mission accomplished | vanguard press | mar. 11, 1984

8/11/2019 Mission Accomplished | Vanguard Press | Mar. 11, 1984

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the vermont BIU

B

VOL. VII, NO. 7

I S S I O NA C C O M P L I S H E D

By Joshua Mamis

J u s t O n e s e a t s h o r t o f am a j o r i ty , t h e P r o g r e s s i v eC oa l i t i o n r e d e f i n ed B u r l i n g t o nc am p a i g n i n g .

F

orthe past two months

hundreds of people work-

ed quietly and diligently

to bring about change.

TIley worked tirelessly,

knocking On every door, calling

supporters, and registering new

v o ters . In a c en t ral o f f ic e, a corn-puter spewed forth names of

voters, identified as to whether

or not they support the mayor

The election meant a lot to

Burlington's Progressive Coa-

lition, and on Tuesday night

their hard work paid off.

In tact, their campaign was so

weU organized, leading demo-

crats accused the mayor's or-

ganization of being a slick politi-

cal machine. fur all their efforts,

supporters of Mayor Sanders

achieved what WdS thought to

be close to impossible last 'lues-

day: they won two seats on Bur-

lington's School Board.And they defeated, in Wilfd

5's Jim Bums, the foremost ob-

structionist to the Progressive

Coalition's agenda on the Board

of Aldermen. In beating Burns,

the Progressives knocked off all

that symbolized the old way of

conducting politics in \Cnllont's

Queen City: The days of wild

accusations and blind non-co-operation with the mayor, the

Progressives hope, will finally

be over, Some campaigners. in

tact, were so pleased with the

outcome that at a victory party

they jokingly sang "Ding Dong

the Witch Is Dead."

With the win, citypolitics may

have officially entered a new em,

in which the politicians become

more professionalized, largeSlims of money are spent, and

highly calculated platforms

based on sophisticated polling

become the rule rather than the

exception.

fur the Progressive Coalition,

Burlington's campaign paceset-

ters, the outcome last Tuesday

was a major popular endorse-

ment. George Thsbault ma y h a v ebeaten Jim Burns because vot-

ers were tired of Burns' arro-

gant obstructionism, but for

Independent School Board can-

didates Stephen Blodgett and

Steve Hamilton to upend Demo-

cratic candidates was a resound-

ing approval fur the methods

and ideas of the Progressive

Coalltion.

"What we did tonight is takeon the two-party system," Mayor

Sanders boasted at the victory

celebration. "fur a bunch of

blind mice we have a helluva

v is i o n .

"Not only do we gain another

scat on the Board of Aldermen,"

said the feisty mayor; "but peo-

ple rdeclared J we are moving in

the right direction randJ theywant more.

"And fur the first time in his-

tory, they paid attention to the

kids in this city."

Hamilton beat Joseph Bauer;

the incumbent Scbool Board

chairman, by a mere 11 votes,

oddly reminiscent ofthe IO-vote

Sanders victory in 1981. The

School Board race, though,wasn't swayed because of a pop-

ular uprising that wanted spe-

cific changes: there were no is-

sues as heated as the Southern

Connector, the waterfront or

housing. TI,e School Board race

was based much more 00 a phil-

csophical question: What could

happen ifnew ideas were to be

introduced to the Scbool Board?

Voters, who elected five newmembers to the Board, clearly

wanted to give it a try.

'}\ lot of people wanted to

send a message to the School

Board," said Hamilton a day a f-ter his surprise victory. "I real-

ly wanted to try to bring our

schools, as an issue, to the pub-

lic. People would like to see a

new perspective looking at the

schools," he said, though he ad-

rnitted the "conclusion might

not be any different."

''We'll start seeing more in-

novative ideas," agreed Terry

Bouricius, a Sanders-supporting

alderman from Ward 2, "and the

DeJ110Cratsand Republicans will

have to respond. Voterswill start

to get more aware. Things will

begin to have an opportunity tochange."

