[M]ANCHESTER — Bennington County will have two new representatives in the Vermont House when the Legislature convenes in January — one a Republican replacing a Democrat and the other vice versa.
Brian Keefe, a Republican from Manchester, was the top vote getter in a three-way race in the two-seat Bennington-4 House district. Five-term Rep. Cynthia Browning, D-Arlington, finished second, while Democratic Rep. Steve Berry, of Manchester, lost his bid for a second term.
In the Bennington-Rutland House district race, Democrat Linda Joy Sullivan — like Keefe, making her first run for political office — defeated Dorset Select Board member Jack Stannard for the seat being vacated by Rep. Patti Komline, R-Dorset.
“I spent a lot of time in the Statehouse,” Keefe said, “testifying in committees in the House and Senate. I’m pretty comfortable walking in there. But I’m sure some of it will be new to me, sitting on the other side of the table, so to speak.”
Sullivan also has experience interacting with government officials. She was appointed to the Children and Family Council for Prevention Programs by Gov. Peter Shumlin. In addition to operating an auditing business, Sullivan is executive director and founder of an anti-human-trafficking nonprofit called Building Empowerment by Stopping Trafficking.
“I’m not a stranger to advocacy or to legislatures,” she said.
The representative-elect said her work with BEST also involves teaching judges about human trafficking, such as the red flags, the role of gangs, its reach into schools and the traumatic consequences for trafficking victims.
“It is exciting,” Sullivan said of her new role as a legislator, “but I am also coming in with a conservative excitement. I take this very seriously.”
One of the state’s overriding concerns, she said, will be “to do everything we can in Vermont to mitigate any shifts that come down from the federal level” with Republicans soon to be in control of the presidency and the U.S. House and Senate.
She added that she believes Republican Gov.-elect Phil Scott will fully analyze all proposals in both those areas before proposing changes.
Keefe said he expects the influence and leverage he and fellow Republicans will have in the Legislature will be enhanced by Scott’s election. With an expected 52 members of his party in the House, Keefe said the GOP should be able to sustain a veto, “if it comes to that,” on important issues.
The Democrats expect to have 84 seats in the House, which also will have an expected seven Progressives and seven independents.
“I think that statewide the message was that we need a more responsible government and not more tax increases,” Keefe said.
The approach his party and the governor-elect have advocated is one of “a return to sustainable budgets and a path that avoids more taxes,” Keefe said.
A major issue for Keefe’s district concerns Act 46, which encourages the consolidation of school districts, and new rules that the State Board of Education is proposing for independent or private schools.
Opponents contend those rules would hurt schools like Burr & Burton Academy in Manchester. Among the provisions are that faculty at the private schools would be required to hold a state teaching license.
The Northshire area is one of several in the state where school choice “is just something we have historically had,” Keefe said. He added that officials from areas lacking that tradition aren’t familiar with that type of system, “and people are talking past one another right now. We need to have more discussion on this.”
The Republican also expressed misgivings about proposed legalization of recreational marijuana for adults in Vermont, which failed to get through the House this year.
“I have heard from a lot of people who have very serious concerns, from the perspective of enforcement and the kind of message it would send to high school students,” he said. “I think we need to do a lot more before we take that step, and that also is not somewhere we would want to spend a lot of time and energy. There are more important issues.”
As a legislator, Sullivan also wants to protect the school choice options that are important in the Northshire and has “every intention of being vocal” on those issues.
“I think we should hold back on some of the (proposed new) rules that endanger choice,” she said. “I don’t think we need to panic, but we do need to address this.”
On Act 46 and proposed school district consolidation plans in the Northshire and elsewhere, Sullivan said the goals are reasonable. But she added, “I think we need to revisit this and clarify Act 46.”
On economic development, Sullivan said the area has to move forward more quickly on the collaborative regional efforts already underway, involving business and development organizations. And she called for continued expansion of access to broadband internet services and options.
As a public auditor with clients around the country, she said services allowing large document transfers, Skype and other communication options have improved in the Dorset area over the past four or five years. But she advocates a greater emphasis on that, as well as programs in local schools to better familiarize youth with subjects like computer coding, accounting methods and the legal system. She believes that could lead to a stronger local economy and slow the flight of young people to other states in search of career opportunities.
In her business, Sullivan said she sees a lower level of acceptance of Skype and other online options in Vermont than she experienced living in Florida and New York City. “I think there has been a bit of a fear,” she said.
Collaborative efforts that involve the “very experienced aging population” in the Northshire also should be pursued, she said.
