[B]efore the polls in Norwich opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday, voters were lined up waiting for a turn in the booth. The same scene played out up Route 91 in Thetford.
The Vermont side of the Upper Valley sided with Hillary Clinton for president and are sending an all blue team to Montpelier in January.
Outside Tracy Hall in Norwich, Susan Voake said voting for the president this year was critical.
“I voted for Hillary Clinton because I think Donald Trump is an evil man and a horrible example for our children. He knows nothing about how to run this country. It would be a disaster to have a megalomaniac psychopath in the White House,” she said.
Voake voted for Democrat Sue Minter for governor of Vermont because she liked her stance on the issues.
Norwich resident Jennifer Williams chose Minter because of her views on child care and helping victims of domestic violence.
Jay Mead, also of Norwich, said he voted for Minter because she is intelligent and would move the state forward.
But Steven Frost in Windsor went for Republican Phil Scott for a number of reasons, some of which he ticked off while standing outside the polls: he is against the carbon tax and he is for gun rights. Minter wasn’t clear on whether she would support a carbon tax and she has proposed some gun restrictions.
“There is not a gun problem in Vermont. We have much bigger issues: taxes, education, heroin,” Frost said. He has worked as a truck driver for nearly 30 years and said he makes decent money but he still struggles from paycheck to paycheck.
He wants to see change in Montpelier because, he said, it’s broken.
Betsy and Bill Peabody of Thetford used to own a farm in Hartland. They enthusiastically supported David Zuckerman for lieutenant governor because after talking with him for years at the farmers’ market they said that they know and like his politics.
The Peabodys also supported Rep. Alison Clarkson, a Woodstock Democrat, in her bid for a Windsor County Senate seat.
Clarkson handily won the Windsor County Senate seat vacated by John Campbell, former Senate pro tempore who chose not to run for re-election.
Nicole Chu of Norwich said that Clarkson won her vote the old-fashioned way — “She came to my house.”
Windsor County has a total of three seats in the Vermont Senate and incumbents Dick McCormack of Bethel and Alice Nitka of Ludlow, both Democrats, held onto their seats.
Republicans Mark Donka of Hartford, Randy Gray of Springfield, and Jack Williams of Weathersfield failed to garner enough of the vote to turn Campbell’s old seat red.
McCormack thanked his opponents for being respectful during an unprecedented campaign season.
He also thanked the people of Windsor County for trusting him and he promised to focus on taxes, health care and issues around school funding and governance. “I’ll do my best to be worthy of their trust,” he said.
The Windsor County Senate seats represent voters in Andover, Bethel, Barnard, Bridgewater, Cavendish, Chester, Hartford, Hartland, Londonderry, Ludlow, Mount Holly, Norwich, Sharon, Royalton, Rochester, Springfield, Stockbridge, Pomfret, Plymouth, Reading, Woodstock, West Windsor, Windsor, Weathersfield and Weston,
On the House side, in Windsor 1, John Bartholomew and Paul Belaski, both Democrats, won the two slots over independent candidate Clay Paronto and Republican Rick Hansen, each garnering 13 percent of the vote in Hartland, Windsor and West Windsor.
Weathersfield and Cavendish make up Windsor 2 and will be represented by Democrat Annmarie Christensen.
Rep. Leigh Dakin, a Democrat from Chester, decided not to run again for Windsor 3-1. During the primary Tom Bock, also a Democrat from Chester, beat Melody Reed 314 to 283 to represent Chester, Andover, Baltimore and North Springfield. There were no Republican contenders and Bock will go to Montpelier in January.
Springfield voters selected incumbents Alice Emmons and Bob Forguites for Windsor 3-2, both Democrats, over Republicans Scott G. Frye and Dennis Pine and independent George McNaughton.
Susan Buckholz, a Democrat/Progressive from Hartford, will take over Democrat Rep. Teo Zagar’s Windsor 4-1 House seat that represents Barnard, Pomfret, West Hartford and parts of Quechee.
Zagar decided not to run again to focus on his business. Buckholz is a lawyer who works with troubled teens and wants to see the state Department for Children and Families receive more support.
Incumbents Kevin Christie and Gabrielle Lucke, both Democrats, won in the Hartford House race in Windsor 4-2.
Reading, Woodstock and Plymouth will be represented in the House by Rep. Charlie Kimball, a Democrat, in Windsor 5.
In Windsor-Orange 2, Democrats Tim Briglin and Jim Masland were uncontested after the Democratic primary. Both men were at the polls in Norwich and Thetford on Tuesday and revealed some priorities for the next session.
This will be Masland’s 19th session and he plans to focus on making college and workforce training more available to Vermont graduates. Masland added that the third leg of the stool is the economy. “We have to recognize we are not going to get very far unless we can stimulate job growth in connection with these programs,” he said.
Briglin is excited to start his second two-year term in a Statehouse filled with new faces. Not only is leadership changing in the executive branch, the House will elect a new speaker. “So the Vermont House of Representatives will be a new place,” he said.
Briglin is planning to look at ways to tweak Act 46, the 2015 education law that encourages school districts to consolidate.
The parts of the Upper Valley that he represents have had problems complying easily with the law because the newly unified districts can’t both operate schools and offer students choice to go to other schools.
Briglin said it is time to address two outstanding issues in Vermont – the growth in opiate addiction and to finally tackle health care reform and finance.
Correction: The name of a candidate in the Windsor 3-2 race has been corrected. His name is Dennis Pine, not Denise Pines.
