Progressive Activist Challenges Incumbent Lawman for Chittenden County Sheriff

The provocative lawn signs began popping up this spring: “STOP EVICTING CHILDREN.”

They carried the message of a new candidate for Chittenden County sheriff, who, if elected, would be responsible for enforcing court-ordered evictions of renters, including families.

But Kevin Bloom, a 32-year-old Burlington audio producer who identifies as transgender and uses they/them pronouns, has a different vision for the office.

They believe sheriffs — who, unlike police officers, aren’t required to hold law enforcement certifications — have untapped potential as agents for social change. That’s especially true when it comes to evictions, which Bloom argues are inextricably linked to public safety.

Eviction reform is a central part of Bloom’s campaign. Their signature proposal is a jobs program that would connect tenants who are behind on their rent with employers willing to help pay off their debts.

It’s an ambitious vision for an office traditionally tasked with serving civil paperwork, transporting prisoners and enforcing court-ordered evictions — the type of unglamorous work that keeps the court system running. But Bloom notes that state statute charges sheriffs with one additional duty: to “preserve the peace” in their community.

“The person you vote for is the person who decides what that means,” Bloom said.

Sheriff Dan Gamelin, the incumbent, isn’t convinced. He describes evicting people as difficult but legally mandated work that, if mishandled, can exacerbate problems. (In 2023, Gamelin was the subject of a Seven Days cover story about the rising rate of evictions in Vermont.) And he says the office has become more robust and financially stable under his leadership. Handing the reins over to someone without any law enforcement or civil service experience would be a mistake, he said.

The race for the Democratic nomination comes at a time when Vermont sheriffs are under increased scrutiny amid several high-profile scandals. And with no Republicans in the running, the winner of Chittenden County’s August 11 primary will likely prevail come November.

The candidates are a study in contrasts.

Bloom grew up in Sherborn, Mass., a Boston suburb, before attending the University of Vermont, where they majored in creative writing. They now help run a local music studio called SpIcY wOrLd, work for an audio software company and serve as front person for the psych-rock band the Dead Shakers.

Since announcing their bid last September, Bloom has received the backing of a number of well-known progressives, including Ben & Jerry’s cofounder Ben Cohen. They’ve also protested against federal immigration authorities. When Vermonters clashed with police during a botched U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid in South Burlington in March, Bloom was captured on video shouting at a federal agent: “I’m the next sheriff in this county!”

Gamelin, meanwhile, was born and raised in Winooski and has spent nearly his entire adult life in uniform. He joined the Chittenden County Sheriff’s Office as a 22-year-old deputy in 1982, not long after graduating from Champlain College with an associate degree in criminal justice. Forty years later, when his longtime boss, then-sheriff Kevin McLaughlin, decided not to seek reelection, Gamelin sought the post and won uncontested.

When he recounts his first-term accomplishments, Gamelin sounds more like the head of a thriving business than a sheriff’s department. “I have no liens, no loans and no leases,” he said. “I owe nobody any money here. We operate a really tight, efficient sheriff’s office.”

Such an enterprising mindset is practically a job requirement for Vermont sheriffs. While their offices receive some tax dollars to pay their salary and those of the deputies assigned to transport prisoners to court hearings, sheriffs otherwise raise most of their revenue through contract work. That has traditionally meant patrolling a town part time or providing a deputy to watch over highway construction sites.

Since taking office, Gamelin has inked a new contract with the town of Charlotte, which his deputies now patrol in addition to Jericho, Westford and Underhill. He provides security at Chittenden County’s criminal courthouse. He’s also aggressively expanded the department’s private security portfolio.

He counts among his clients Goldman Sachs, Vermont Rail System, Champlain Housing Trust and Burlington Housing Authority. He also works with Hannaford and Barnes & Noble, where he said his deputies have helped prevent more than 1,000 thefts and made more than 250 arrests.

The businesses and organizations pay about $90 an hour to have one of Gamelin’s deputies stationed nearby. Sometimes the sheriff picks up shifts himself.

The increased business has allowed him to hire eight additional full-time deputies, for a total of 22. He’s also been able to upgrade or replace aging equipment. Seventeen of the department’s 25 cruisers have been replaced since he took office — at a cost of about $70,000 each.

The private security contracts have also helped line Gamelin’s pockets. State law allows sheriffs to keep up to 5 percent of their department’s contracts, so long as that does not exceed half of their state-mandated salary.

