Hearing that John Lynch would not run for a fifth term as New Hampshire's governor was disappointing, but not surprising. All the signs pointed to him not running, and it really was a lot to expect, serving for yet another two years as governor.

There is no doubt he would have been elected had he chosen to run. Gov. Lynch's poll numbers remain enormously high among Democrats and independents, and still run at more than 50 percent among Republicans. His popularity among regular, general-election Republican voters irritates GOP officials, but John Lynch has been an effective, steady leader in both good times and bad. His adherence to New Hampshire's traditional tax policy of no general sales or income tax disappointed some Democrats who want changes in revenue policy. However, with rare exception all Democrats wanted him to run again.

As a New Hampshire citizen, I am very sorry that Gov. Lynch will not run again. He has been the governor that New Hampshire needed these last few years.

After the scandal-ridden, melodramatic single term of the Benson administration, Gov. Lynch brought ethical, competent governance back to the corner office. When the state was struck by natural disasters, he was always on the scene, passing out his cards to victims. Working with both Republican and Democratic majorities in his first three terms, he moved the state forward in matters of the environment, education and the economy. When the country entered recession, New Hampshire's jobless rate remained among the lowest in the country. His commitment to education has been one of the hallmarks of his administration. He fought for, and won, legislation to reduce New Hampshire's dropout rate.

Sometimes the Legislature got ahead of him. When the bill for marriage equality was not only introduced following the 2008 election but started to pick up steam, Gov. Lynch was as surprised as most. However, when the bill passed, he not only signed it, he enthusiastically embraced it with a signing ceremony in the Executive Council chambers.

As a Democrat, I also am very sorry that Gov. Lynch will not be on the 2012 ballot. His popularity was instrumental in helping Democrats achieve sweeping, historical electoral victories in 2006 and 2008. In 2010, when Democrats were swept out by a Republican tide, John Lynch won reelection by a comfortable margin. It was a surprisingly comfortable margin, as Republicans and their allies in groups like the National Organization for Marriage threw every penny they could into defeating Gov. Lynch. NOM and its supporters wanted to make a point by defeating the governor who signed a marriage equality bill.

Also, in 2008, John Lynch appeared in a television ad supporting former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen in the U.S. Senate race. After Shaheen defeated John E. Sununu, his father, John H. Sununu, came out of retirement to lead the Republican Party with a goal of stopping Lynch's 2010 reelection effort. While Republicans won pretty much everything else, however, Gov. Lynch was reelected to an historic fourth term.

Since that 2010 election, John Lynch has been all that has stood between New Hampshire and the crazed ideologue wing of the Republican Party that now controls the New Hampshire Legislature. Speaker Bill O'Brien thought he could make John Lynch irrelevant; instead John Lynch and his veto pen have made the governor more important than ever.

Although he has not been able to stop all the bizarre legislation that has passed, one of Gov. Lynch's most practical talents is his ability to know when to pick his fights. As a result, a bipartisan coalition sustained his veto of a repeal of New Hampshire's participation in the Regional Green Gas Initiative. Republicans passed an unnecessary, expensive and participation suppressing voter identification bill; Gov. Lynch vetoed that bill, and the work of a bipartisan group of election officials and others put the votes together to sustain that veto.

The last veto fight is over the so-called right-to-work bill, another unnecessary piece of legislation that, until this past session, had always been defeated by bipartisan majorities. Speaker O'Brien has been looking like a low-rent version of Boss Tweed as he unsuccessfully threatens, cajoles and begs members to override the veto. In three special elections, opponents of right-to-work have been elected, making it even more unlikely that Gov. Lynch's veto will be overridden.

The governor strongly feels that in a democracy, it is important to change leadership from time to time, so the most popular governor in the state's history will step down at the end of this term. John Lynch has been an effective leader for our state, and New Hampshire is a better place because of him. Thank you, Gov. Lynch.

Kathy Sullivan is a Manchester attorney and member of the Democratic National Committee. She was chairman of the state Democratic Party from 1999-2007.