Hamilton and Blodgett, per-

haps even more than the Pro-

gressive Coalition's aldermanic

candidates, may have benefitedthe most from the high-tech,

well-oiled campaign.

"The Progressive Coalition is

a political force in this commu-

nity," said Hamilton. "There's noquestion in my mind that the

Democratic Party is [also Iapolitical force. [The Progressoe

Coalition 1 made me a viable C'dO-

didate and gave me an equalfooting, giving me, as an uno.

known, an equal chance in the

rac e."

"Equal chance," for the Dem-

ocrats at least, translates

into

attacks on the Progressives'

methods.

"rou look ar the tWOdifferentcampaigns," charged Ward I

Alderman Maurice Mahoney,

'The Democratic candidate Jim

Rov.'C1I"ran his out of his dining

room. They ran Musty's Ihisopponent Ialdermanic campaign

Conti .. ""

o"1Mge 6


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36

ELECTIONS:

FrfnIIJH lge 7

port the concept of a Progres-

sive Coalition board president,

but would have to "see who the

candidates are."

Republican Riehle, who manylook toward as the crucial S < - 'V -

enth swing vote, agreed. Riehle

said he has not yet met any of

the Progressive Coalition alder-

men, and would have to meetwith them before he'd decide.

"AllenGear;" he "tid the day after

his vrcrory "would be my imrne-

dlate first choice, hut I do not

know who would be running."With the sixth seat, the Pro-

gressives are one step closer to

pushing through their initia-

tives. Liberal opposition mem-

bers like Riehle could hold thedeciding vote in many battles.

The extra seat, said Musty "clear-Iywill put us in a position where

we can lobby for support on a

particular issue. We will onlyhave to lobby for one vote. It

i nc reas es our abi li ty i n a mi nor -

ity government to do some of

the things we want to do."

"I have a feeling I would bemore apt to be a swing vote be-

cause of the naru re of my inde-

pendence and because I did not

get 50 percent of the vote," Riele

said. "I have to respect both the

Progressive Coalition people in

my ward and the Democrats,

There may be a little more pres-

sure [on me ttlhe a swing vote I

than Iwish I had," he said.

The second test of the newly-

established power balance will

come in June when the board

elects new commission mem-

bers. Commissioners arc elec-

ted by the City Council, which

includes the mayor. If the Pro-

gress ive Coa li t ion faces a un i tedRepublican-Democratic block.

it may be a seven-against-seven

standoff. Last year Sandersforces

made a deal with the Republi-

cans to reinstate Tony Pomer-

leau to the Police Commission

in exchange for support for

some Progressive candidates,

according to Mahoney.

"Either we'll stay forever," "tid

Bouricius of the commission

selection meeting, " o r a com-

promise will be reached. But

it's only one seat on a five-

member commission and we

still don't have a majority with

any commission [except the

Health and Safery Commission

whim, he said, has a working

sympathetic membership I . Resi-

dents won't be able to see anychanges. It's another example

of the inefficiency and cumber-

someness of the commission"form of government.

"The Democrats were repudi-ated by the voters" three years

ago, said Bourieius, "and they

still control the bureaucracy>

the commissions."

And even

though the Demo-crats got whornped last 'Iuesday

losing all seven aldermanic seats

they contested, it's still too early

to signal their death knell. City

Democratic Chair Caryl Stewartis working diligently to revamp

the party with new blood. This

election simply occurred too

soon since sl .e took over the

party last full, she said, to see ifher new directions would ap-

peal to the voters.

If the Democrats fail in their

efforts to revamp the parry, Ma-

yor Sanders could be faced withthe ultimate irony: his highly-

touted three-parry system may

once again return to a two-party

battle. Only this time it would

be the Democrats that wouldbe squeezed out.

G.

mission accomplished | vanguard press | mar. 11, 1984

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