mission accomplished | vanguard press | mar. 11, 1984
TRANSCRIPT
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8/11/2019 Mission Accomplished | Vanguard Press | Mar. 11, 1984
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the vermont BIU
B
VOL. VII, NO. 7
I S S I O NA C C O M P L I S H E D
By Joshua Mamis
J u s t O n e s e a t s h o r t o f am a j o r i ty , t h e P r o g r e s s i v eC oa l i t i o n r e d e f i n ed B u r l i n g t o nc am p a i g n i n g .
F
orthe past two months
hundreds of people work-
ed quietly and diligently
to bring about change.
TIley worked tirelessly,
knocking On every door, calling
supporters, and registering new
v o ters . In a c en t ral o f f ic e, a corn-puter spewed forth names of
voters, identified as to whether
or not they support the mayor
The election meant a lot to
Burlington's Progressive Coa-
lition, and on Tuesday night
their hard work paid off.
In tact, their campaign was so
weU organized, leading demo-
crats accused the mayor's or-
ganization of being a slick politi-
cal machine. fur all their efforts,
supporters of Mayor Sanders
achieved what WdS thought to
be close to impossible last 'lues-
day: they won two seats on Bur-
lington's School Board.And they defeated, in Wilfd
5's Jim Bums, the foremost ob-
structionist to the Progressive
Coalition's agenda on the Board
of Aldermen. In beating Burns,
the Progressives knocked off all
that symbolized the old way of
conducting politics in \Cnllont's
Queen City: The days of wild
accusations and blind non-co-operation with the mayor, the
Progressives hope, will finally
be over, Some campaigners. in
tact, were so pleased with the
outcome that at a victory party
they jokingly sang "Ding Dong
the Witch Is Dead."
With the win, citypolitics may
have officially entered a new em,
in which the politicians become
more professionalized, largeSlims of money are spent, and
highly calculated platforms
based on sophisticated polling
become the rule rather than the
exception.
fur the Progressive Coalition,
Burlington's campaign paceset-
ters, the outcome last Tuesday
was a major popular endorse-
ment. George Thsbault ma y h a v ebeaten Jim Burns because vot-
ers were tired of Burns' arro-
gant obstructionism, but for
Independent School Board can-
didates Stephen Blodgett and
Steve Hamilton to upend Demo-
cratic candidates was a resound-
ing approval fur the methods
and ideas of the Progressive
Coalltion.
"What we did tonight is takeon the two-party system," Mayor
Sanders boasted at the victory
celebration. "fur a bunch of
blind mice we have a helluva
v is i o n .
"Not only do we gain another
scat on the Board of Aldermen,"
said the feisty mayor; "but peo-
ple rdeclared J we are moving in
the right direction randJ theywant more.
"And fur the first time in his-
tory, they paid attention to the
kids in this city."
Hamilton beat Joseph Bauer;
the incumbent Scbool Board
chairman, by a mere 11 votes,
oddly reminiscent ofthe IO-vote
Sanders victory in 1981. The
School Board race, though,wasn't swayed because of a pop-
ular uprising that wanted spe-
cific changes: there were no is-
sues as heated as the Southern
Connector, the waterfront or
housing. TI,e School Board race
was based much more 00 a phil-
csophical question: What could
happen ifnew ideas were to be
introduced to the Scbool Board?
Voters, who elected five newmembers to the Board, clearly
wanted to give it a try.
'}\ lot of people wanted to
send a message to the School
Board," said Hamilton a day a f-ter his surprise victory. "I real-
ly wanted to try to bring our
schools, as an issue, to the pub-
lic. People would like to see a
new perspective looking at the
schools," he said, though he ad-
rnitted the "conclusion might
not be any different."
''We'll start seeing more in-
novative ideas," agreed Terry
Bouricius, a Sanders-supporting
alderman from Ward 2, "and the
DeJ110Cratsand Republicans will
have to respond. Voterswill start
to get more aware. Things will
begin to have an opportunity tochange."
Hamilton and Blodgett, per-
haps even more than the Pro-
gressive Coalition's aldermanic
candidates, may have benefitedthe most from the high-tech,
well-oiled campaign.
"The Progressive Coalition is
a political force in this commu-
nity," said Hamilton. "There's noquestion in my mind that the
Democratic Party is [also Iapolitical force. [The Progressoe
Coalition 1 made me a viable C'dO-
didate and gave me an equalfooting, giving me, as an uno.
known, an equal chance in the
rac e."
"Equal chance," for the Dem-
ocrats at least, translates
into
attacks on the Progressives'
methods.
"rou look ar the tWOdifferentcampaigns," charged Ward I
Alderman Maurice Mahoney,
'The Democratic candidate Jim
Rov.'C1I"ran his out of his dining
room. They ran Musty's Ihisopponent Ialdermanic campaign
Conti .. ""
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ELECTIONS:
FrfnIIJH lge 7
port the concept of a Progres-
sive Coalition board president,
but would have to "see who the
candidates are."
Republican Riehle, who manylook toward as the crucial S < - 'V -
enth swing vote, agreed. Riehle
said he has not yet met any of
the Progressive Coalition alder-
men, and would have to meetwith them before he'd decide.
"AllenGear;" he "tid the day after
his vrcrory "would be my imrne-
dlate first choice, hut I do not
know who would be running."With the sixth seat, the Pro-
gressives are one step closer to
pushing through their initia-
tives. Liberal opposition mem-
bers like Riehle could hold thedeciding vote in many battles.
The extra seat, said Musty "clear-Iywill put us in a position where
we can lobby for support on a
particular issue. We will onlyhave to lobby for one vote. It
i nc reas es our abi li ty i n a mi nor -
ity government to do some of
the things we want to do."
"I have a feeling I would bemore apt to be a swing vote be-
cause of the naru re of my inde-
pendence and because I did not
get 50 percent of the vote," Riele
said. "I have to respect both the
Progressive Coalition people in
my ward and the Democrats,
There may be a little more pres-
sure [on me ttlhe a swing vote I
than Iwish I had," he said.
The second test of the newly-
established power balance will
come in June when the board
elects new commission mem-
bers. Commissioners arc elec-
ted by the City Council, which
includes the mayor. If the Pro-
gress ive Coa li t ion faces a un i tedRepublican-Democratic block.
it may be a seven-against-seven
standoff. Last year Sandersforces
made a deal with the Republi-
cans to reinstate Tony Pomer-
leau to the Police Commission
in exchange for support for
some Progressive candidates,
according to Mahoney.
"Either we'll stay forever," "tid
Bouricius of the commission
selection meeting, " o r a com-
promise will be reached. But
it's only one seat on a five-
member commission and we
still don't have a majority with
any commission [except the
Health and Safery Commission
whim, he said, has a working
sympathetic membership I . Resi-
dents won't be able to see anychanges. It's another example
of the inefficiency and cumber-
someness of the commission"form of government.
"The Democrats were repudi-ated by the voters" three years
ago, said Bourieius, "and they
still control the bureaucracy>
the commissions."
And even
though the Demo-crats got whornped last 'Iuesday
losing all seven aldermanic seats
they contested, it's still too early
to signal their death knell. City
Democratic Chair Caryl Stewartis working diligently to revamp
the party with new blood. This
election simply occurred too
soon since sl .e took over the
party last full, she said, to see ifher new directions would ap-
peal to the voters.
If the Democrats fail in their
efforts to revamp the parry, Ma-
yor Sanders could be faced withthe ultimate irony: his highly-
touted three-parry system may
once again return to a two-party
battle. Only this time it would
be the Democrats that wouldbe squeezed out.
G.