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County Commissioner

The general election ballot is now set: Republican incumbents Victoria Lods and Douglas Albrecht will face Democratic challengers John Capizola and Yolanda Garcia Balicki.

This race is notable for both what has changed and what hasn’t. On one hand, Republicans have, over the past few years, been more consistently transparent and accessible—attending public events and offering opportunities for voters to hear from them directly. On the other hand, with the recent decision to make the bi-weekly Republican breakfasts Republicans-only, that relative advantage in openness will almost certainly shrink.

For voters, this means we are heading into another election season where getting clear, reliable, and timely information may once again feel like a scavenger hunt. Part of why this project exists is because there is no centralized, official way to access *comprehensive* candidate and issues-based information when your sample ballot arrives. What should be a simple afternoon of reviewing 3rd party vetted platforms too often turns into weeks, months, or years of emails, phone calls, and tracking down events.

Right now, Capizola and Balicki have a low transparency and accessibility rating—but that is easily fixable. Filling out a candidate questionnaire takes an hour or two. Participating in a radio interview takes another hour. Recording a longer podcast later in the season might take a few more. In other words, with an afternoon’s effort, they could make sure every Cumberland County voter has free, well-promoted access to their positions before November.

At the same time, while Lods and Albrecht are ahead of the curve thanks to past engagement, there are still four months to go, and anything can happen—politically or practically. Issues evolve, priorities shift, and if there is no longer an open-door forum for updates, we risk ending up exactly where we started two years ago: having to invest full-time hours just to be reasonably informed.

If that is genuinely the baseline expectation for civic engagement in 2025—that citizens must piece everything together themselves—we have to ask serious questions about whether that’s a fair or sustainable system.

In short, this race is wide open in terms of how transparent and responsive it could become. I’ll be watching closely—and doing my best to make sure the voters of Cumberland County don’t have to do all the work alone.

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