Kunkel focuses on housing and utility costs

For years, Robin Kunkel has advo­cat­ed for caus­es includ­ing food secu­ri­ty and racial jus­tice. Now she wants to be on the oth­er end of those con­ver­sa­tions as a leader in local government.

Two of her pri­or­i­ties are work­ing to pro­vide afford­able hous­ing and afford­able util­i­ties for local residents.

“I want to be on the Board of Commissioners because I’ve seen how a board that lis­tens to the peo­ple and works with the peo­ple can real­ly help advo­ca­cy cam­paigns win,” she said in a can­di­date survey.

“I’ve always been on the oth­er side of the table, build­ing rela­tion­ships with elect­ed offi­cials and get­ting them to under­stand why we need cer­tain changes,” she added.

“My skills and expe­ri­ence are in turn­ing poten­tial oppo­nents into allies,” she point­ed out. “For exam­ple, I worked for two years on the cam­paign to Take Back Cheapside, a move­ment to remove Confederate stat­ues from down­town Lexington, and we were able to get the may­or on board, a unan­i­mous coun­cil vote, and hun­dreds of peo­ple to par­tic­i­pate in the process.”

Kunkel, 36, grew up in Northern Kentucky, where she attend­ed Campbell County Public Schools. In 2012, she grad­u­at­ed from Transylvania University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in tech­ni­cal theater.

She moved to Winchester to live with her hus­band, Billy Swanson, and they have two chil­dren: one in ele­men­tary school and the oth­er a toddler.

According to her Facebook page, she has been self-employed in stage man­age­ment since 2010. She was a stage man­ag­er for Lexington Ballet from 2013–2017, and worked for Bluegrass Opera and Music Theatre in 2015–2016.

She has also been a coör­di­na­tor for the Kentucky Food Action Network and a com­mu­ni­ty orga­niz­er for Showing Up for Racial Justice.

This is Kunkel’s sec­ond time run­ning for city com­mis­sion­er. She was a can­di­date in 2022 and fin­ished eighth in the gen­er­al elec­tion, accord­ing to the State Board of Elections.

Kunkel’s cam­paign web­site, robinforwinchester.com, describes her as an orga­niz­er, artist, and can­di­date. It says that changes she sup­ports include estab­lish­ing a ten­ants’ bill of rights, reduc­ing devel­op­ment require­ments such as lot sizes and min­i­mal park­ing require­ments to pro­vide more hous­ing, and pub­lish­ing the city’s draft bud­get online for eas­i­er access to increase pub­lic input before it’s finalized.

She wants to increase trans­paren­cy in local gov­ern­ment, reduce “crimes of des­per­a­tion” by ensur­ing people’s basic needs are met, and pro­mote afford­abil­i­ty of hous­ing, food, and oth­er necessities.

In the can­di­date sur­vey, Kunkel list­ed the top issues fac­ing Winchester as the need for afford­able hous­ing and the ever-ris­ing cost of utilities.

She said she would like to see the city com­mis­sion work with the build­ing inspec­tion depart­ment and city-coun­ty zon­ing board to “reduce unnec­es­sary restric­tions for new hous­ing devel­op­ments to increase small­er and low­er-cost units near pub­lic transportation.”

“I also pro­pose that the city adopt a Renter’s Bill of Rights to pre­vent many forms of dis­crim­i­na­tion, such as against those using hous­ing assis­tance and those with a crim­i­nal history.”

“We should also ensure seats for ten­ants on city boards and com­mis­sions mak­ing deci­sions about hous­ing,” she said.

“To address util­i­ty prices, I would like to see the com­mis­sion con­duct a fea­si­bil­i­ty study for a pub­licly owned elec­tric provider to serve the city and not to com­pete with the already exist­ing rur­al option in the coun­ty,” Kunkel suggested.

Kunkel is one of 10 at-large city com­mis­sion can­di­dates in the non­par­ti­san May 19 pri­ma­ry. The top eight can­di­dates will go on to com­pete in the November gen­er­al election.