways to go.  Lowering the temperature at meetings comes not from surrendering one’s principles just to appease the other side.  Rather, it comes from respecting each other’s opinions and seeking true compromise for the benefit of all.  Because, in the end, Democracy works best amidst a climate of civility, tranquility, and trust.

LWV Question: What skills and experiences qualify you for the office you have chosen?

I offer here this answer, expanded from the word limitations given me by the LWV:

I’ll borrow at times the words I used when I first answered this question in 2019.  I’d like to think my gray hair counts for something.  I’ll also now add, my four years’ experience as your Enfield Councilperson should count too.  These past four years, I’ve helped shepherd annual budgets to approval, joined my colleagues in building a Salt Barn, and weathered my fair share of debate and controversy.  I hope I’ve polished the art of compromise and restraint.  I’ve also found that a community leader’s strongest attribute lies in his willingness to listen to all points of view. 

Enfield’s Switzer farm; Buck Hill Road.

I was raised on a farm.  I learned to love the rural life and to relate to those who value the closeness of family and community.  Rural roots matter in Enfield.  When we in Town Government talk about Enfield’s rural tradition, I know what that means.  We are not—and should never be—just a town of houses and businesses.  We need open spaces, corn fields, and cows.

 These past four years, I’ve written local news on my website for a reason:  I’m a journalist at heart.  I began covering local, Tompkins County news for WVBR, while a student at Cornell more than 50 years ago.  I continued for nearly a decade after graduation at WTKO.  I attended Enfield Town Board meetings when Bob Linton was Supervisor.  I know what a five-member Town Board does; when they sit bleary-eyed until 11 PM to buy a dump truck. 

I’m a legal geek.  I love studying law.  And while I cannot practice the profession, I can research legal issues, evaluate conflicting arguments, and formulate reasoned decisions respectful of legal constraints.   

And as I stated four years ago, I believe I most qualify (now) to continue as Enfield Councilperson because of my open mind; my common-sense approach to our most pressing issues.   I do not place the word “activist” on my resume.  Yes, I’m passionate about many issues:  Democracy’s advancement; criminal justice reform; equality before the Law.  But when I enter public service as your Enfield Councilperson, I check my partisan passions at the door.  I have been elected to do the people’s business—your business—and to listen to your preferences first and foremost. 

Yes, listening is a Town Board member’s Number One responsibility.  I visit constituent homes and speak to hundreds of Enfield residents each election cycle.  Tell me your opinions.  Guide our Board’s actions.  Give life to Representative Democracy. 

And as I stated four years ago, I believe I most qualify (now) to continue as Enfield Councilperson because of my open mind; my common-sense approach to our most pressing issues.   I do not place the word “activist” on my resume.  Yes, I’m passionate about many issues:  Democracy’s advancement; criminal justice reform; equality before the Law.  But when I enter public service as your Enfield Councilperson, I check my partisan passions at the door.  I have been elected to do the people’s business—your business—and to listen to your preferences first and foremost. 

Yes, listening is a Town Board member’s Number One responsibility.  I visit constituent homes and speak to hundreds of Enfield residents each election cycle.  Tell me your opinions.  Guide our Board’s actions.  Give life to Representative Democracy. 

And as I stated four years ago, I believe I most qualify (now) to continue as Enfield Councilperson because of my open mind; my common-sense approach to our most pressing issues.   I do not place the word “activist” on my resume.  Yes, I’m passionate about many issues:  Democracy’s advancement; criminal justice reform; equality before the Law.  But when I enter public service as your Enfield Councilperson, I check my partisan passions at the door.  I have been elected to do the people’s business—your business—and to listen to your preferences first and foremost. 

Yes, listening is a Town Board member’s Number One responsibility.  I visit constituent homes and speak to hundreds of Enfield residents each election cycle.  Tell me your opinions.  Guide our Board’s actions.  Give life to Representative Democracy.

LWV Question: What are the most important issues or challenges facing the community you wish to represent that the office you are seeking can address?

My Answer: Issues come and issues go.  But the overarching systemic challenge facing Enfield today lies in our need to solidify a sense of community based on mutual respect, common purpose, and trust. 

Tired, but true to tradition. Enfield’s former Baptist Church

In June, our Town Board adopted a major change in governance.  We placed our fire protection services under an independent Fire District, headed by a five-person Board of Commissioners.  There’ve been growing pains, for sure.  And many financial questions beg for answers.  But as we make this transition, we, Enfield’s residents, must avoid the temptation to resort to our old habits: destructive factionalism and petty rivalries.  We must work together for the common good.  We must remember that the Fire Company, the Food Pantry, the Highway Department and the Community Council are allies, not adversaries, in serving this town.  Each addresses a need.  Each seeks a better Enfield.  Advancing a spirit of teamwork stands as Goal Number One as I ask you to grant me another term as Councilperson.

LWV Question: What short-term and long-term steps would you propose or support to address these issues or challenges?

My Answer: We, those who serve us and those who lead us, must work together as a team.  We must avoid seeking shelter in our cozy ideological foxholes, when the better course is to venture out, meet-in-the-middle and attempt to learn from those with whom we might initially disagree. 

One of our recent meetings.

When I joined our Town Board in 2020, the atmosphere became toxic.  I brought to the Board something different, a centrist viewpoint.  Certain people didn’t like it.  They sought to marginalize my participation until they could (maybe, someday) purge me from office.  Residents didn’t like the hostility.  I didn’t either.  Democracy took a hit for a while.   

That early experience taught me the value of open government.  Meetings get closed to shut out not just people, but also points of view.  When decisions get made outside of public meetings, those on the outside fear they’ve been outsmarted. 

We must open all meetings to full public participation.  And let’s recognize that hasty decisions can be among the worst.

LWV Question: How do you plan to communicate with the members of the community that you would represent in order to share information and receive feedback?

My Answer: Communication for me draws from two energy sources: The power of the pen and the power from putting left foot before right.

For the past four years, I’ve maintained a campaign website, bob-lynch-enfield.com.  Increasingly over time this site has morphed into a source for reporting the political news of Enfield and Tompkins County.   I put my talents to work and write objectively-driven stories that chronicle our community’s ongoing controversies and challenges.  With local print media effectively nonexistent, my website serves to inform.  It’s my way of paying back. 

But there’s also the need to meet the voter one-on-one.  And I view every resident equally worthy of a visit, whether you’re a Berniecrat or a MAGA Republican.  Let’s talk Enfield issues. 

Yes, maybe I look at politics differently.  My purpose is not to advance an agenda or to get my way at another’s expense.  I’m open to competing arguments; to be fair to all sides.  And one prominent resident recently said what makes me different is my willingness to change my own mind.  To that, I’d say, “Well, of course.”

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There, those are my answers. You know where I stand. You know what I believe in. I’d be honored to earn your vote, Tuesday, November 7th.

Bob Lynch

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