Letters Of Endorsement (continued)

To the Editor:

 Democracies fail when their elected officials no longer effectively represent the interests of their constituents. While sometimes a willful act, it is more often than not a question of not fully understanding the concerns and the hopes of the people. By this token, I can think of no Newtown resident more suited to the task of representing me than Paul Lundquist, who deserves your vote for Legislative Council.

It’s not just that Paul is a good guy, exemplar family man, excellent drummer, and decent mountain biker. Paul was also the driving force behind an ambitious survey of Newtown residents two years ago, “The Way Things Are in Newtown.” Even the title suggests Paul’s desire to remove politics from the critical process of assessing how the town views itself, its services, its character and, above all, its aspirations.

 Make no mistake, this was no easy feat. The survey came at a time when the very pages of this fine organ were overflowing with back-and-forth letters over the town’s handling of Fairfield Hills. As a result, Paul’s pro-bono offer to give taxpayers an objective voice was greeted in some quarters with great suspicion.

 The library board, for example, voted against supporting the survey, a real shame given its de facto role as an intellectual forum for the town. Afterwards, my father, who is on the library board, asked me if I knew Paul. I did, and although I was familiar with the project, had to admit that I had not up to that point questioned his political bona fides in any way. So I engaged Paul on the subject and was ever more impressed by the project he had voluntarily undertaken.

What became clear was that Paul had no political leaning and no preconceived notion of right or wrong answers on any particular topic. As a result of meetings with topic experts across various boards and councils while creating detailed question content for the survey, he become deeply informed on each topic, and he enjoyed sharing this knowledge.

In fact, even though I grew up in Newtown and felt I understood the town’s issues well, the survey was a real eye-opener. I know that Paul’s only goal in conducting this research was to try to educate people about important town issues. Over these past couple years, Paul has taken it upon himself to stay informed, and also focused more recently on observing and understanding the day-to-day actions and detailed budget deliberations of the Board of Education.

These experiences help create a knowledge platform that should be applied to a seat on the Legislative Council. Most importantly, Paul’s motivation for devoting so much of his personal time to these activities is simple: he clearly loves this town, he adores its people, and he wants what is best for his children. I can’t imagine a better candidate to represent Newtowners than Paul.

Rob and Hannah Cox

136 Castle Hill Road, Newtown                                                                     October 20, 2009