Matthew Lynch: Unopposed for Aransas County Navigation District Commissioner at Large

Matthew Lynch: Unopposed for Aransas County Navigation District Commissioner at Large

On a busy Saturday morning, while already at work as a harbor pilot in Corpus Christi, Matthew Lynch took a few minutes to speak with The Rockport Pirate about his first campaign for public office. The 42-year-old Rockport resident is running unopposed for Aransas County Navigation District Commissioner at Large in the November 3 general election.

Lynch lives in Old Rockport and works as a harbor pilot. He will be the youngest commissioner if elected, a point interviewer Walter E. Perry Sr. raised during their conversation. Lynch brushed aside any concern about age differences with his future colleagues.

“The age gap between myself and the other commissioners, it really shouldn’t matter,” he said. “I’ve got partners that are in their early 30s and partners that are in their 60s, and we all have to work together in agreement and in disagreement.”

He emphasized the value of civil disagreement. “You got to be able to keep a level head. Respectfully disagree with people. I’m not sure why that has become so difficult. Back in the day, that was the norm.”

Lynch is running unopposed after Commissioner Tommy Moore (often referred to locally as “Captain Tommy”) withdrew from the race. Lynch said the two spoke after he filed, and Moore indicated he might step aside to support him and was “kind of maybe looking forward to handing over the reins.”

“I certainly liked my odds at running against him,” Lynch noted, “but he withdrew from the race, and so it is just me running.”

Lynch said one of the most frequent complaints he hears involves the Navigation District itself.

“I hear a lot of people complain about transparency with the NAV district. They’re so far behind with some of their annual audits,” he said. “It doesn’t take very much digging to get onto their website and see there’s not a whole lot on their website. It does say that they’re a couple years behind on their audits.”

He also pointed to unanswered public information requests circulating on social media and said the district has “some work to be done on that front.”

Closer to home, two places Lynch drives past every day stand out: Little Bay and Rockport Harbor.

“It’s hard to run a boat through Little Bay. It’s gotten so narrow and so shallow,” he said. “When I was a kid growing up, we used to water ski out there, and there were tons of boats out there. Now you hardly see anybody. There’s not a whole lot of real estate. You gotta be right in the middle.”

Lynch acknowledged ongoing restoration efforts, including work by a nonprofit and the grass planting project associated with Charlie Belair and others, but said progress has been unclear. “I don’t know how far we’ve gotten with any of it. These are things that I would like to see at least steps in the right direction being taken.”

On the harbor, he expressed concern about vessel readiness. “There are a lot of boats in the inner harbor that don’t really look like they could. If we had a storm, another hurricane come, and we had to evacuate the harbor, I’d be surprised if half the boats could even get out under their own power. So maybe it’s not as bad as it looks, but it looks bad.”

Lynch is clear-eyed about the learning curve. “This is my first time running for anything. I know I have a lot to learn. I’m certainly not naïve to that. I’ve got a lot of homework to do between now and then, and I don’t take any of this lightly.”

He said he already knows two of the current commissioners but has not yet met the other candidates running for the remaining seats. He looks forward to working with fellow commissioners, the city, and the county.

Voters will still see his name on the November 3 ballot for Aransas County Navigation District Commissioner at Large. As Lynch noted with a touch of humor, write-in candidates remain theoretically possible, “but anyway, I’m looking forward to it.”

Matthew Lynch is the unopposed candidate for Aransas County Navigation District Commissioner at Large. The general election is November 3.