8/11/2019 Bye Bye Bernie? Sanders' Toughest Test | Vanguard Press | Mar. 1, 1987

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SANDERS 'TOUGHEST

TEST

O n e gray bitterly cold I I IOI ' I l iDg

la st mon th , somebody wrotea message in the SIIOW o n ther ea r window o f o f the au to-mob ile o f th e mayo r o f Ver-mo n t's l argest c ity . The re O DM ain St reet. on the back win-

d o w o f B ern ie S an d ers' sn o w -en cru sted ,d ented and rusted H ond a w ago n. so m e-bo dy 's finger had carved the sim ple one-w ordmessage " B Y E .'

Af te r s ix yea rs a s mayor o f Burling ton ,Bern ie Sanders is fac ing h is toughest po l itca lchal lenge. His on ly opponen t, D emocrat Paul

Lafaye tte . says it's time fo r a change in theQueen Ci ty . t ime to re jec t the persona l i tywho ha s domina ted the po litic al scene andleft no shortage o f enemies in h is w ake .

In fac t, last fal l. before Sanders wo uld pub-l i c ly admi t he wou ld seek a f ou r th two-yea r

terma t C ity Ha ll. th e bald ing champ ion o f Am erican th ird-party po l itics candid ly adm it-ted tha t an attempt fo r re -e lec tion in 1987wou ld no t be ea sy - th at over th e yea rs, th eSande rs administra tion had m ade a lo t o fene-mies and ju st maybe those ch ickens wou ld

c o m e h o m e toro o st o n M arc h 3 .But these days, with the eJect ion rapidlyc los ing in , Sanders vehemently rejeda thenot ion tha t h is an tago1 lis tic . h igh vo lume~osive sty le is a factor tha t vaters w D Il i I I l D I l id e r wben they gil to the po lls nex t~y.

"l1llink i t's a l l crap," he says. when askedabout the matter. " Is the issue rea l ly 'who isanice goy?,n O n the con t ra ry . a rgues Sanders ,"wbat's ~il w h at y o n l l lBlId for, bowyou analyzt! theproble lns thatexl8tin society,and what you be lieve in .l 'veneve t sugges ted

Lafayette isor isn 't a n ice g uy -8OIIIll peop leactually think P m an ice guy -bIltthat(issueJis absurd. That 'sgoo drl1etoricfora3O -seCo lldradio ad, bu t i t ' s no t wha t th i s IS aboutn

For Bernie Sanders. nextTuesdafs~wi ll be a c ruc ia l l andmark in h is poIiti taI

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8/11/2019 Bye Bye Bernie? Sanders' Toughest Test | Vanguard Press | Mar. 1, 1987

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Paul La fayett e ( le ft ) and Bern ie Sanders

B ERNIE :~ co ntin u ed fr om p a ge 1

ABurling/on Free Presspoll

released February 19 showedSanders ahead with 44.7 per-centto Lafayette's 40.2 per-cent. But the 4.5 percentagedifference mirrored the poll's"margin o fe r ro r , " m ean in g th erace looksneck-and-neck corn-ing down the home stretch.

"I think the Progressivemovement will always bearound in Burlington," sayschallenger Paul Lafayette. ButLafayette, an alderman and

painting contractor who livesin the South End just aroundthe comer from Sanders, saysthey maycarry different labels,including "Progressive Coali-tion, progressive Democrats

or Rainbows ... they're alwaysgoing to be around here."Lafayette himself has in the

final days of the campaignlabeled his own platform a pro-gressive one . "W e're lookingtoward a future with a pro-gressive agenda," he says. "I'venever said Bernie's done atotally bad job, but he doesn't

have a lock on the word 'pro-gress ive'. I t 's in the dict ion-ary and anybody can use it."

Indeed, wben Sandersscored bis stunning upset in1981, neither he nor the mediacalled him anything but an"independent." I t w a sn ' t u n ti lthe day after that Burling-tonians woke up to the fact

that they had just elected a"socialist." It would still be afew years before the adjec-tive "progressive" elbowed itsway into the local politicallexicon.

For Lafayette, a hometownboy who has won w ide respect,this race isa step into a politcalunknown beyond his experi-

en c e . He ' s n ev e r r u n f o r an y -thing more than alderman be-fore, and m ounting a challenget o s u ch a s e a s o n e d ve t e r a n a sSanders has not been an easytask.

Lafayette's first forays onthe campaign trail were near-disasters. In the first debateat the Radisson Hotel before

the Downtown BurlingtonDevelopment Association hew as te n u o u s an d n er v o u s. Heseemed intimidated by theaudience and by his opponent.Later, beforethe e ditorialboardof the Free Press he report-ed~yfaltered so badly he lostthe paper's endorsement toSanders-a real shocker.

But with each debate andpress conference Lafayette hasgained poise. O n Monday whenSanders went on the offensiveand attacked his credibilityLafayette countered like anexperienced politician.

