party talk | vanguard press | mar. 3, 1985

8/11/2019 Party Talk | Vanguard Press | Mar. 3, 1985

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Will t he Co t s Come Back? UVM Hoopsters Lo ok to Next Year-Po 26FlnYCENT,

TA L

VOL. VII I. ~O_ 7

By John Dillon and Gail E . HudsonBefore som e audiences,Burlington Mayor BernardSanders still sounds like t henutsider who leapt from poli lica l obscur ity wit h am iraculous 1a-vote upsetover a Dem ocrat ic inr " \ l - - ' \ \ " 1 - ben lin1 981. ","

Back then. C \, "a fringe r- ~ _,

' \ \ 0 0 ' A"Oy- pere- '" r ~

rn ~ ''''y.~ ~5'i>m e ,/,-\, ~to 51.Demo- '\ .cersis in the . able roleof politic. . isrder, facingcharges he used to hurl athis opponents. City Demo-crats have charged that

Sanders and the Progressive Coalition run a city governmentrna hine which shuns the involvem ent of outsiders, and issloppy with city finances:

The accusations have escalated in the waning days of theMayoral cam paign, with alderman M auricf"M ahoney t D W ard1 r claiming the city violated its own charter by failing to filean audit of city finances by November 30. Mahoney, whorepeated his claim in a speech to Burlington Democrats lastv . eek, has said the t iming of this accusation had nothing to dowith the floundering candidacy of Democratic mayoral candi-d B i B

WhileBurl ingtonDemocratsLoo k for theG oo d O leDays,ProgressivesLoo k for aFuture

VERMONT'S NEWS AND ARTS WEEKLY

Paquette's administration of shoddy bookkeeping.

But Sanders, his hair whitened by four years of office,again played the outsider's role before a Rotary Club lunch of Burlington-area businessmen last week. Responding to aquest ion from a businessman w ho wondered if Sanders would \\ n rk tt l repeal the inventory ta . the m ayor bare!v hid hisoutrage,

" I do no t in tend to ad vocate r epeal ing the inven to ry t axunless another tax of equal worth is placed on the businesscommuni ty. " Sanders says .

"After four years of [business) getting tax breaks from

MARCH 3,10.1985

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City Democrats, meanwhile. who long controlled both the

mayor's office and a majority of the Board of Aldermen, seemto be a party desperalely trying to recapture its glory days.A F{/lIl(1mrdPress poll of 168 voters. predominantly weighted

in Wards 1.3 and 6, showed Sanders to be overwhelmingly popula r. with 60 per cen t of the vote rs poll ed sayi ng they wou ldvote fo r h im in the upcoming election. And the po ll , wh ichm irrors resul ts show n by a recent Universi ty of Vermont- Bu rl in gt on Fr ee Pr es s sampling. found Burns to be a distantsecond to Sanders, with only 14 percent, About 7 percentsaid they favored Independent Diane Gallagber. The rest-


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... fOnl;nlled from page 1Brooklyn," says U VM politicalscientist Garri-son Nelson. .. .

Nelson say s c ity Democra ts a re div ide d IOtathree groups: the first group is comprised of "national" Democrats who support VermontSenator Patrick Leahy and Governor Made-leine Kunin but think "the Democra~c Partyin Burlington is totally out of touch. Thisgroup, made up of primarily newer arrivalsto the city, will probably vote fo~ Sanders,

The second group, Nelson contmues, ISthe"old guard" -the die-hard loyalists who com- pri se what' s lef t of the old Democra tic es-tablishment. They W Illtum out for Bums.

And the third group of city Democrats ISa blo ck o f voters Bums seems to be missing:"The people who wish Brian was running a better cam paign ," Ne lson said . The se Demo-crats are "not dazzled by Bernie," and "wouldlike to vote for Bums but won't because of the nature of the campaign:' he says.

mentioned Republican businessman Luther Hackett who lives in South Burlington .as alikely "generous supporter." H ackett, an msur-ance agent, could not be reached for comment by pre ss tim e. .

While Bums has the support of the busi-ness community, the Burlington DemocraticParty seems to be trying again to carve out aniche for itself. There have been few JOI~tappearances with Bums and aldermaniccandidates. In the Democratic Party.it seemsevery man or woman is out for themselves.

City Chairwoman Caryl Stewart, herself acandidate for Ward 3 alderman, said she hastaken time out from her party duties tocampaign. In the meantime, she says, "I'm jus t doing my own thing. "

In her case, Stewart says, it makes sense tocampaign on her own. "Bernie Sanders got68 percent of the vote in Ward 3 lasttime."I need to make very dear I am runnmg for the Bnard of Aldermen independently -unlike

PARTYTA L K

H d Bums also hasOW 0 you the solid support of turn the Demo- many Burlingtoncrotic party businessmen, the

group which Nel-around? The son l abe ls t he

"ABB" crowd for answer, ac- "an yb od y b utcordingtoCity Bernie:'Ch 'oman This group of alrw businessmen,Caryl Stewart, which includesis ''very slowly," ;;omeRepublicans,ISbehind two mys-terious political action committees whichtogetherhave pumped a b o u t $8,000 into Bums'$14,000 campaign chest.

my opponent [Peter Lackowski] who seemsto be running for Bernie."

Stewart says the party has "already taken amajor reassessment - it happened w hen I took over the party .... How do you tum the partyaround? The answer, I've learned, is veryslowly."

