WELCOME

I would like to congratulate Margaret Serpa for retaining her seat on the Edgartown Board of Selectmen for a fourth term.   I hope she has the  perseverance to address the many issues that came up during this campaign.

I also want to extend a heart-felt thanks to those who continuously gave of their time and support on my behalf.  These people ranged from those who gave time to spread the word of my candidacy and concerns, to those who gave me the support needed to meet the physical and emotional demands of campaigning.  Others, who feared retribution, took me into their confidence and spoke freely of their concerns.  Some helped me find information, contacts and sign locations.  Then there were those who showed up repeatedly on Election Day to spend long stints holding signs or bringing food. 

People I hadn’t seen in years came by to wish me luck and cast their votes.  I am impressed and invigorated by the support and dedication of the people who helped me along the way, and all of you who came out to support me.

Although we lost by 107 votes, this is the closest anyone has come to winning against an incumbent in Edgartown for over 30 years.  I am disappointed by the loss, but more importantly I am in disbelief of the low voter turnout.  The results show the incumbent garnered the support of roughly 17% of the registered voters and I had 14%.  This means that 69% of the registered voters in Edgartown did not exercise their right as an American citizen to vote, a right that Americans for over 200 years have fought and died for. 

I will run again, and in the meantime will continue to push the issues put forward by the people of Edgartown.  I am planning to stay in touch with the contacts I have made and continue to regularly attend the various town board and committee meetings.  I will be monitoring progress in communication and transparency in town government, as well as pushing for more long-term planning. 

The website I have used during my campaign (www.townofedgartown.org) will be transformed from a campaign website, to a political forum for Edgartown, acting as a watchdog for what our leaders are doing, as well as a place for people to freely bring forth creative solutions and ideas.

Regardless of which candidate you supported, I want to thank everyone who participated in our American electoral process.

Bob Fynbo

I have added some of the comments that have come in since the election to the “Feedback” section (scroll towards the bottom). 

After April 20^th, 2008 you will need to come to this site directly at www.townofedgartown.org as the redirect from www.bobfynbo.com will no longer be in effect.  My woodworking website (www.bobfynbo.com) will have a link on the bottom of the page to this site, but you will no longer automatically be sent to this site.

We will change this site to a political forum and watchdog for Edgartown politics.  It will continue to have the same “look and feel”, but we will have content on the various board’s and commission’s activities, as well as links to other relevant websites.  We will have reports and minutes available that are not currently found on other sites, as well as links to the ones that are hosted elsewhere.

We will also now be able to ask questions and provide content that I could not do as a candidate.  If you have questions, I’ll find the answers.  I will publicly seek data and information for residents of Edgartown.  We’ll even have a “Rumors” section to air and track down the [“I heard from so and so that…”] rumors from the street.

If there is information or content you’d like to see displayed, please use the “Feedback” section and let me know. This will be YOUR site.  We need to attack the voter apathy in Edgartown so we can improve the pathetic (31%) voter turnout.  What part of “democratic republic” are these people not getting?

Let me hear from you.  Things in town are going to get worse over the next year as issues I discovered during the campaign start to play out.  I will cover some of these things on the new site.  The new site will require a lot of work on my part, so I’ll put the work into it if you want to participate.  If you want to have a part in this site, take on a responsibility, or provide information on a regular basis, let me know as  I can use all the help I can get. 

As for the technical results, the incumbent had support of 17% of the registered voters, and I received 14%.  Although I lost by 100 votes, it was still the closest selectman’s race in Edgartown for over 30 years.  There was a lot I didn’t foresee as a newcomer to politics, and there is a lot that will need some time to sink in.  The primary item I didn’t see coming was the level of support that the other two selectmen would provide for the incumbent.  They put up signs in front of their businesses at the start, and continued with very visible public support all the way through to standing out and holding signs on Election Day in front of the polls.  I did not realize I would be running against all three of them which makes a 100 vote difference seem much more impressive.  It was a vote about change in the direction of town politics, not against one particular candidate.