Linda Brackett Raynham Select Board Candidate 2026

(Episode Description is AI generated and may be errors in accuracy)

Raynham doesn’t feel like the quiet little town it once was and that’s exactly why this conversation matters. Host Pat Riley sits down with Linda Brackett, a first-time candidate for the open Raynham Select Board seat, to talk about what happens when growth, development, and rising costs collide with everyday life for families and seniors. She’s not selling a miracle fix. She’s making the case for practical leadership, fair process, and neighbors showing up. 

Linda shares her path from mortgage finance to years of volunteer work in animal rescue, including building adoption programs and coordinating large volunteer teams. Those experiences shaped how she thinks about local government: clear responsibility, quick response in emergencies, and strong relationships with departments like police, fire, and town staff. She also explains why the current lack of animal control response leaves residents scrambling, often turning to social media for help with injured wildlife and stray animals, and why a realistic town plan could make a difference. 

The conversation widens to the biggest pressures Raynham residents feel right now: housing affordability, taxes, the strain on seniors living on Social Security, and long-term needs like schools that require collaboration across the whole community. We also dig into a challenge that quietly drives everything else: low voter turnout and low attendance at town meeting. When only a small group participates, a 15,000-person town can end up being steered by a fraction of its voices. 

If you care about Raynham town election issues, local government accountability, and what Select Board leadership should look like, this one is for you. Subscribe, share the episode with a neighbor, and leave a review with the one issue you most want the town to tackle next.

Transcript

Welcome And Election Context

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello and welcome to the Inside Scoop. I'm Pat Riley, and we are focusing on our upcoming annual town election with our candidates for the contested seats. We have three candidates seeking the open seat on the Rainham Select Board. With us right now is Linda Brackett. Linda, thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. Now this is the first time you have done something like this. It is.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

I've never run for um for office ever. I'm not really great at public speaking, but I'm I'm learning. Um I think it's just the passion that makes me, you know, be able to sit here and and talk to you. Um but yeah, I've never never done anything like this before. Um whole new experience. Whole new experience and a whole lot of opinions from a whole lot of people.

Loving Rainham As It Changes

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Well, in case there is anyone out there that doesn't know you, because you've been involved for a while, what would you like them to know about Linda Brackett?

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Well, I moved here in 1988. Um as an adult, we bought our house here, and I wasn't sure I wanted to stay here. I really, I I, you know, it was like, okay, it seems like a nice town, but I don't know if this is where I want to stay. I don't think it took six months, and I told my husband, we're never moving.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

You fell in love with rainham. I did.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

I fell I fell in love with Rainham. When I moved here, I mean, I want to say the population was 4,000, but I think it was a little bit more than that from my research, but I can't come up with a real number. And now the last thing I saw the other day was 15,200. I mean, the town has changed. You know, you just can't, I don't know, try to go through the four corners at four o'clock. It's it's awful. Um, it's not the quiet little town. I mean, it's great. There's a lot of great things about it, but the growth and the development's just been a lot. So so after I moved here, I just started. I um I work in mortgage finance. So I help other people buy their houses. I help people who have financial difficulties figure out how to fix them. Um people, you know, buy, sell, whatever. So as far as that goes, I've I've got a real good feeling of how difficult it is to buy a house and uh, you know, to qualify for it and to pay for it. And it's just it's it's a hard thing right now. I mean, today I couldn't I couldn't buy my house in Ringham that I bought in 1988. And it's too much.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

It is difficult to buy and it's just so difficult to maintain, whether you're a young family just starting out or a senior citizen on a limited income. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

That's I mean, that's the the thing with the the senior citizens and the and and the taxes and everything else. I mean, you know, they they all want the best for the town, but you know, there's only so much they can do. I was really surprised at what the um average social security check was, and it it's not good.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

When did you first get involved in Rainham in the town, other than as a resident?

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Um I always did things. I always volunteered here and there and you know, made stuff for, you know, like the rave bake sale and um went to the parades and stood outside and waved at Sandra at Christmas time. Um but really getting involved probably about 20 years ago, I um I started really getting involved in animal rescue and the needs of the town and the animals in town and um you know the feral cat popular population, everything we did there to, you know, help that. Um, I got involved in that. Um, and that kind of turned into getting involved in um animal control and involved in animal control, then you really got to see the community and the people's needs. I got to really work well with the police department and the fire department. Like we talked about the other night. One of my favorite stories is we had, and I said it was a raccoon, it wasn't a raccoon, it was a um a groundhog. And he had his head stuck in a grate, in a you know, uh like a water grate. Um, and all you could see was the top of his neck. Um, so I got a call and then I called fire. I'm like, I need help moving this grate. So Jeff Pellehor and I got down on the ground and we got out some olive oil spray and we got the poor little thing out of there. But I mean, only in this town, you know, they're gonna come and help you. Um, I mean, they're right there. Um, you know, if it was an animal issue, police was right there. One night a dog got hit by a car. Um, Teddy Fallow was right there. He grabbed that dog and there was no owner around, and he raced that dog to Westbridge. It's just the caring of the people in this town is to me is different than other places. I know, like um, I know my sister and niece live in Attleboro, and they don't have the sense of community like we do.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