Ward 5 A lderman Paul Lafayette, who politi-cal scientist Nelson says could be one of theDemocrats' few future viable mayoral candi-dates, says itis hard to coordinatecampaigns be-cause "you're working with the same workers."

Democrats now are the outsiders, Lafayettesays. "They [the Progressive Coalition] have becom e the dosed party and we 're the out-siders .... The Democrats are the real inde- pende nts of Burlington."

Be nz ie Sa nd ers : Th e Progresiue Coalition is "as open and as democratic as any other grollp.in fact more so. "

sive incumbents win re-election, Schumacher or Pillsbury could give Sanders supportersthe power they've sought for four years.

Pillsbury is anxious to point out that he'snot a member of the Progressive Coalitionand that he'll vote independently, althoughhe supports the mayor. Progressive boardmembers, such as Peter Lackowski, say,Pillsbury's "really one of us " The Progres

sive alderman from Ward 3, "you might gas many differing opinions as there are peoin it."

Although Burlington is referred to as a thr par ty sys tem , the coali tion is not a registe r par ty. The re is no lis t of members .

It does advertise and hold citywide meeings where over 350 people have shown

di b "If b


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VANGUARDPRESS I MARCH:110.1985-13

. , d back Community and Economic Develop-anenlOffice's (CEDOl efforts with the Land~rust and worker-owned bus inesses . Every-

ne says the coalition is still committed toblic access to the waterfront.

pu De mo cra tsch arg e tha t San der s and his back-rs are confrontive and defensive; thatCEDO

e,ismanaged a federallyfunded housing reha-~ilitationloan program; that City Hallsuffersfrom cronyism and that Sanders consistentlykirts th e pubhc heanng process and defies

~he commission form of gov~mm~nt. .Republicans say Sanders IS anti-business,

100radical, and - 10 charges ~~atharken back to an earlier campaign -thaI Burlington doesnot need a foreign policy." City Govern"'.ent,says Republican aldermamc candidate FredBailey, has grown too big. One way to easethe burden on the property tax, he says, ISreduce government spend mg.

In his four years 10 office, though, Sandershas rarely been challenged from the left. Corn-munity activists such as Bea Bookchin behevethe mayor has sold out to developers, particu-larly in reference to the Alden WaterfrontCorp. But Bookchin's point of view was notwell received at City Hall. And that's ledSomeprogressives to be careful about whatthey say about the mayor on the record.

One says that the Sanders administrationis becoming a well-oiled machine, thoughadmits that this is in order to play hardballwith state and federal authorities. Some ques-lion the energy spent on a "luxury" such ascable TV, when electric rates are soaring andnorthenders are battling pollution caused bythe Moran plant.

The reality ofcity government is that there'sgoing to be development, says Sanders. Atleast his administration has managed to getconcessions from builders, such as "moderate-income housing." It's also managed to getconcessions from utilities, he says, pointingto CoxCable TV and New England Telephone.

"There are some who think Burlington'swaterfront should be an open park for all.Well 1disagree," says Sanders. "You have to

huild something to draw people to the water-front, even in the winter, so you get people-oriented things, a museum and an ar ts andcrafts center.

"My.goal for Burlington is not to see it becom e a yup pie city, or a cit y of poo r p eop le.I want a diversity of people ... .l want to seefamilies return to the city."

Up until two years ago, there was no suchthing as the Progressive Coalition. The "third par ty" was sim ply sup porters of the Sande rsadministration and they were dubbed"Sanderis tas . "

Every election after Sanders' narrow vic-tory in 1981, "Sanderistas" would push to get

more supporters on the board. And each elec-tion more voters would selp organize fund-r ai se rs a nd a ss is t i n c am p a ig ni ng . -

But it's been four years, and according toProgressi ve Coalitionm embers, it's not enoughto be so election-oriented.

So far the coalitionhas decided not to becomea registered party. The majority of membersfeel it's either too soon to talk about forming a party or it's too threa ten ing . Som e of i ts me mo bers alr ead y bel ong to a pol itical party , eit her as Democrats or the near-dormant CitizensParty.

"We're doing pretty good now," saysLackowski, who once pushed for party status."I'm starting to think that m aybe it's best toleave it like it is. Some of the members sawhow the Democratic party soured and theywouldn't want that to happen here:'

"It was debated," shrugs Sanders, "but it'snot a major issue. I don't think it's terriblyimportant that we become a registered party.We are as open and as democratic as anyother group, in fact more so."

If Bernie doesn't get a majority, he probably won't run aga in, say s Bouri ciu s. Last fal lhe considered not running because "he was

frustrated and beaten down," says Bouricius,who blames a lot of Sanders' weariness on aresistant board.

It could have been devastating for the coali-tion if Sanders had retired. The coalition nowrealizes that it may have to groom a mayoralcandidate for 1987. "That's one of the rea-sons we need toget organized," says Bouricius."We have to be a sured that we can keepwhat we're doing in Burlington alive:'

But the coalition's main challenge, accord-ing to Bouricius, is not just deciding whether to become a party, or deciding who should

replace Sanders. It has to get members think-ing beyond each election. The coalition needsto get its members m ore involved if it wants tosurvive.

"We have to change our whole assumptionabout what politics is. People need to learnthat democracy has to be more than votingevery two to four years:' ' Brian "Anyone But Bemie" Burns

party talk | vanguard press | mar. 3, 1985

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