Just when you thought campaign finance report season was firmly in the rearview mirror, Town Meeting Day pops up like a groundhog to remind us that election season is never truly over. Thanks to the Secretary of State’s brand-spanking-new campaign finance system, you too can browse raising and spending reports at your leisure, and now, you don’t even have to download hundreds of pdfs onto your device!
The only hotly contested elections this TMD™ appear to be in Burlington, and by Burlington standards it seems like this campaign season will be pretty tame. Burlington has a twelve-member city council, eight of whom are elected to represent individual wards and four of whom are elected from districts comprising two wards each. The ward seats are up for election in even-numbered years, and the district seats are up in odd-numbered years, like this one.
Of the four council seats on the ballot, two are uncontested. The first of these is the Democratic stronghold of North District, which covers the city’s New North End. This district is represented by conservative independent-turned-Democratic caucus leader (still not sure how or why that happened) Mark Barlow, who is running for re-election. Brother Barlow has raised about $4300 to fend off his non-existent challengers from a slew of his New North End neighbors as well as a sizable contribution from real estate baron Ernie Pomerleau. He’s spent about $1200, mostly on ads in the North Avenue News.
The second is the Progressive bastion of Central District, which covers the Old North End and Downtown and is represented by Progressive Melo Grant, who is also seeking re-election. Grant has raised about $900, mostly from small contributions, but she received larger contributions from Prog power couple Gene Bergman, her city council colleague, and his wife Wendy Coe, who serves as Ward 2 clerk. Grant has spent money equal to the number of her opponents (which is to say, none).
The two contested races are in South District, which is being vacated by former Democratic mayoral nominee Joan Shannon, and East District, formerly occupied by Democrat Tim Doherty, who resigned last month to accept a judicial appointment.
Let’s start with a look at South District. Vying to replace Shannon are Democrat Buddy Singh and Progressive Jennifer Monroe Zakaras. Singh, a loan officer and active volunteer with numerous community organizations, is off to a strong fundraising lead, having pulled in more than $16,000 to Zakaras’s $7,000. Singh’s donors include former Council President Karen Paul, current Councilor Sarah Carpenter, former Shelburne Selectwoman Mary Kehoe, and three members of the Pomerleau Real Estate family. Singh has spent a bit more than $6,000 of his haul thus far, mostly on mailers and yard signs.
Monroe Zakaras, a public health researcher who also managed Missa Aloisi’s unsuccessful House bid in Chittenden-17, has raised about $7,000, including a $250 contribution from Jason Van Driesche. Van Driesche’s name will no doubt ring a bell for seasoned Burlington politics watchers, as he unsuccessfully challenged outgoing councilor Joan Shannon in the nominating caucus for this seat in 2023. We’ve yet to see any big spending from Monroe Zakaras, (her total spent is about $1000 as of writing) but she did spent about $40 for volunteer lunches at Kerry’s Kwik Stop. Kerry’s Kwik Stop is a St. Paul Street mainstay best known to political junkies as the longtime place of employment of Kurt “Kwik Stop Kurt” Wright, the former Republican Council President and State Rep. turned radio host. Does this anecdote have any relevance to the story? No. Am I including it anyway? Yes. The joys of writing without an editor.
Anyway, South District is strongly Democratic territory. Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak put up a very strong showing (for a Prog) here in her mayoral bid last year but still failed to carry either ward. It would take a political earthquake for any Prog to win here, and thus I rate the race at Solid Democratic.
East District will be the real battleground. Vying to replace the newly minted Judge Doherty are Progressive Kathy Olwell, a former school board member, and Democrat Allie Schachter, who works for the Flynn Theatre. Olwell has run a financially low-key campaign thus far, raising just over $2,000 and spending $1,000. Her contributors include herself, Ward 1 Councilor Carter Neubieser, and former Ward 8 Councilor Jane Stromberg. Shachter, by contrast, has raised about $13,500 and spent over $5,000.
Shachter’s donors include, among others, current and former councilors Richard Deane, Sarah Carpenter, Ed Adrian, and Karen Paul, Steven Polli of Polli Construction, and two members of the Pomerleau family. The bulk of Shachter’s spending has been on various flavors of campaign literature, with the Democratic political consultancy of Messrs. Charyk and Francis being the principal beneficiaries.
This district is a difficult one to read. It includes most of UVM’s student population, and past elections in East District and its subsidiary Wards (1 and 8) often seem to come down to a mixture of how many UVM students turn out to vote (many of whom, when they do vote, lean Progressive) and the general vibes in the surrounding neighborhoods. While both Wards 1 and 8 are strongly Progressive on the mayoral level, they’ve been known to swing in Council elections. I rate this one as a tossup right now, although Shachter definitely has a strong cash advantage.
And that’s about all the news that’s fit to print for Burlington’s city council races! Stay tuned for more. If you’re clued in to any interesting city council, selectboard, school board, inspector of fences, or weigher of coal races around the state that you think warrant coverage, please let me know.
Sugaring Off is powered by readers like you! If you enjoy my content and can make a small contribution to help me keep the lights on, I’d greatly appreciate it: https://ko-fi.com/sugaringoff
Sugaring Off: Vermont Politics and History, Plain and Simple 
Leave a comment