GREENFIELD — Robin Lowder spent 27 years in Hancock County government. After serving for 9½ years as county auditor, she’s looking to get back into the political arena by running for a seat on the Hancock County Council.
Lowder is one of five candidates running for three at-large seats in the Republican primary. Other candidates are incumbent Kent Fisk and Keely Butrum, Kirk Jocham and Ray Richardson. (A story about Fisk appeared in the Tuesday, Feb. 18, edition of the Daily Reporter; a story about Butrum appeared in the Wednesday, Feb. 19, issue; and a story about Jocham appeared in the Thursday, Feb. 20 issue. A story on Richardson will appear Saturday, Feb. 22.)
Lowder is a lifelong Hancock County resident. She and her husband, Jeff Lowder, have four children. Jeff Lowder is a member of the Greenfield City Council.
“My husband and I, we’ve been married forever,” Lowder said. “He’s my one and only and I’m his one and only, and we’ve been married a long, long time.”
Despite their shared involvement in local government, Lowder said she and her husband do not spend a lot of time discussing the topic at home.
“The city and the county function a lot differently,” she said. “He’ll come home and he’ll say something about, ‘we did something at council,’ and I’ll say, ‘what? What did you do? We don’t do that!’”
Lowder began her career in local government in 1992, when she started working in the Hancock County auditor’s office. She later moved to the recorder’s office, and then was elected to the position of auditor herself in a caucus vote when the incumbent could not finish her term in July of 2009.
“That was probably the most intense thing I have ever done,” Lowder said. “You go before the precinct committeemen and talk to all of them and you send letters and you’ve got a very short period of time, and there were several of us that ran in that. I won that, and they appointed me to fill her term.”
After being appointed as auditor, Lowder ran for and won two full terms in the office, remaining auditor until the end of 2018.
Running for office is not new to her, but as a member of the county council, she would have an opportunity to help set the policy agenda for the first time.
“All those years in the auditor’s office, there was not a day that went by that I didn’t talk with taxpayers, people in the public, citizens. I spoke with all of those people every day. But I wasn’t in the decision-making. The state and the federal government set down exactly what we were to do. But the commissioners and the council, they are the decision-makers for the county,” Lowder said. “And for the first time in all those years, it will give me an opportunity to possibly make decisions for all those people that I have talked to in 27 years.”
Deb Carnes, the current Hancock County auditor, said Lowder was a valuable resource for her when she took over the office. Carnes, who was previously the county recorder, also worked with Lowder during that time and described her as a kind, thoughtful person willing to make tough decisions.
“I feel like Robin has always been dedicated to this county,” Carnes said. “She’s very fair. I think that she’d be a great council member.”
If elected, Lowder said she would want to prioritize infrastructure and keeping the construction of a new county jail on track. She would also want to help set policy to help curb drug addiction in the county and use her experience as an auditor to participate in setting the budget.
“A lot of what the council does, too, is the budget, the financial part of it,” she said. “As auditor, part of what my duties were was to present the council with the budget, and then they would change whatever they needed to change, so I’m very familiar with the budget.”
Lowder said the current county government has done a good job with budgeting. She said the county always has more needs than funding.
“We need to try to maximize what we have and do our very best not to raise taxes,” she said. “That’s one thing that I’ve found out: when you work the counter, you face people that are coming in and they’re using their last dollar, practically, to pay tax bills.”
County government should also work to ensure new businesses are following through on their promises to the community, Lowder said.
“It’s important that after they come in and we think ‘this business is a good fit,’ we need to track them and make sure that they’re following through on their promises and what they said they’re going to do,” she said.
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Age: 69
Party: Republican
Office sought: County council (at large)
Political experience: 9½ years as Hancock County auditor
Family: Husband Jeff, four children
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The Daily Reporter is presenting profiles of candidates whose names will appear on the primary ballot for county offices. These stories will run periodically over the coming weeks leading up to the primary election on May 5.
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