"This is the most fascinat-ing campaign in which I've ever

particpiated ," Sanders toldreporters at his South WinooskiAvenue campaign head-quarters. "After two monthsof the campaign, it is virtuallyimpossible for me, and I thinkfor a majority of the citizensof Burlington, to understandwhere my opponent stands on

the major issues facing Bur-lington. Where is Mr. Lalayetteand what does he stand for?"

asked Sanders sarcastically.Minutes later, Lafayette

adroitly flipped over themayor's assault a nd countered,"I'm sure the poll scared them ay o r . . . W e ' r e ru n n i n g a ve ry

positive campaign and I'm verydisappointed that the mayorfeels we should run his styleof campaign. Apparently he'sa little nervous. II

What irritates Sanders is thevery style of Lafayette's cam-

paign.In the past, Sanders hasbeen the one who's been at-tacked by his opponents andthen given the opportunity bythe media to get in the lastshot. But this time Lafayette

has steered away from anydirect attacks on Sanders orhis record. In fact, at timesthe challenger has been quickto say how much he admiresthe accomplishments of Sand-ers and his administration.

"Paul Lafayette and whathis campaign is about is yourabsolutely typical, beautifully

staged modem American cam-paign. He's a nice guy with agood image, no substance, andendorsements from wellknown

people [like M adeline Kunin],and he's not saying anything.Paul's very honest about this,"say s Sanders , "and I have toconfess there's a certain frank-ness to his style that I admire."

Lafayette's campaignmanager, Chris Mulvaney,says their strategy is being putinto action precisely accord-ing to plan. "Bernie's at his

best defending himself," hes a y s , s o it d o es n ' t m ak e senseto give him that opportunity."I think our campaign hasthrown him a little bit," says

Mulvaney.Lafayette headquarters on

Main Street is a bustling site.Volunteers seem to be perpet-ually stuffing envelopes fordirect m ail d rives , com putersare cranking out data and theair is full of anticipation. Onthe wall over Mulvaney's deskhangs a huge calendar witheach day's activities carefully

plotted.According to that calendar,

Lafayette is required to do twohours of door-to-door earn-

paigning daily and is allottedone hour to be with his wifeKaren, who herself is a full-time campaign worker. Accord-

ing to the calendar, Lafayettesupporters willgather at4 a.m.next Tuesday to begin one finalall-cityliterature drop just hoursbefore the po lls open. Accord-ing to Mulvaney, Lalayette vol-unteers can cover every door-step in Burlington within twohours.

As for the nuts and bolts of

the Sanders campaign, Mul-vaney, who last managed Lieu-tenant Governor HowardDean's election effort, says itseem s i t' s not as good as i twas in the past when DavidClavelle ran it.

Clavelle, who was one ofthe few fly-by-night volun-

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teeers in Sanders 1981 upset,later was appointed city con-stable and devoted his skills

to two successful re-electioncampaigns. But last yearClavelle (cousin of Communityand Economic DevelopmentDirector Peter Clavelle), re-signed his City H all post andsigned on with the Leahycampaign. He hasn't returned.

Over at Sanders head-quarters, campaign managerJim Schumacher denies thatclaim. A ctually, I think we'restronger," he says, pointingto even better voter ID capa-

bility-the process by whichsupporters are pinpointed andtargeted for get-out-the-voteefforts.

Schumacher says Sanders

oeeds a good turnout nextTuesday. Also key, accordingto Schumacher, will be the suc-cess the Sanders campaign hasin win ning over the m ore than2,000 newly registered vot-ers who have signed on thechecklist since last summer.They're newcomers to theQueen C ity, he says, w ho were

signed up as a result of thevoter registration efforts of thevictorious Leahy for US Sen-ate Campaign and the unsuc-cessful Equal Rights Amend-ment effort. "They're younger

people who are new to the cityand not aware of the changesthat have occured since 1981."

Schumacher, who two yearsago was trounced by Lafayettein the W ard 5 aldermanic race,charges Lafayette is runninga cam pa ign heavy on "sm okeand m irrors ."

"Paul's not going to openhis mouth. We've already seeneverything we're going to see,"says Schumacher. All Paul's

do ing , he s ays , i s say ing "m etoo, I'm a n ice g uy." W hy is it ,he asks, Democrats become"progressives" in the last 10days of a cam paign : "I 'm t iredof it." he says.

Sanders has declared thiswill be his last run for mayorof Burlington. Eight years, he

says, is enough. But he won'tcomm ent on other politicalaspi-rations such as another bid forgovernor in 1988. "Beingmayor's a very hard job," saysSanders , "when you take onthe establishment and you fightand you fight and you fight.People think that fighting ismy personality but you might

want to look at it the otherway-every time you take astep forward there's a conflict."

Lafayet te , m eanwh i le , sayswhat Burlington needs is am ayor w ho can be a "fa cil itatorfor the city, not someone whn

just wants to build up theirown po l it ica l career ."

"When you stand up and

fight for what you believe inyou're s tepping on people 'stoes,"counters Sanders. "Whenyou don't stand up and fight,you don't get anything."

Next Tuesday Burlingtonvoters will decide just whatthey'll get for the next twoyears .

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