The Burlington Democratic caucus on Thursday included an alliance with a Progressive — and featured a fiery speech of support from the mayor — as party members picked their slate of four city council candidates ahead of Town Meeting Day.
Central District voters endorsed Progressive City Council President Jane Knodell, while voters in the city’s North District backed independent Councilor Dave Hartnett for that seat. Party members also unanimously selected Councilor Joan Shannon to run for the South District seat and nominated newcomer Richard Deane to take a shot at winning the East District.
One decision came with its fair share of detractors. Applause waned and at least one person booed when Mayor Miro Weinberger asked party members to nominate the incumbent Knodell for the Central District seat after no Democrat volunteered to run for the post.
“In the face of a hijacking of her party, she has stood firm in the belief that expanding economic opportunity [leads to] expanding equity,” he told the crowd, which included 2016 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Sue Minter, Vermont Democratic Party executive director Conor Casey and state representatives.
At other points in his speech, Weinberger lambasted city Progressives for nominating candidates “from a reactionary fringe that is opposed to much of what we are trying to achieve.”
Though never explicitly named, Weinberger’s remarks appeared to take aim at those who vocally opposed the Burlington mall redevelopment and other development projects supported by the administration. Charles Simpson, a Progressive who opposed the mall redevelopment plan, is competing with Shannon for the South District seat, while Genese Grill, another outspoken mall opponent, will run against Knodell as an independent.
Knodell also faced a challenge at the Progressive caucus last month from Tony Redington, yet another mall opponent.
“There is a struggle going on for the soul of the party of Sanders, Clavelle and Knodell,” Weinberger said of the Progressives.
The local Progressive Party chapter opposed the mall redevelopment proposal, but Knodell was an outspoken proponent of the project.
“I’m thankful to Jane for all she did in breaking with her party to support the town center,” Weinberger told Central District voters.
Knodell did not attend the caucus at Edmunds Middle School, but Weinberger said she agreed to accept the Democratic nomination if she won it.
Voters acquiesced to Weinberger’s request, but not without opposition. Several voted “no” in a voice vote and former Democratic state lawmaker Alan Bjerke called the move “dangerous for the party.”
The Democrats welcomed independent Dave Hartnett back into the fold after the party nominated another candidate at the caucus two years ago. Hartnett then ran and won the 2015 election as an independent — but willingly accepted the Democratic nomination this time around. “I’m like the mother-in-law you can’t get rid of,” he said with a laugh.
“It’s a big party and I believe all views should be welcome,” he said, adding that his views often fall to the right of the party center.
Deane works as an architect for TruexCullins, a career that he says sets him up well to serve on the council. “My training is to evaluate what I see, come up with ideas for clients to meet their future needs and put together a plan to make it happen,” he said.
As chair of the Burlington Business Association, Deane testified in support of the mall redevelopment before the city council last year. He decided to run recently, he said, at the urging of Weinberger and Shannon, whom he calls friends.
The East District is wide open after Selene Colburn, a Progressive, won a seat in the Vermont House and announced that she would resign from the council. Deane will face Charles Winkleman, chair of the Progressive Party, in the March election.
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I am really disappointed by the so called progressives who have put forth this bizarre mall project , claiming that it will help with housing and somehow bring renewal to the downtown. This does not seem to align with the already dead mall space and the rise of online shopping. It’s outdated and not at all progressive. We will end up paying this off for years to come. Genese is looking at a truly progressive plan to revitalize the city with the actual needs of the people who live here and work here and create here. We need this kind of vision going forward. People with true vision will often be attacked by those trying to hold onto the old power system. I can see that happening in this thread and it is sad.
The twerp comment is just silly. I do see that “vivaONE” is not keeping comments classy, though Wonder who it really is?!
Mayor Weinberger is a twerp. That’s funny because it’s true.
Oh yes – forgot to mention – the “affordable housing” in the Sinex project was close to $1000 a month, and consisted of a two-room place with one window on an airshaft – hardly livable. There are reasons we opposed the project – it is not that we oppose all projects.
Wow! I haven’t been here in a while. This is great – several dozen people have committed time to disliking everything concerning Genese. This is a powerful tactic. BUT, if you (you) look into all the facts, you will find that the Mayor’s projects are not so good for the city. If the “progressives” have rallied around these comments, calling names and such, I guess we (the CLC) will have to do so – but without the name-calling. Yes, we have a few exasperated comments, but seriously – did someone call the Mayor a twerp? What a pity – but it wasn’t much of an insult. “The Mayor was right, they are a reactionary fringe with no interest in governing. Their interest is only in yelling and stirring up resentment.” I would call that a more serious insult. How can our interest be only in yelling, when we haven’t been yelling? Unless the points we make are considered, I don’t think they should be judged – and certainly not so harshly. Wanting to keep the city attractive is not anti-progress. Progress would better be served by planting 100 trees than it would be by putting up a skyscraper. Okay, boys, have at it. Thank you.
Genese Grill got caught trying to run a dirty campaign and stir up negativity against her opponent by impersonating an anonymous commenter online, and her defense is that she’s been using her real name on her campaign page? I would certainly hope so! If she *really* wanted to use her own name, surely she could easily find the account info button at the top of this very page?
However, this appears similar to her usual modus operandi of relentlessly spamming the Front Porch Forum with anti-mall material, which many believe led to that campaign’s failure because people were put off by her long-winded posts there, often exceeding 10-15 pages daily. This abuse of public forums is quite in keeping with the political strategies of a post-Trump era. Grill also tried to sabotage Bernie’s campaign by smearing his wife during the election because of a personal grudge over being unceremoniously fired from her last academic post, years ago. She didn’t care if Bernie, whom she supported, lost; her only small-minded and petty goal was to keep Jane Sanders out of the White House as First Lady (see http://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/jane-says-sanders-secret-weapon-or-a-political-liability/Content?oid=2670992).
However, if she doesn’t get her way, we may expect to see this city council hopeful collapsing on the floor of the police station in tears again, which is where she was observed last summer after another failed campaign to stop the air show. Burlington, please dig deeper and ask yourselves who you really want having access to city government?
BTW, who has been engaging in a “negative smear campaign”? The smears were thrown by CLC, the anti-Mall allies, and the Weinberger haters. Just look at Comrade Petrarca’s and others’ name-calling on this thread alone:
Capitalist exploitation
Weinberger=Trumpist
Developer
Cutthroat
Twerp
Multi-millionaire
Gentrification agenda
Neo-fascist
If that isn’t smearing people just because they have different ideas from you, I don’t know what is. The fact is that the Mayor has put up with this name-calling for months and months without responding. Now your mad that the guy you’ve been smearing for months is mad? Really?
Headline: “Politician Critiques Mayor’s Speech Before Seeing Or Hearing It. Then Lashes Out At Critics”
Also: who is it running a negative campaign here? We are not the ones calling people who voted yes on the mall vote anti-environmental, anti-senior, anti-labor, anti-affordable housing. We are not the ones calling almost half of the citizens of the city a “reactionary fringe”. Criticism where criticism is due is a duty of all citizens. Negative smear campaigns are something else.