BURLINGTON — U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy breezed into his eighth six-year term Tuesday, defeating Republican Scott Milne, whose campaign was focused on portraying Vermont’s senior senator as a corrupt money-loving political insider.
Leahy, 76, became just the fifth person in American history to win an eighth term in the U.S. Senate. And while he hammered Milne — who conceded early in the night — Leahy will return to a Senate controlled by Republicans.
With 92 percent of precincts reporting late Tuesday, Leahy had a roughly 30-point lead over Milne — 61.6 percent to 32.8 percent.
The three third party candidates in the race — Cris Ericson, Jerry Trudell and Pete Diamondstone — earned a combined 5.5 percent.
Leahy performed well all over the state, though his strongest numbers came out of Chittenden County. He netted nearly 80 percent of the vote in Burlington, Montpelier and Brattleboro. Leahy also won the more conservative towns of Rutland and St. Johnsbury.
Milne’s best town was, ironically, Victory, where he earned 60 percent of the vote.
Milne also notched wins in some smaller conservative towns, including Newport and Barre. He won his hometown of Washington, where he kicked off his long-shot bid in September.
Leahy’s win was expected — no incumbent U.S. senator has lost an election in Vermont history — but the hundreds gathered at the Vermont Democratic Party’s election night party at the Hilton overlooking Lake Champlain still cheered when he was declared the winner.
The senator — a longtime Grateful Dead fan — ambled up on stage shortly after 8 p.m. as a DJ played the group’s famous song “Truckin’.”
“It has been a long strange trip,” Leahy said, reflecting on his 42 years in the chamber.
He recalled one of his first big decisions in the Senate, in April 1975, when he voted to discontinue funding for the Vietnam War. Nearly 30 years later, in 2002, Leahy voted against authorizing military force in Iraq.
Leahy’s eyes held a glint as the crowd chanted his name near the end of his speech and his family looked on.
He had a multimillion-dollar war chest in his race against Milne, and his campaign was largely focused on his seniority in the chamber and how it helped Vermonters.
Leahy rolled out a series of slick television advertisements highlighting his work securing federal dollars for cleanup after Tropical Storm Irene and for a federal bulletproof vest program for law enforcement.
Milne, meanwhile, ran an ultra-low-budget campaign and made Leahy’s millions in donations the key plank of his campaign. As part of a campaign finance reform package outlined in late October, Milne said he would introduce a bill, if elected, called “The Leahy Act to Prevent Career Politicians.”
Milne said his long-shot campaign was worthwhile despite the big loss.
Two years ago, when Milne almost beat Gov. Peter Shumlin, the race was so tight on election night that Milne didn’t concede and took his fight to the Legislature because Shumlin didn’t break the 50 percent threshold.
At the Republican election night gathering at the Sheraton in South Burlington, Milne was upbeat talking with reporters. He said he thought the campaign had exposed the “messy business” in Washington of large campaign contributions coming from corporate donors and special interest groups that also had business before the Senate.
“He doesn’t seem quite as invincible as he used to be,” Milne said of the senior senator.
Milne repeatedly criticized Leahy during the campaign for taking large contributions. He said his volunteer campaign run by his daughter, Elise, and son, Keith, highlighted the contrast with Leahy’s campaign. He estimated he was outspent by an overwhelming margin.
In his speech Tuesday, Leahy championed positivity, telling the crowd, “Let’s return decency in place of the negativity we’ve seen.”
Aides have not said whether Leahy would, after 48 years in office, run for a ninth term in 2022. Both Sens. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, served for more than 48 years.
Milne said he would consider running for office again if the right position came open and he felt “there was an opportunity where (he) could make a difference.”
He said he “had a chance” but that it would have taken a large number of lucky breaks for him to win. In any case, he said he was proud of running a campaign not driven by polls and “where we spoke the truth.”
“I’m happy with the message we were able to get out,” he said.
Using a sailing analogy, Milne said he started the campaign off one degree but the margin for Leahy widened during the campaign into a yawning difference by the end.
Milne was complimentary of the media coverage during the Senate campaign, a contrast to two years ago, when he thought reporters and political pundits didn’t take him seriously. In that race, Milne fell short by less than 2,500 votes of upending Shumlin.
“If I’d put another $20,000 in two years ago, I would have won,” he said. “I could have put another 10 million into this one and it wouldn’t have mattered, right?”
U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, a Democrat who also earned the Republican nomination, also won another two-year term Tuesday. He earned 90 percent of the vote, with Liberty Union candidate Erica Clawson netting just 10 percent.
“I’ll be fighting for you in the House of Representatives to make certain your voice is heard, your message is heard, your way of doing politics and caring about others is heard,” Welch said in a victory speech at a Vermont Democratic Party gathering in Burlington.
