The Times Argus has a profile of the Washington County Senate primary today. It gives a good basic overview of each of the candidates.
With longtime incumbent Sen. Phil Scott, R-Montpelier, running for lieutenant governor this year, Washington County voters will elect at least one new senator in November. Although the other two incumbents – Cummings and Sen. Bill Doyle, R-Montpelier – are both running for re-election, only Doyle is assured that his name will be on the ballot when the general election rolls around.
Doyle, like fellow Republicans David Harrington of Barre Town and Ed Larson of Montpelier, is essentially running unopposed next Tuesday. All three candidates will advance, as will three Democrats who survive Tuesday's primary.
In addition to Cummings, the list for Senate includes Montpelier resident Kimberly Cheney, Laura Moore of Barre Town, Donny Osman of Plainfield and Anthony Pollina of Middlesex.
What about where you are? Any interesting local primaries of interest? For instance, I’ve seen a smattering of letters to the editor on one of the side judge races–anything of interest there?
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Two other contested primaries of interest are on the Democratic side for Senate in Windham and Addison Counties.
One of the two Windham seats is open because Peter Shumlin is running for governor. There are three strong candidates – incumbent Jeanette White of Putney, former House member Toby Young of Westminster, and ex-US and UN diplomat Peter Galbraith of Townshend. Do GMD readers in Windham County have a sense of how this primary might turn out?
In the two-seat Addison district, Sen. Claire Ayer will certainly win one of the Democratic nominations. Sen. Harold Giard did not submit his nomination petitions on time, so he has to seek nomination via a write-in campaign. After the filing deadline, Amy Sheldon also declared as a write-in candidate for the Democratic nomination. Sheldon is a member of the Middlebury Planning Commission and has been active in local government and land-use issues in Middlebury.
Giard is being supported by some of the freedom-to-marry activists in Addison County because of his positive votes on the marriage equality bill, an issue which was difficult for him because of his conservative record on social issues when he was a House member earlier in his career. Giard will also get support from the more rural areas of Addison County.
On the other hand, a number of local Democrats think it’s time for new blood in the Addison Senate delegation. Several leading Addison County Democrats submitted a letter to last week’s Addison Independent saying that “there has lately been a sense that Giard has less appetite than in the past for legislative work,” while Sheldon “is clearly the way forward.”
Waiting in the wings is Mark Young, a former House member from Orwell who is one of the two Republican Senate candidates in the general election. Claire Ayer should top the ticket in November, but there will be a close race for the second seat between Young and either Giard or Sheldon.
Been quiet here primary-wise. Almost all races are pro-forma with 2 party candidates for the 2 seats at stake.
Exception is the GOP in Franklin-2, where I’m already on the November ballot as an Independent. 3 Republicans, including one incumbent, our Dem-turned-Indy-turned-Republican who used to hold the seat, and the perennial loser.
Most voters I talk to still aren’t aware there’s a primary in August, which makes me wonder if we’ll beat 2006’s 8% turnout. I just can’t wait ’til it’s done so I can stop doing GOTV for an election I’m not participating in!