Usually when I take the time to write a more in-depth piece about someone, I put up their photo so that you can see what he or she looks like. Except in the case of Robert Stryk I couldn’t find a photo anywhere online. So instead of looking at Stryk’s photo, you have to allow me to paint you a picture of a young, single 34 year old Washington, D.C., lobbyist with a transient and questionable background, who one day decided he would throw his hat into the ring to be the next Mayor of the small Napa County town of Yountville, population approximately 3,000.
Those who have spent time reading my columns over the years know that second to politics, my second passion in life is wine. I’ve been a “wine enthusiast” for many years, and love when I can to visit the Bay Area wine regions, and often 
times stay at a favorite bed and breakfast with a vineyard view right in the town of Yountville. So when I heard from a longtime FR reader in Napa County that something strange – or rather someone strange – had surfaced in my wine country home away from home, I figured it was worth looking into, as I am known to do…
Robert Stryk apparently touts being a former Hill staffer turned big-time Washington, D.C., lobbyist (let’s not tell him that “lobbyist” is probably not the best ballot title for a candidate), with about ten obscure clients, such as the “Rio Rico Fire District” and the “Tabac Fire District” (both in Arizona, where Stryk seems to spend a lot of his time when he’s not in Washington, D.C.).
The thing is that I have friends who do this kind of work on Capitol Hill – and I know that it is labor intensive and relationship driven. It’s the kind of work that doesn’t lend itself to emails and phone calls. The kind of work that would be very difficult to do if you were also, say, the Mayor of a small town 3,000 miles away from where all of the taxpayer dollars are doled out. Lobbying Capitol Hill simply requires spending a LOT of time…on Capitol Hill!
**There is more – click the link**
February 12th, 2010 at 12:00 am
I don’t know Mr. Sytrik or anything about him, but it sounds like a lot of other races that have had mixed results, sometimes very good. What happens is a political professional winds up in a small town and decides that their knowledge could really help their new community. They push themselves forward even though no one really knows them and sometimes if they get elected they do a great job because they are aware of things like how to get money from government agencies and how other places have done things which locals might not know and other times they wind up being useless because the whole thing is a lark they give up on. The only advice I would give to voters is to try and meet him and make a decision if you would trust his judgement. Luckily in a small town like that, every voter will probably be able to do that before election day.
February 13th, 2010 at 12:00 am
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February 14th, 2010 at 12:00 am
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