Vote for dedicated politicians

Whenever someone comes to me saying they want to run for office, I always ask them why. Then I tell them to go door to door. It helps if people have a reason to run. This is especially true of incumbents.

It’s hard to say everything is terrible, and you need to kick the bums out, if you’re one of the bums. In Tompkins, we have a number of people running for office, some incumbents, some not, but the question remains the same, “why?”

In Caroline, Peter Hoyt is running for town supervisor, and Tony Tavelli and Karyn Scott are running for town board. Dallas Micha is running for highway superintendent.

In Dryden, Ronald Szymanski is running for town board.

And in Lansing, Ed LaVigne is running for reelection as town supervisor, and Judy “Munson” Drake and Jeffrey Otto Norman are running for town board. Lansing incumbents who are running unopposed include clerk Debbie Munson, highway supervisor Cricket Purcell and Town Justice John Howell.

The only incumbent in the group running opposed is Ed LaVigne. While I ask our candidates why they’re running, I’m wondering if the Democratic side in that race does the same; this is actually my pitch to them to vote for Ed.

Ed was able to bring in a developer who’s building 72 affordable housing units. That’s not an easy task and cost him political capital, but it was capital well spent. He was able to work with the villages of Lansing and Cayuga Heights to extend sewer further into town at no taxpayer expense.

This is remarkable when you consider it took more than a decade and suffered several failed votes in the town. So far, two new water districts have been created. The town highway department laid the pipes saving the town tens of thousands of dollars. Ed’s hired a full-time planner and increased transparency by recording every town board meeting.

The town center is coming together with a brewery coming and more housing is being added to the town, including planned senior housing. The town is considering a solar law, and zoning is coming up. With the power plant closing, Ed’s working hard to bring state money in to offset the tax loss but is also working closely with the plant to create a data center.

Also, next year, the new shaft for Cargill should be close to completion, adding to the safety of the workers. Ed has been supportive of the project every step of the way. With all those accomplishments, it’s hard to see what someone would run on to oppose Ed, but I guess we’ll see.

All of these candidates can use your help. We’ll be having a get together at Lakewatch from 5:30 to 9 on Oct. 2. Congressman Tom Reed is scheduled to be there and state senators, Supreme Court candidates and local candidates will all be there. There will be food and drinks and a general sense of well-being.

The key to politics is showing up. All of the candidates I’ve mentioned have been hitting the street, meeting voters. The court candidates have been at events across the district; it’s been hard to miss them. Sen. Helming was just at the Lansing parade, and Congressman Reed was just at the county library for a town hall. The Lansing team has knocked on over a thousand doors, and Peter Hoyt, 600 doors.

Now, we need you to show up! We need you at the polls, but also, please come out and meet the candidates and consider giving them your vote.