Gonna put up a few thoughts on yesterday’s voting and invite others to do the same. In the Comments, or in diaries of your own.

Presidential Primary Headline: “Santorum Trails in Vermont Three-Way.” (Sorry, you may need to flush your eyes in Lysol.) But seriously, Mitt Romney managed a 14-point victory, but only got about 40% of the vote. Bad showing for Mitt in a northeastern state not known for rabid conservatism. It must be heartening to El Jefe General John McClaughry and his Ethan Allen Boys that Ron Paul managed to finish second.

Miro Wins Burlington: Speaking purely as an outside observer, I’m surprised. I thought the Dem/Prog infighting — which the Dems started, IMO, with some of their comments about Tim Ashe being too much of a Prog — plus the Wanda Hines candidacy would give Kurt Wright enough room to slip into the Big Chair. I was concerned that, despite his moderate/good guy image, he’d turn out to be a serious conservative and take some steps (selling Burlington Electric?) that’d be impossible for a future Mayor to undo.

Whither Progs? Having lost the Mayoralty, they must be pondering their future direction. I hope a GMDer with Prog inclinations can offer more insight on the subject.

Corporate Personhood: Incomplete returns at this hour, but so far, it’s a big “yes” for a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United ruling. Of the more than 50 communities considering the issue, at least half approved it, and only two towns (so far) have reportedly said no.

That’s it for me. Comments welcome.

6 thoughts on “Invitation to Open Thread: Town Meeting Day & Primary”

I was really impressed by the numbers Miro put up. Really thought it was going to be a very close race, potentially going to a run off. Glad it hasn’t, and very glad we didn’t have to muck around with the whole 40% thing that we rolled back to when the NNE Dempublicans repealed IRV. I think I actually posted here that I feared hWright could win.

The numbers were especially interesting in my end of town, as I live a few blocks from Mr. Wright. He needed to win big here, and he only won the NNE by relatively small numbers. I think perhaps we are seeing the start of a slide to something I’ve discussed and pondered – it seems more young, better educated families that are juggling careers and kids are moving to this part of town (it is affordable and ‘suburban’ – compared to elsewhere) – and I’d guess that those folks lean more to the left than Mr. Wright’s core constituency.

Telling too is that Mr. Aubin, a young Dem with family here in the NNE handily beating Kenworthy (who was campaigning with Mr. Wright, and I assume tried to slip in on his coat tails…). It will be interesting to see how Mr. Aubin handles his council position. I chatted with him briefly at the door while juggling the little one and barking dog – and he seemed to have the energy to take on the position. Glad that he pulled it out here in traditionally center to conservative land.

~57%? that is impressive, especially with all the ‘post partisan’ Dems and Progs coming out for Wright.

Wondering how Mayor Miro will handle that moving forward, as he’ll be defacto Dem party leader moving forward. I hope Mr. Miro can wrangle up City Council and get some stuff done after what feels like an eternity since Kiss butchered the response to the BT issues.

Funny, that this is the quote Mr. ‘Citiizenship, Not Partisanship’ Wright used when discussing his defeat:

“I gave it my best shot. It’s a tough city for a Republican.”

It is indeed, he seemed to fare better under IRV… but he was the poster boy to have that repealed.

I think not running a candidate was a good thing to do, and while I think Tim Ashe could have been a good Mayor, I’d question his ability to separate himself from the Prog label and overcome Wright. I think the race would have been much closer… and I think he would have had an uphill battle with council on getting anything done. Too much baggage there (for both Ashe and Wright I think).

IMHO, the way forward for the Progressives is to partner with Miro and the Dems, get a better showing on City Council and in other local offices where applicable, and re-build, from the wards on up. They need to work from the bottom up now for awhile to get things done, and bring people around to social justice issues, workers issues, etc. Some success and demonstration of these things from the lower levels, while the taste of Kiss fades in BTV voters minds – will hopefully allow them to strengthen into a viable party again. One that is more about results than about office. Once that starts to happen, perhaps someone will rise up as a viable candidate again.

I cop to a certain amount of trepidation yesterday, and am so gratified by the response to the Citizens United resolution around the state.

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6 thoughts on “Invitation to Open Thread: Town Meeting Day & Primary”