Cynthia Stead, one of the two Republican candidates running for two seats on the Barnstable County Commission, is worried that voters will skip the commissioner race entirely.
“I’m the last person on the last page of the ballot,” Stead says. “People are going to waltz in, vote for Harris or Trump, and walk away.”
But it’s important for Cape Codders to vote in local races, she says. “Voters need to care because there is a great deal of money at stake.”
Stead moved to Cape Cod in 1981 when her husband opened an upholstery shop, John Monroe Quality Upholstery, in Dennis Port. She had previously been a clerk for the city of Worcester, part of what she jokingly calls the “hack-o-rama” of local government.
She has also worked as an IRS clerk, a legislative aide to former state representatives Tom George and Shirley Gomes, and a statewide secretary for the Massachusetts Republican Party.
She also wrote hundreds of opinion columns for the Cape Cod Times between 2006 and 2022.
“They offered me money to spout off opinions,” she says. “I mean, c’mon.”
As a county commissioner, Stead says, she would be a “fiscal hawk,” watching over the other commissioners to ensure they handle the county’s money responsibly. “We have a habit of starting a program like putting on a show in a barn without actually showing that it’s needed,” she says. “Instead, the county should be serving the towns, asking, ‘What can we do that would be helpful to you?’ ”
Stead supports county funding of some programs — “the county dredge is an extremely valuable service,” she says, especially because of “all these god-awful hurricanes” — but she says that other programs, such as Serving the Health Insurance Needs of Everyone (SHINE), are better funded by state agencies like the Office of Elder Affairs.
“We have a habit of taking programs from other people and recreating them as in-house programs,” she says.
Meanwhile, Stead thinks the county is neglecting local projects like the Orleans District Court building, which she says is “falling apart,” and Children’s Cove, the child advocacy center for Cape Cod and the Islands.
Stead supports the passage of ballot Question #6, which would allow the Barnstable Assembly of Delegates “to increase, decrease, add or omit items to the annual budget” proposed by the county commissioners.
“It’s preposterous to have double-digit millions of dollars in the hands of three commissioners with no oversight,” she says.
Accessibility is one of Stead’s top policy priorities, especially in the use of public funds, she says. She advocates for “all-abilities construction,” which includes wider doorways for wheelchair accessibility, grab bars in bedrooms and bathrooms, and drawer cabinets for ease of access.
Making such accommodations a priority would create “a generational change in our housing units that benefits all abilities,” she says.
Stead believes the county “could do a hell of a lot more” to help people of all abilities, especially seniors.
“The biggest crisis in this nation is senior homelessness,” she says. “It stems from women being underpaid for decades. If you’re an older woman who never married, you’re in dire straits.”
Stead says that her campaign slogan — “Make Barnstable County Great Again” — is meant to be “lighthearted.” She isn’t worried about alienating potential voters with her version of Donald Trump’s signature slogan.
“The county does need to be made great again,” she says. “Anyone alienated by that wasn’t going to vote for me anyway.
“Most of the issues that affect the towns aren’t partisan in any way,” Stead says. “Julian [Cyr] is my state senator now,” she adds, “and the things we disagree on aren’t relevant to this race.”