That's something that even though the town has grown, we've been able to maintain that um to a good large extent, and hopefully that's something we can continue. Yeah. Now, what about NOAA? Tell us about NOAA. Was that before you got involved with animal control?

Animal Rescue And Community Stories

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Yes, um, the Mask and Orphan the Animal Haven was founded, I believe, in 1983, 1993. Um, I wasn't involved in um animal rescue at that point very much. Um, I dipped a little bit in with uh the Tartany Animal Shelter. They used to have cats um at the Pet Supplies Plus store in um Rainham, and I'd go in and the lady in there every Saturday just to look. And the lady says, Why don't you volunteer? So I started volunteering with them. Then there was this group formed, and it was a bunch of well-meaning people. Nobody had any adoption experience. You had somebody that was a grant writer, we had somebody that could do social media, we had somebody else that um was a treasurer, but um we did we didn't have anybody with the actual experience. So I got involved with that and it evolved into a lot. Um, we ended up with the pet supply, no, with the pet smart store in Plymouth, where we did adoption seven days a week. Um I managed about 80 volunteers at different times, whether it's people in their cleaning, doing adoptions, fostering, taking animals to the vet, doing medical paperwork, screening applicants. Um so I got really involved in that. And um probably about eight or nine years ago, the state decided that you could no longer keep animals in um in a pet store. So it really, really um we couldn't do anything. I mean you can't do adoptions at your house. I mean, you can't have all kinds of people come into the house and um like that. I mean, it's not fair to the neighbors, and it's not, you know, we don't, you know, it's just not the way to do it. So that made it very difficult.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

So And then at some point you became animal control officer for the town. Yes. Tell us about that experience. You told us a little bit.

NOAA Adoptions And Volunteer Work

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Yeah, so how that started is way back when there was a full-time, well, there wasn't a full-time, it was a part-time animal control officer. He um had his own business and it was very difficult. And I knew him well and we started talking. I was like, hey, do you want to be my my assistant? I'm like, Well, I guess I've never done this before, but it's kind of a natural progression, and you know, it really showed my passion of what I wanted to do, and um then it it it grew. Um, when I first started as animal control, I had a an incredible salary of$15 a week. So wow, yeah, that was oh, that was life-changing, and then it grew. And I mean the salary was never good, but it was never about that, it was about helping the animals, and right now um the animals need help. I mean, you see people on Facebook reaching out saying, what do I do about this? What do I do about that? There's nobody in town right now that's doing anything with with the animals. Um, we had um we had two swans that really were um in trouble and a group of volunteers. We got the um we got the swans to safety and they were fine. Um few weeks later we had a um, then the next day there was a goose with fishing line wrapped around his foot. I I caught it by myself with a towel. I'm saying I hope these people didn't have ring cameras because it wasn't pretty. But you know, we running after this goose, but I got it. And um we got it to um the Cape Wildlife Center and they um he had an infection and they um they fixed his foot and then he was released. Um then there was a a hawk that couldn't fly, and um it was on Facebook and um another this other residents in town that are really passionate about wildlife. We both saw it and we went out looking at the hawk, and the guy was beside himself. And I'm like, Well, did you call? You know, did you call animal control? Uh no, I called the um the town and uh they said they can't do anything to help me. Now this poor man didn't know where to turn, so he turned to Facebook. We need to be able to have you know something set up in town where animal control or somebody is going to um respond to these issues. Um we always, you know, everybody in my past has, but um now it's not happening since I left about I think it was about three years ago. Does the state have any resources that can help us in that way? This that's a really good question. Um not really. Um because you I mean there are a few things. I mean, they'll they'll tell you if you call them, if you can get them, but most of the time you can't, and when you need them, it's an emergency. Um I mean the environmental police won't do anything. Um, you know, in my all my years in animal control, I had one interaction with um with the environmental police where they would help me. Other than that, they wouldn't, and that was because somebody took some baby owelets out of a tree and put them on the ground. But other than that, no, I mean there's wildlife centers and things, but there's nothing close. I mean, it's all the way down, way down the Cape or in Weymouth. They have very limited hours, and it's almost like we have to come up with some type of a plan to be able to um just have something out there so people have, you know, a guidebook on what to do. You know, you can call this for this or this for that. I mean, you right now the big thing is going to be baby squirrels getting cut out of trees and falling on the ground. So you got to find somebody that takes care of those. Um uh there is a list of wildlife rehab is online, but again, most of them aren't available just to pick up the phone and call you. I think somebody in town needs to be able to just, you know, pick up the phone, talk, you know, talk to these people, even if they physically can't help, at least try to point them in the right direction.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

Sure. Um decision to run for a select board. Was that a difficult decision?