Gamelin, whose salary is $116,000, took in the maximum additional amount of $58,000 last year.

Gamelin has expanded his department at a time when other local police agencies are struggling to keep pace with the demand for their services. He said businesses that are interested in his security services call frequently, though he’s wary of taking on many more at this time.

“I don’t want to get over my head,” he said.

Bloom has seized on the practice. Providing security at construction sites is one thing, Bloom said, but deploying armed agents of the state as rent-a-cops for corporations is another.

What’s worse, Bloom argues, is that the sheriff has been expanding this part of his business at the same time he’s been pulling back in areas that could arguably provide more public good. Sheriffs were once in charge of giving rides to people who are released from prison, but departments across the state, including Gamelin’s, stopped doing so a few years ago. As a result, inmates released from some of Vermont’s more rural prisons can find themselves without any way to get home — or even to the closest bus stop.

Gamelin countered that it was the Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs that made the decision to stop providing the rides, not him personally, in part because the transports do not fall under the statutory duties of the role.

Bloom said they would resume the practice. “Maybe we could start to use the sheriff for things other than as a private security business and personal enrichment grift,” Bloom said.

For Bloom, that begins with tackling Chittenden County’s housing crisis.

Bloom argues that the sheriff is perfectly positioned to prevent evictions. The sheriff must deliver paperwork notifying tenants that their landlord is taking them to court and return later to notify the tenant when a judge has ruled against them — giving them 14 days to vacate the property. If the tenants don’t leave, the sheriff forcibly removes them.

Data from Vermont Legal Aid show that three out of four evictions occur because of nonpayment of rent. Bloom points this out to bolster their idea for a rent-relief jobs program. The current eviction process, which can take months, is a “raw deal” for both tenants and landlords, Bloom argues.

Bloom recalled speaking with landlords who owned a duplex and recently had to wait nine months to evict a tenant who had stopped paying rent. “That is their retirement income,” Bloom said. “All that lost revenue — it’s sunk.”

Bloom said they would initially seek to enroll a group of local businesses in need of employees into the jobs program. The employers would agree to pay a livable wage and to offer a hiring bonus that would be given to the landlord to help pay down some of the debt.

While Bloom said employers have been reluctant to publicly back the idea before the election, some have been receptive behind the scenes, excited by the prospect of getting connected to a “pool of applicants who will show up for every shift.”

The concept appears unprecedented: Bloom could point to no program of its kind in the country, let alone one run by a sheriff’s office. To make it work, Bloom said they would likely hire an established social services agency to run the program.

“I’m very confident that this would not only get off the ground but be very successful,” Bloom said.

Gamelin is highly skeptical, in part because many of the eviction cases that land on his desk involve large sums of unpaid rent. “We’re not talking $200,” he said. “We just did one the other day that was $18,000, so the landlord was clearly trying to work with that tenant.”

Bloom has earned the endorsement of a few smaller landlords. But some of the county’s bigger housing providers, including the Handy and Bissonette families, are backing Gamelin. The Handys’ rental company donated $1,000 to the sheriff’s reelection campaign, while four Bissonette-owned companies have kicked in a combined $4,000.

Gamelin, who has carried out evictions for most of his career, rejects the idea of any conflict of interest, even though the big landlords frequently hire his department to serve their legal papers. He said the Handys and Bissonettes are old friends supporting him personally. He also rejected Bloom’s attempt to paint him as a child-evicting bully. Any time he is evicting a family, he said, he coordinates with social service organizations.

“It’s the worst part of my job,” Gamelin said, “but I have no choice.”

Even Bloom acknowledges that evictions will be necessary at times. “I’m not talking about abolishing eviction,” Bloom said. “I’m just talking about using it appropriately.”

Bloom’s call to change the office from within is a familiar message in liberal Chittenden County, where the state’s attorney has spent a decade trying to reduce the number of people behind bars. The August vote will show whether local voters are open to the idea of an unconventional reformist in the sheriff’s post.

Gamelin insists that the sheriff’s office is not the place to be testing out unproven policies. Bloom should run for the legislature if policy making is the goal, the sheriff said.

For Bloom, those duties are simply the starting point.

“The sheriff can be whatever we want it to be,” Bloom said. ➆

The original print version of this article was headlined “New Sheriff in Town? A progressive activist is challenging an incumbent lawman to become Chittenden County’s next sheriff”

This article appears in July 22 • 2026.

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