This fall, all the legislative seats and constitutional offices in Vermont are up for election. The next step in the campaign for all contested races is the state’s open primary next week. Middlebury College political scientist Bert Johnson tells WAMC North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley that the key primaries are for Democratic candidates.
Those are for governor and lieutenant governor. Both of them appearing to be pretty competitive contests and the governor's race particularly pits Amanda Janoo against Aly Richards and has some echoes of some of the disputes within the Democratic Party that we've been seeing nationally between progressives and more mainstream Democrats. The other contest that is notable statewide is the lieutenant governor contest where it's pitting Molly Gray, who's previously been lieutenant governor, against Ryan McLaren, a former Peter Welch aide, and Esther Charlestin who ran for governor in the last contest. So it's a three-way race there. Also looks to be pretty competitive and interesting to follow.
The Republicans do have one primary race that people are paying attention to, and that's the one for the U.S. House.
That's correct. There's Gerald Malloy, who has been a candidate in a few other races recently against Mark Coester, who has also run previously. Neither one of those candidates is spending a tremendous amount of money and I haven't seen them making a big splash in local media as a result. But it will be interesting to see how that race turns out. Of course, the winner will face Becca Balint in the general election, and Balint as an incumbent a formidable opponent.
Going back to the key Democratic primaries, the gubernatorial race between Aly Richards and Amanda Janoo. Both are new to the campaign trail. Are either of them really standing out for voters?
Well, we don't have much polling information and the polls that we do have suggest that a lot of voters had yet to make up their minds. Now, this was a few weeks ago. But because neither one of them has run a statewide campaign before, they're operating at a disadvantage because neither one of them is particularly well known.
The governor and lieutenant governor's seats on the Republican side do not have primaries. How secure are John Rodgers as lieutenant governor and Phil Scott as governor going into the general election campaign?
Well, there was a UNH (University of New Hampshire) poll recently that found that Phil Scott has a lower approval rating than he might have had in the past. Now, a lot of people made a lot of that. That was probably an overreaction to that poll. He still had majority approval, including some substantial approval from Democrats. So I think Phil Scott's operating from a position of great strength and it will be very tough to defeat him even in a year where Democrats will probably do very well nationwide. Rodgers, I'm a little less certain about. He's newer onto the scene, although he is an incumbent. He has switched parties from Democrat to Republican, and he doesn't seem to have the broad base of popularity as Phil Scott. So that race could be more competitive in my view.
Bert Johnson, the entire Vermont legislature is also up for election this year. Are there many primaries for those seats at all?
There are a few and there are a few primaries that are making some headlines because people are spending a lot of money. Phil Baruth stepped down from the Senate and the contest to fill his seat is occasioning a lot of spending, unusual amounts of spending, for a Senate race. Addison County is another example in which the Senate race is drawing a lot of money because there's a potentially competitive seat. So there are a few races here and there that are interesting and competitive. And one of the big statewide stories in the legislature, of course, is that Republicans did quite well in the last cycle and it'll be interesting to see if there's a bit of backsliding from that.
Bert, Vermont holds what's called an open primary. Can you explain how that works?
Sure. The way the primaries work in Vermont is that you go to vote and they will hand you three ballots for the three major parties - Progressives, Democrats, and Republicans - and you vote one of them. In other words, you can vote in any of those races, whichever one you choose. You can't vote in multiple races.
When they hand you the three ballots and you choose which one you're going to vote on, you must return all of the ballots to basically prove that you only voted for that one primary.
Correct. So you return one voted ballot and two blank ballots in a separate container or envelope.
Vermont’s statewide primary is Tuesday, August 11
