Sugaring Off: Vermont Politics and History, Plain and Simple

At long last, Part Three of the 2024 Primary Breakdown has arrived! I apologize for the delay, I moved back to school this week and that ate up a fair bit of my time. While a couple of weeks have gone by since the primary, old news is still news worth talking about, and both parties have put some new candidates into play that could expand the map in both directions.

Committee Chairs Stay Seated

The two most-watched house races on the 13th were in the Washington-Chittenden and Windham-7 Districts, where three committee chairs were facing challenges from more moderate candidates backed by conservative money. In the two-member WAS-CHI District, which stretches along Route 2 from Waterbury into Bolton and then down to Huntington and BUELS GORE, Human Services Chair Theresa Wood and Housing and General Chair Tom Stevens defeated challenger Elizabeth Brown.

Brown, a member of the centrist-coded but conservative-backed group Campaign for Vermont, was the recipient of an election day endorsement from Governor Phil Scott. Despite this last-minute endorsement, she came up 94 votes short to Stevens, allowing both incumbents to punch their tickets to November.

Down in Brattleboro in Windham-7, House Ways and Means Chair Emilie Kornheiser fended off a spirited challenge from Amanda Ellis-Thurber, a farmer. As chair of the House’s tax-writing committee, Kornheiser has been at the center of the firestorm surrounding this year’s large property tax increases and school funding battles. Despite this, she prevailed with 505 votes out of 887 cast.

What these results tell me, combined with the general victory of more liberal candidates over moderate or conservative challengers around the state, is that the backlash against incumbents over the property tax issue and Governor Scott’s other favored talking points might not be severe as I first predicted. While Vermonters in general may be dissatisfied with the legislature’s handling of the tax issues, it seems they might be blaming the legislature as a whole and not their legislators in particular.

Burlington Bonanza

The Queen City saw two hotly contested House primaries on the Democratic side. In Chittenden-17, a district which stretches along North Avenue from the west end of the Old North End to the southern part of the New North End (are there enough directional signifiers in this sentence?), appointed incumbent Abbey Duke defeated Progressive challenger Missa Aloisi. Aloisi failed to reassemble the coalition that allowed now-Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak to oust Rep. Jean O’Sullivan in 2020.

Aloisi is continuing onto the general election as a Progressive, but I’m bearish on her chances. While she performed well in the Prog bastions of Ward 2 and Ward 3, she did worse than Mulvaney-Stanak in the heavily Democratic Wards 4 and 7. I don’t think there’s a coming cascade of untapped Progressive vote share out there, since there were no Progressive primary contests and Burlington Progs were rallying to the defense of Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman and Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky. This district was always going to be a tough lift for the Progressives to hold on to without Mulvaney-Stanak, and I’m fairly confident that Duke will prevail in November.

In the South End, there was a hotly-contested three-way race to succeed retiring Rep. Gabrielle Stebbins in the two-member Chittenden-13 District. Rep. Tiff Bluemle held the first slot by a long shot and will be joined by Bram Kleppner, the former CEO of Danforth Pewter, on the November ballot. Coming just 25 votes behind Kleppner was environmental attorney Dale Azaria, who ran an equally energetic campaign. Coming in a distant fourth was Progressive-backed challenger Larry Lewack, with just 7.96% of the voteshare. The South End continues to be difficult territory for the Progressives, which is an ill-omen for any Progs or left-leaning independents hoping to dethrone Joan Shannon from the Burlington City Council in March.

Harple for House Harvests Huge Lead, Hustles Hurriedly for Hnovember

In the race to succeed Rep. Katherine Sims in the Northeast Kingdom, Leanne Harple, a teacher from Glover, defeated former GOP gubernatorial nominee David Kelley of Greensboro. Kelley performed well in his hometown but Harple prevailed in the district’s other three towns to win 57%-40%.

A Big First for Vermont’s First Town

In the Bennington-2 District, which covers the northern half of Bennington Town, incumbent Tim Corcoran will be joined on the November ballot by VDP Secretary Will Greer. Greer will be, should he prevail in November, the youngest openly LGBTQ+ legislator in the country. Greer narrowly defeated longtime Bennington schoolboard member Leon Johnson and Bennington Dems chair Asher Edelson for the second Democratic nomination.

Mount Abe Marathon

In the race to succeed Rep. Caleb Elder in Addison-4, newcomer Herb Olson narrowly defeated Jeanne Albert for the second Democratic nomination. Albert had been endorsed by the other Democratic incumbent, Rep. Mari Cordes, who easily won the top slot on the ticket.

Controversial Candidate Comes Up Short

In the far southeast corner of the state, Guilford selectboard chair Zon Eastes easily won the Democratic nomination to replace Rep. Sara Coffey. His opponent, Jason Herron, is (do I have to say allegedly? If so, allegedly) a COVID and election denier and ran one of the nastiest and most vitriolic campaigns I’ve seen in my three months of writing about (and fifteen years of following) Vermont politics. I try not to make statements about my personal political opinions on this page, but I am glad that Herron lost and lost big.

A Personal Note

The last result to come in on primary night was from the Chittenden-7 District, where Shelburne Selectboard Chair Mike Ashooh lost to construction company owner Shawn Sweeney by 43 votes. Full disclosure, I was Ashooh’s campaign manager, and while losing an election is never fun, it’s always easier when your opponent is a person like Sweeney, who conducted himself with courtesy and professionalism on the campaign trail.

Less courteous and professional was the lady we canvassed who referred to Ashooh several times as “Mike A**h*le,” but such encounters are something of an occupational hazard in this line of work, especially in local races.

And that’s a wrap on part three (and thus, on the whole kit and caboodle) of the 2024 primary breakdown. I’ll be posting another article soon (hopefully) with an update of the vibes-based forecast to reflect the candidates that made it onto the general election ballot after the primary. Stay tuned for that and as always, thank you for reading!