Last week, Vermonters in towns across the state crowded into school gyms and town halls to participate in the centuries-old tradition of Town Meeting. From city council races to school budget battles to a real clown car of a mayor’s race in RutVegas, there were a lot of results to follow and precious few scribblers to write about them. So, here’s a brief (hopefully) rundown of some of the contests I was paying attention to last week.
Burlington: The Status Quo Prevails
A chance for a power shakeup on Burlington’s City Council fizzled as Councilors Marek Broderick (P-Ward 8) and Evan Litwin (D-Ward 7) romped to victory over their challengers Ryan Nick (a Democrat) and Bill Standen (a Progressive). Despite being outraised and outspent, Broderick took almost 60% of the vote in the notoriously swingy Ward 8. I credit Broderick’s impressive win to his strong ground game – he and his volunteers made seven passes through the ward’s neighborhoods before election day.
A SoBu Nailbiter
Down Route 2 in South Burlington, Beth Zigmund defeated Amy Allen to clinch an open city council seat by a narrow 30-vote margin. While Allen won the older, more conservative neighborhoods around the airport and won the district covering the affluent Southeast Quadrant by a single vote, Zigmund netted almost 200 votes out of the “resisty” neighborhoods between Spear Street, Route 7, and the Lake to score the win. In other South Burlington news, the school budget passed on the first attempt – as an election official I’m very glad about this because it means I won’t have to run any “bonus elections” this year.
Milton, You Have Shocked The Nation
The biggest news of the night (for nerds like me) came from Milton. Dedicated readers will remember past coverage in these pages of Milton’s local elections. Incumbent selectboard member (and Republican state representative) Brenda Steady lost her seat to challenger Betsy Paret. In February, Steady endorsed a slate of her fellow candidates on social media: Leland Morgan (a fellow Republican legislator) and Diane Barrows for selectboard, Cathy Vadnais, Faye Pelletier, and Allison Duquette for school board, and Sean Tatro and Jenn Hoyt for the library board of trustees.
With the exception of Morgan and Barrows, everyone on that list (plus Steady herself) lost on Tuesday. What’s more, challenger Christine Vaughn closed to within a hundred votes of Leland Morgan in the selectboard race. This is a sea change in Milton politics – the conservative machine that once looked ironclad now looks vulnerable as they look to protect their senate seat and five house seats this November.
Standard caveat: a Town Meeting electorate is very different from a general election electorate, but this is, as former President Joe Biden would put it, a BFD.
What in Sam Hill Is Going On In Rutland?
Rutland, the Marble City, or, as it’s sometimes known, “RutVegas,” was host to a shotgun mayoral election. What happened was this: incumbent Mayor Mike Doenges resigned to take a new job after the candidate filing deadline had passed but with enough time for a special election to be put on Tuesday’s ballot to fill out his term. The Rutland Board of Aldermen opted to hold a special election rather than allow their president to serve as interim mayor until Doenges’s term expires next year.
What followed was a truly Looney Tunes write-in only election. By my count, there were at least ten declared candidates. The winner, Alderman Tom Donahue, who was endorsed by the municipal workers’ union and Governor Scott, took almost 1300 votes to beat his next-closest competitor, Board of Aldermen President David Allaire, who had about 1000 votes. Please take a moment to thank Rutland City’s election workers who must have had a very long Tuesday night.
School Budgets Mostly Pass
About 82% of school budgets passed this Town Meeting – far and above 2024’s dismal tally when more than a third of school budgets failed their first attempts. The nineteen budgets that failed include usual suspects like Milton and Barre – best of luck to all of them in getting through on the second try.
Zooming out – this high pass rate suggests that another tax revolt isn’t in the offing this November. At least, not yet.
Strong Showings for Friends of the Page
Kudos to friends of the page Carl Demrow, who won re-election to the Corinth selectboard in a hotly contested race, Chase Empsall, who waged a strong but unsuccessful campaign for selectboard in St. Johnsbury in a crowded field, Noah Detzer, who made a determined bid for selectboard in Essex Town, Thomas Renner, who was elected Mayor of Winooski, and Audrey Grant, who was elected Hardwick Town Moderator. (Please let me know if there are any updates or corrections to this list, it’s hard to keep track of all of you!)
Also, big shout-outs to everyone else who stepped up and ran for local office this TMD. These positions are time-consuming and often thankless. It takes real dedication to step up and serve, and Sugaring Off salutes all of you.
Stay tuned…
As inexorable as Mariah Carey’s annual defrosting, the second most wonderful time of the year is almost here. That’s right, the first campaign finance reporting deadline of 2026 is just around the corner. Major brownie points to all the campaigns who manage to get their reports in on time (or even early?), and huge raspberries to everyone who files late or while I’m writing. Stay tuned, dear readers, with Town Meeting in the rearview, it’s now officially ELECTION SEASON!
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