SPEAKER_00 11:08

It was a very, very difficult decision. It was something I had thought about for a while. A bunch of people called me, um, you know, and I went back and forth, and it's like I've always been passionate, I've always wanted to volunteer. It's just something that I think, you know, we it was something that was okay, this is the next step. You know, there's a lot of issues in town, there's a lot of things that we can um work on and we can make better. Again, there's a lot of great things, but it just took, you know, it took a while. It took people pushing me. And actually the last push was when uh nobody was helped gonna help those swans and they were gonna sit on the side of the road and die. And that's when it was, that was my thing. That was my final push that made me say, okay, I'm gonna see if I can make this situation a little bit better. And the only way I know how to do that is to have a voice.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

Okay. What else would you like the voters, the residents, the citizens to know about running you running for um select boards?

Animal Control Gaps And Solutions

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Well, I think the biggest thing is I'm not gonna fix everything. I can't fix everything. I mean, pick a pick a subject. I mean, pick the schools. I mean, you've tried for how many years to do things? We've got a board member that's leaving that's tried. I think it's a collaborative thing. I think it's something that everybody needs to work together. Um, no one person's gonna fix any any one problem. And I think knowing that and knowing that I can work collaboratively with people and get everybody hopefully on the same page, and even if, you know, my opinion isn't the popular one, okay, you're gonna listen. You're gonna, you know, we're gonna come up with a plan. It's not always gonna be, you know, it's not about Linda Brackett, it's about the people, the citizens, it's about our young families, it's about our senior citizens, it's it's about everybody in town that deserves to have the best place they can possibly have to live. What's been your campaign strategy? My campaign strategy, I think, is quite different. Um I have been more in the background. I've been talking to private citizens, um, I've been visiting private citizens. Um I haven't been around um, you know, the department heads. I I feel that that's something once I um, you know, if I'm lucky enough to be elected, then I would would um with each department head I would sit down. But right now I'm a little more in the background. I've um just been doing a lot of talking to people and a little more low-key, and that's that's normally my style until I get really fired up and then then it's different.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

And there's like two weeks to go. People have to get out to vote. Two weeks.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

Isn't that amazing? It's Saturday, April 25th.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

Polls are open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. But if there anyone is not going to be available um that day, get an absentee ballot.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

And um, you know, if somebody needs a ballot and they don't have time to ask for one, I'll drop it off or somebody else will drop it off. I mean, I'm I'm here to help to do whatever.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

What do you see is the role of a member of the select board? As you mentioned, you're one member of a board.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

I think it's to guide the town in a way that the people want. Um we're all elected to you know represent the people. It's not what I want. It's what you know, what is in the best interest of the town and what is in the best, you know, interest of all the people. Um I think we've got to work collaboratively with each department, with the town administrator. One one of my goals, and I'm not good at this, is remembering names, but one of my goals would be able to walk into any department and call every person by name. I want everybody to feel like they're they're wanted, they're needed, and they're a great part of, you know, whatever, you know, whether it's the highway department or whether it's the tax collector's office, it doesn't matter. You know, I want everybody to feel valued.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

Okay, and um so um you've been visiting places.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

I have, yeah. And I've visited the senior center, and you know, they they they have some needs. Um, I would like to focus on those. Um, everybody, and it was extremely nice. Um, you know, they would like a little bit extra help, but again, so wouldn't everybody. Um but I think you know, everybody's doing the best they can in town with what they have.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

Absolutely. Absolutely. What are you be going to be doing between now and election day? Are you gonna continue to try to you have signs up, obviously.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

Yes, um, my signs. I I I I like my signs. I I thought the color was great. It was something different. I mean, I've always tried to stand out. Um I'm just gonna continue to talk to people. Um, I had a woman um sent me a message last night, and her question was if you could change, and I want to read it exactly, if you could change one thing on day one, what would it be?

