[B]ENNINGTON — A four-hour gun-rights rally and voter registration event Saturday afternoon that was expected to draw more than 1,000 demonstrators fell far short of the mark.
Republican House candidate Kevin Hoyt had expected hundreds of participants to line Bennington’s Four Corners intersection, but the number totaled well under 100 at peak times.
“I wish we had a few more but I’m not disappointed,” Hoyt said.
Hoyt said the number of people who stopped by to talk, register to vote or make sure they were on the voter list — and to receive tickets for a chance to win one of two guns given away Saturday — was much higher.
“It looks like the good weather and other activities in town drew people away to other things, but we still had a very peaceful, uneventful, successful rally,” Hoyt said. “We checked a total of 481 registered voters and registered another 13 new voters, one from Pownal, one from Windham County and 11 from Bennington.”
Registered voters from Bennington County could receive one free ticket Saturday for a chance to win an AR-15 Del-Ton carbine, and those giving a $5 donation could receive a ticket for a chance for an AR-10 Diamondback 308 from The Trading Post, a gun store in town. Jackie Shartrand, of Bennington, a newly registered voter, won the AR-15 Del-Ton, Hoyt said Sunday. The AR-10 Diamondback .308 was won by Bob Welch, also of Bennington.
A core of about 20 people held signs near the VFW post throughout the event, from 1 to 5 p.m.
“When we had our [gun-rights] rally in April, I think folks were more fired up,” Hoyt said, referring to the hundreds who demonstrated here, in Montpelier and elsewhere in the state, after Gov. Phil Scott signed a bill expanding gun regulation in Vermont.
Hoyt also said he thought the HomeBrew Festival event on nearby County Street and Bennington Arts Weekend events, both held on Saturday as well, probably contributed to a low turnout for the gun-rights rally.
The candidate said that when he was gathering voter signatures to place his name on the Nov. 6 ballot in the Bennington 2-1 House district, many of those who signed did not realize they were not registered or had to re-register to vote. He said registering voters then became a top campaign goal.
Volunteers Stacey Shartrand and Mandy Southworth, both of Bennington, were helping people Saturday check their voter registration status or fill out registration forms if they weren’t on the list.
“I registered to vote, because if you’re silent you just can’t help change anything,” Stacey Shartrand said.
John Shepard, of Bennington, said he had just registered.
“I’ve seen him on TV,” he said of Hoyt, who produces shows relating to hunting and the outdoors. “The way he talks, I support him.”
Shepard added, “It’s time for change. The people that have been there all these years, they need to go. And that’s not just here in Vermont, that the entire country.”
Bruce Busa, of Readsboro, a fellow candidate who is mounting an independent challenge to U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, said he was there to support Hoyt.
“Kevin is doing a good thing, thinking out of the box,” Busa said, adding that he has found only about half the Vermonters who attend gun-rights or similar events are registered to vote.
Hoyt said after the event that “many local businesses benefited from this event, we had zero instances; we did our own policing and didn’t leave a single gum wrapper behind. The vast majority of traffic honked in support or gave us the thumbs up.”
Questions had been raised last week about whether there would be problems if the estimated 1,000 participants showed up on sidewalks around the Four Corners.
Hoyt is a Republican running for one of the two seats in the Bennington 2-1 House district. The others at this point, pending the Aug. 9 deadline for any independent to file nomination papers, are incumbent Rep. Timothy Corcoran II, D-Bennington, and Democrat Chris Bates.
