It’s rare for a write-in candidate to win a seat on the Winooski City Council. But Hal Colston did just that on Tuesday.
“It was just kind of, wow,” Colston said Wednesday. “It just … reinforced for me that this is my time to step in and serve.”
The nonprofit exec got into the campaign in early February, after the deadline to get on the ballot had passed. He distributed stickers, posters and postcards to help people vote for him. When 537 people did, Colston claimed one of two council seats that were up for grabs.
Kristine Lott, who was listed on the ballot, won the other seat. She was the top vote-getter, with 607 ballots.
Ebony Nyoni, who was also listed the ballot, finished third with 347 votes.
Nyoni is an activist and the director of Black Lives Matter Vermont. Seven Days wrote about her legal dispute with a South Burlington woman in a February 21 story about the council race.
Contacted Wednesday, Nyoni declined to comment. “I have no interest in talking to you,” she said. “Go to hell.”
Colston said he planned to reach out to Nyoni.
“She obviously had a number of people who supported her candidacy,” he said. “As I’ve said all along, I really want to be a voice for everyone … I certainly will reach out to her and let her know that’s why I’m here.”
Colston and Lott will be sworn in for two-year terms on March 19.
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Congrats to Hal for a successful write-in campaign. He is a true servant to humanity and to the community. And Winooski is better off without a no-class politician who would tell the news media to “go to hell.” We’ve already got that in the White House.
Hard to win write-ins, but it happens! Yay, Hal.
What a crude woman Ebony “Go To Hell” Nyoni must be. It looks as if Winooski just dodged a bullet! If she’s the local spokesperson for Black Lives Matters, then that movement is doomed.
I don’t know Ebony at all but I get her anger. Seven Days sort of derailed her campaign by publishing that silly tale of her lawsuit. Maybe she would have lost anyway, though. Hard saying.
“Seven Days sort of derailed her campaign by publishing that silly tale of her lawsuit.”
That’s just baloney.
That’s just baloney.
Care to elaborate? I don’t follow Winooski and don’t vote there so I am open to being enlightened, however baloney just doesn’t cut it.
Super duper. Congratulations
“Seven Days sort of derailed her campaign by publishing that silly tale of her lawsuit.”
You don’t know anything about Winooski, but that didn’t stop you from declaring that Seven Days derailed Nyoni’s campaign? You just acknowledged that there was no basis for your statement. Did you do a survey to find out how many Winooski voters read the story and how many voters’ minds it changed?
In addition, it was entirely appropriate for 7D to publish an important story on the character of one of the candidates running for Winooski City Council.
I guess the silly tale would have been sillier if it hadn’t been factually accurate, Mt. Philo.
I was simply going by this article
https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/winoos…
where it seemed Nyoni was set to claim one of the two vacant seats. The article referenced above is published and her chances went out the window. Maybe the facts are true, probably they are, and I imagine bringing them out in the article referenced above was the catalyst for Nyoni losing. Hence, I can understand her anger and yes, I think it is appropriate to say the article had something to do with it.
Theres an amateur cabal in Winooski that cloaks itself in reasonableness. Its really pretty ugly. Hal Colston showed no interest in running until Ebony Nyoni was effectively unopposed and poised to win. When the panic of having actual diversity, as in that of opinion and thought, not ethnicity, set-in, a write in campaign materialized. It effectively neutralized someone that was perceived as problematic because she wasnt going to be a rubber stamp for the fantasy that Winooski is going to become some kind of urban micro-metropolis. It was effective.
Think it was really the fact that Colston hates diversity, VTIkonoklast, or do you think it had something to do with the fact that Ebony is a real piece of work? Honestly, if she was a halfway decent candidate, she’d have crushed any write ins just based on the fact that they weren’t on the ballot. She was just a terrible candidate. A decent candidate would have crushed him.