Last week, the six Progressives on the Burlington City Council banded together to block the Democratic mayor’s choice for a permanent police chief.
The 6-6 vote on Jon Murad’s nomination highlighted the caucus’ unique power. While members can’t advance their agenda without a seventh vote, they can coalesce to stop proposals they oppose, all on their own. A tie vote in Burlington means the motion fails.
But with Town Meeting Day coming up on March 1, the party is in danger of losing that power. While eight ward seats are up for election, there’s one race, Ward 8, that will likely determine whether the Progs hold their ground — or give it up.
Incumbent Progressive Jane Stromberg isn’t running for reelection in the student-heavy ward. Instead, two newcomers, both University of Vermont seniors, are vying for the seat: Prog-endorsed Ali House and Democrat Hannah King.
“It’s absolutely a priority for us,” Josh Wronski, executive director of the Vermont Progressive Party, said of the Ward 8 seat. “It’s one of the truly competitive ones.”
“A race like this, if you want to sum it up, it’s a turnout game.” Adam Roof
Of the seven other ward seats, five are held by incumbents, who generally hold an advantage due to name recognition. But their voting records and policy positions can also create an opening for challengers to attack. Time, though, is running out on all the candidates seeking to win over voters. The city has already begun mailing out ballots.
Progressive Zoraya Hightower is facing Democrat Rob Gutman in Ward 1; fellow Prog Joe Magee will head off against Republican Christopher-Aaron Felker in Ward 3; and independent Ward 7 Councilor Ali Dieng will compete with Prog-endorsed independent Olivia Taylor and Democrat Aleczander Stith, who’s also been endorsed by the GOP.
Incumbent Dems Sarah Carpenter (Ward 4) and Karen Paul (Ward 6) are running unopposed.
In Ward 2, veteran Prog Gene Bergman is also running unopposed. His predecessor, Progressive Council President Max Tracy, chose not to run again for the Old North End seat.
Another longtime incumbent, Democrat Chip Mason, isn’t running for his Ward 5 seat. But his party is confident about holding on there after endorsing Ben Traverse, who faces two independents, FaRied Munarsyah and Lenora Travis. The South End is reliably Democratic, and Traverse has already raked in $15,000 in donations to fund his campaign, according to recent filings with the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office. His donor list includes U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), his former boss, who gave $500.
There’s more uncertainty in Ward 8. The city created the seat in 2015 during redistricting, and only two councilors have held it since. In 2015, Adam Roof won Ward 8 as a Prog-endorsed independent. Three years later, he ran as a Democrat-endorsed independent — and defeated a Prog. Roof ran as a Democrat in 2020 but lost to Stromberg, a hard-line Progressive. Roof is now chair of the Burlington Democratic Party.
Ward 8 generally comprises the student neighborhoods boxed in by Main Street, South Winooski Avenue, Pearl Street and South Willard Street, plus the University of Vermont’s residential campus and University Heights. Many Burlingtonians have derided it as a gerrymandered district that gives college students outsize influence in city politics. In its final report last month, a committee leading the city’s latest redistricting process concluded that Ward 8 should be reconfigured.
Now a Ward 6 resident, Roof described elections in his former neighborhood as “volatile.” Candidates must win support from college students, an inherently transient voter base that, election data show, is more likely to vote in local elections when there’s also a presidential primary on the ballot.
“A race like this, if you want to sum it up, it’s a turnout game,” Roof said. “It’s all about building relationships and pointing to important issues that are going to motivate young people, but also not forgetting about the permanent residents.”
King, the Democrat, has never run for office but is no stranger to local politics. Originally from Massachusetts, she was Roof’s campaign manager in 2020 and volunteered in 2021 on the failed campaign of Central District council candidate Tiki Archambeau. She’s currently working as the co-finance director for Vermont Sen. Becca Balint’s (D-Windham) Congressional bid. King, 21, is also a recent graduate of Emerge Vermont, an organization that recruits and trains Democratic women to run for higher office.
King says she’s running a campaign on “small p” progressive policies. She wants to work with the administration to create a guaranteed minimum income program that would pay residents a monthly stipend. She also hopes to appeal to renters, a huge demographic in Ward 8, with proposals to bolster the city’s code enforcement office to hold problem landlords accountable and to create a rent stabilization policy that would cap annual increases at a certain percentage.
