Editorial

Why we urge you to vote for Anastasia Welsh Perrino for Barnstable County Register of Probate

A post which should be nonpartisan must be filled by a professional with experience
Attorney Anastasia Welsh Perrino has both

Anastasia Welsh Perrino is a working mother with a half-decade of professional experience as Assistant Register of the Barnstable Probate and Family Court, and as a member of the Massachusetts bar, she has specialized in family court and probate matters for fourteen years.

Anastasia with her family; sons  Andrew and Matthew and her husband Attorney Tom Perrino. Her father is recently-retired Judge Welsh who was greatly admired during his three decades on the bench. It's nice that "the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree."

She has the empathy and life experiences to best fill a position which most Cape Codders or members of their families may have reason to need some day.

Her opponent, State Representative Eric Turkington is a decent man who has spent twenty years on Beacon Hill but has little or no experience needed for this position.

Why Probate is different than other posts

This online newspaper has never before endorsed a candidate for office.  If we had it would almost certainly have been a Democrat, but the  Register's position transcends politics.

We have always been amused at a newspaper's habit of thinking it knows best. We don't claim such wisdom, only a concern that an office which affects so many local lives may be decided for political reasons rather than for the public's need.

Probate and Family Court is the court that assists the public with divorce, child custody, child support, protection from abuse, estate administration, adoption, guardianship and many other family matters. These are matters which will some day affect almost every Cape Codder.

Anastasia's plans for modernization include a website for the Probate Court

Here's a prototype for a new Probate website which Anastasia Perrino has already created.

While almost every citizen will use the services of the Probate Court at one time or another in their lives, currently, the Barnstable County Probate Court has no website. This means people have to drive to the Court, park, and go inside to get forms, and then bring them back, all during working hours.

Every other Probate Court in Massachusetts has all its forms online for people to download. Anastasia plans to put up a privately funded website to provide this convenience for the citizens and has already begun the process--here's a prototype. This will reduce incoming phone calls and foot traffic in the Court.

No such plans have been even mentioned by Turkington--how much longer can the Probate Court remain stuck in the 20th century?

That was then, this is now

Party labels should be anathema here, but the incumbant who is not seeking re-election after forty years on the job, was elected in another era when Cape Cod was a conservative, GOP stronghold and had been that way since the Civil War.

As a nearly one-party county at the time, a candidate's position was irrelevant as long as he or she was a Republican. But party labels must not count in this nonpartisan position.

Today Barnstable County voters are mostly Democrat or Independent, and our greatest fear is that an Obama landslide here, which we personally welcome, will deny Cape Codders the services of this highly-qualified woman who has the compassion and grace to do a great job as Register.

Mr. Turkington will retire after election day with a handsome pension from the state. His election as Register for one-term would do nothing except double his pension and deny Cape Cod an experienced, probate professional who will go on to other things and she always has.

• If you are a Democrat, be a Cape Codder first when you vote on November 4th.
• If you are an Independent, simply do what you always do and vote the best person regardless of party affiliation.
• If you are a Republican, well, my condolences, but vote for Anastasia Welsh Perrino and work to take this position out of politics for Cape Cod in future elections.

Walter Brooks
Editor & Publisher
CapeCodToday.com