Sonoma County Republican Party endorses Tom Lynch for 5th District supervisor

Sonoma County’s Republican Party is backing Tom Lynch in the race to replace Efren Carrillo on the Board of Supervisors.

Lynch, a registered Democrat and fiscal watchdog, welcomed the endorsement.

“I’m a proud Democrat who is proud to get the support of the Republican Party,” said Lynch, 58. “If anyone has a problem with that, then don’t vote for me.”

Lynch is one of five candidates seeking the 5th District seat on the Board of Supervisors, which includes Roseland, Sebastopol and the county’s coastline. The other candidates are Noreen Evans, 61, an attorney and former state senator; Lynda Hopkins, 33, an organic farmer; Tim Sergent, a special education teacher; and Marion Chase, a county social services worker.

The election is June 7.

Lynch, a longtime west county resident and general contractor who has served as Carrillo’s appointee on the county’s Planning Commission since 2009, is a vocal critic of the county’s spending on employee pensions. After moves in the past decade to enrich benefits for retirees, those annual costs for taxpayers have risen more than 500 percent since 2000 to $113 million.

“I’m seeing more and more money go to unfunded retirement obligations and no longer funding basics like roads and infrastructure,” Lynch said. “We have to reinvent local government and restore all of these services that the county once provided.”

Edelweiss Geary, chairwoman of the local Republican Party, said Lynch gained the organization’s support because of his deep roots in the district and his experience on the Planning Commission.

“He also has some pretty solid conservative, common-sense opinions on how to run this county,” Geary said. “The entire Board of Supervisors is pretty liberal, so it’d be nice to elect someone to counter that.”

You can reach Staff Writer Angela Hart at 526-8503 or angela.hart@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ahartreports.