“I’ve always considered myself to be a more progressive Democrat,” King said. “I think if you were to put my platform up against a Progressive candidate’s, they’re pretty aligned overall.”
House, 23, has less political experience but perhaps more practical knowledge of the issues that she says Ward 8 voters care about. House took time off from her studies in 2020 to run mental health support groups at Lund, an anti-poverty nonprofit where House still serves as a social worker. She’s also a per diem substitute teacher in Colchester public schools.
“I’ve been on the front lines of the pandemic as a social worker and educator, and I see the everyday impact that local policy has on people’s lives,” House said. “I really think my experience will bring a unique lens to city council.”
House is also a proponent of policies to address climate change, and she vowed to hold UVM to its promise of achieving complete carbon neutrality by 2025. On housing, the candidate said she’d push to allocate more funds to groups that help homeless Vermonters and to increase access to low-barrier shelters.
In the end, the candidates’ wide-ranging platforms may be dwarfed by their positions on policing. Minutes after last week’s council vote, Mayor Miro Weinberger announced that Murad would keep his acting chief title “indefinitely,” sparking speculation that the mayor would revisit Murad’s nomination after the March elections, when the council could have a different political makeup.
House said she would vote against Murad’s nomination, echoing her Progressive colleagues’ concern that the acting chief doesn’t support needed police reforms. King, meanwhile, hasn’t picked a side. In a press release last week, King said she wants to “fully understand the issue” before committing to a vote on Murad or on specific public safety reforms. She said she’s been meeting with activists and plans to meet with Murad this week. King will also host a forum for Ward 8 residents to discuss public safety issues before the election.
King said voters she’s spoken with have respected her desire to be “thoughtful and deliberative” about public safety and other issues.
“They are understanding and are grateful that there’s a candidate in the race that is willing to go out there and do the work and not just blanket-support the same vote that their political party does,” she said. “People are kind of done with the political nonsense of it all, and they want folks that are going to put in the work and be actual, representative leadership for their neighbors.”
Other candidates have been vocal about the Murad debate. Democrats Gutman and Stith — running in Ward 1 and Ward 7, respectively — issued pro-Murad press releases ahead of last week’s vote and reiterated their support during the meeting’s public forum. Felker, the GOP candidate in Ward 3, retweeted a Burlington Police Officers’ Association statement that bashed the Progressives for voting against Murad.
Roof agreed that Murad’s appointment looms large in this election and said more moderate voters have noticed the Progs’ “power of prevention.” Democratic candidates such as King “will take the responsibility of governance very seriously” if elected, Roof said.
Wronski, the Prog party director, suggested that Weinberger knew Murad’s nomination would fail in an effort to drum up support for Democratic candidates. The mayor, in a statement to Seven Days, dismissed the conjecture and said there are no immediate plans for another vote on Murad, regardless of the outcome in the election.
“The search for a chief is over, and Chief Murad will continue serving as Burlington’s chief,” Weinberger wrote.
“With or without [the Progressives’] partnership, the Chief and I are focused on the hard work ahead to rebuild the Burlington Police Department,” he continued. “I would welcome the City Council rejoining us in this effort no matter what the partisan make-up is after the election.”
Weinberger said he’s met with all the Democratic candidates, including King, whom he called a “formidable candidate” and experienced campaigner. He said King’s commitment to the city shows she “can absolutely win.” Roof agreed, saying Ward 8 voters want someone with progressive values who isn’t “overly ideological.”
“[King talks about] ‘small p’ progressive issues in ways that are focused on actually creating progress,” Roof said, adding, “She knows what she’s talking about, and she’s not afraid to admit when she doesn’t … The city council will benefit greatly for it.”
Wronski said House appeals to voters because she’ll fight for the progressive change that her base wants.
“On the issues, students are with us,” he said, adding, “It’s going to be pretty clear who the candidate is that’s really living the values that the ward wants in their city councilor.”
The original print version of this article was headlined “Power Struggle | Control of the Burlington City Council likely hinges on one race: Ward 8”
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This article appears in The Love & Marriage Issue 2022.
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