SPEAKER_01 16:23

And um That's a very good question.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

It it's a great question, and it's a question that I don't I've never heard it asked that way, so I could answer it a little bit differently than I normally would answer that question. And my answer was the schools. But I said, you know, it's nothing I can do alone, it's something that's gotta be done collaboratively, everybody's gotta work together, and there's absolutely no magic solution to that. Um, but I mean that was a great question, and I get questions all the time. And you know, I'll get a phone call or a Facebook message or a text or an email, and uh sometimes it's like, oh, I gotta check every one of these things every minute. But um, no, I just want to continue to talk to the people. And I want everybody that has ever, you know, has any questions, they have any doubts, they have any concerns, call me. I mean, I can give you my phone number, my email. Um, but no, I'm just gonna continue to go out and and talk to people and you know just be present in the community.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

Do you want to give your email address? Because you should certainly do that.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

Sure, it's Linda Brackett, so it's L-I-N-D-A-B-R-A-C-K-E-T-T 23 at gmail.com. And my cell phone number is 508-801-6480. And I mean, feel free to instant message me, whatever you want to do. Um, and I mean you can contact me through the campaign page too.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

What do you see as the greatest uh challenges that will be facing you as a member of the SOLAT board?

Why Run For Select Board

SPEAKER_00 17:58

Making sure that I look at things fairly and I don't know, just just being fair, being considerate, talking to everybody like I would want to be treated. Um I don't think that's a challenge. I think that's something I do pretty well, but I just want everybody to feel included. And I think one of the biggest challenges would be getting people out to vote. And going to town meeting.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

That is huge, yes. And hopefully, hopefully we can accomplish that with our candidates' night and our forums and so forth, because it is so important, and we don't get a huge turnout, unfortunately. So every every vote always counts, but every vote can really make a difference.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

But it's like when you go to town meeting and you've got a hundred people there making decisions for a 15,000-person town.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

We've got to And sometimes we don't even get the hundred people to come to the town meeting. So hopefully that is something we can also work on, and we will have that important annual town meeting coming up May 19th, I think the last the third uh Monday. It's always the third Monday. That was the third Monday in May.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

Um I don't know. I mean, I always go by like Town Hall of the Police Department as a sign. Yes. But people people will just say, Oh, I didn't realize there was a meeting, or I didn't realize that you know April 25th was the day to vote. I don't know how else.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

And that is difficult. It is difficult to get that word out. I mean, many moons ago, you know, when I was the news reporter um for the newspaper, the newspapers used to cover everything, every meeting going on in town. We don't have that now. Cable cable is a great, you know, um media for getting news out and obviously Facebook, but it is difficult. People are so busy with so many things going on that it's easy to miss those important dates.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

It is, and and a lot of people aren't on Facebook. Um and you don't have the paper boy bring you the newspaper every morning anymore.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

So I don't know how to do it, but I'd like to figure out a way.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

And maybe people out there can uh give us some ideas too about that, yes.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

That would you know that's great. I mean, you know, different people have different backgrounds and different ideas and you know, different expertise, and that would be, you know, that would almost be like a contest for the town. How do you get people out to vote?

SPEAKER_01 20:27

Yes, yes. See if we can break some records.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

I wonder if that'd be a Boy Scout or a Girl Scout project.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

You know, that's a really good idea. That's a really good idea. I know we had some Girl Scouts in for a tour recently and they're looking for a project.

SPEAKER_00 20:41

And I know those um there's a Boy Scout from Middleborough that's actually doing a project um on all of the candidates, and he's gonna have it at Annie's bookstop.

SPEAKER_02 20:49

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:49

Uh it's gonna be there next week. He asked a bunch of questions and he's gonna do a little profile on each of the candidates. But yeah, so maybe but maybe, yeah, a Girl Scout or a Boy Scout project. Um yeah.

Voting Dates Contact Info Closing

SPEAKER_01 21:02

We've got a few more minutes here left. Um, Linda, what would you like to tell the voters? Uh the residents, because it's actually not too late to register to vote if you haven't already voted. Wednesday, April 15th is the deadline to register to vote.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

Okay, so Wednesday, April 15th, come on in and go to that clerk's office. Everybody in the clerk's office is fantastic, and they'll help you. Um I just I think I just want to close with saying that um, you know, I'm doing this for the town. I'm doing it for a town I moved to 38 years ago that I didn't know if I was gonna stay six months and I'm still here. Um services are second to none, uh, police, our fire, uh highways, everything's great. Um, you know, everything needs a little bit of work. You know, we got to do some things with the schools, but just just just um you know, any questions I'd be more than happy to to answer them. And I just hope that a new voice, a New face, somebody that's never done this before, uh, is something that you know people might think is a good idea.

SPEAKER_01 22:07

Thank you for joining us today. Our guest, Linda Brackett, candidate for the open seat on the Rhenium Select Board. Thank you for joining us as well here on the Inside Scoop.