Westfield Town Council Election: Is This The Best We Can Do

     Empty stores downtown, home values dropping, landmark theater closing........that’s what one Westfield town council candidate is highlighting this summer and fall leading into this year’s November municipal elections.


Bodmer Campaign Literature

     He started a Facebook group titled “Save the Rialto” claiming to be part of a “team” looking to resurrect a cinema of foregone nostalgia in an ever changing economy that has seen downtown “mom and pop” stores shuttering their doors and being replaced by restaurants, banks, offices, apartments, condos, and large chain stores, the latter able to absorb quarterly losses that family run businesses can’t.
     Rich Bodmer, a candidate for town council in the 2nd Ward seems to portray himself as the savior of all Westfield’s problems while offering nothing, no solutions as to how he will solve Westfield’s issues, issues that have been around for over a decade.


Bodmer Campaign Literature

     Bodmer has the support of the Westfield Republican Committee made up of some current and past Westfield town council members that were unable to fix the same problems that Bodmer highlights in his campaign literature.
     The issues that Mr. Bodmer highlights such as the downtown vacancies, have been ongoing for over the past 12 years.  His running mates LoGrippo and Stokes have been in the same seats he is seeking for the past 8 of those 12 years.  His targeting of these town officials, or any town officials for that matter, without any plans or solutions is the height of hubris.


2nd Ward Candidate Rich Bodmer

     His blocking of constituents on his campaign pages, who inquire as to his solutions and proposals, and offer some suggestions predicts the future behavior of this candidate if he ever becomes a town council representative.
     Further troubling, is candidate Bodmer's use of a tragic situation to bolster a following for his election.  Candidate Bodmer's creation of the "Save the Rialto" Facebook group has proven to be nothing more than campaign rhetoric starting with subtle attacks on his opposition, false information, no recommendations or plans, and taking the plans of the Mayor as his own.


Westfield Republican Committee

     His supporters on that page post hyperbolic negative slurs such as "demonrats." 
     Blocking, deleting, lying, fabricating....is this what we want as a representative for the Town of Westfield?
     The fact of the matter is that Rich Bodmer’s “Save the Rialto” Facebook group is a campaign page in disguise.
     Any wannabe politician that tramples free speech, censors comments, and hijacks the ideas of another claiming them to be his own, has no respect for the constituents he seeks to serve.
     As a registered Republican I am highly disappointed with the Westfield Republican leadership for choosing a candidate who engages in these actions, to run for elected office as a representative of our town.