[B]URLINGTON — Kurt Wright, the only Republican on Burlington’s City Council, has announced he is planning to seek another term as council president.
Wright also said Tuesday night that the door was open for a re-election bid to the City Council. After losing his re-election campaign to the state Legislature in November, he said that he would not seek another term as City Council president this year or re-election in 2020.
But after hearing from other councilors, Wright said that he had reconsidered the announcement he made when he was disappointed on election night.
The council president is chosen by a vote of the full council.
“A number of councilors asked me to reconsider this, and I did reconsider, and I think it is important for the council to have continuity,” he said. “I think I’ve done a pretty good job over the past year.”
Wright, who represents Burlington’s New North End, made his announcement at the tail end of Tuesday’s City Council meeting. He’s been the council president since April 2018.
The president sets the agenda for and runs the council’s meetings. The president also assigns councilors to committees and appoints ad hoc committees.
Four of the council’s 12 seats are up for re-election on Town Meeting Day, March 5. Three of those four seats are currently occupied by Democrats, and the Progressive Party has endorsed four young candidates who are running active campaigns.
Wright said he wanted to announce his intention to seek another term before Town Meeting Day.
“I wanted to make this clear before the election, before a particular party may pick up a seat, and think, ‘Oh, we have to have the council presidency’,” he said.
It’s unclear whether Wright will face a challenger for the council presidency. He was the only person nominated when he replaced Progressive Jane Knodell as the council’s president in 2018.
Progressive Councilor Max Tracy said that he thought it was premature to discuss the council presidency.
“We need to see how the elections shake out, who wins and loses and after that, who else is interested,” he said. “I don’t want to say that I’m going to support someone before I know who all is interested and what they might bring to the table.”
Democrat Joan Shannon said she thought Wright had done a good job in the role, but wanted to wait until after the election before deciding whom to support.
Wright also has run for mayor three times, most recently losing to Democratic Mayor Miro Weinberger in 2012.
Democratic challenger Robert Hooper defeated Wright in the state House race in November. Hooper received 1,999 votes to 1,833 for Wright, with incumbent Democrat Carol Ode winning re-election with 2,689 in the two-seat district.
Wright had been endorsed by Knodell and Weinberger in his state House campaign. Weinberger argued that Wright had been an important voice in Montpelier for policies that boosted the city’s downtown.
On election night, Wright had said that he was not up for another tough election.
He said Tuesday he had heard from enough constituents to re-open the door on his decision not to seek re-election to the council. He said he would decide by the end of summer or early fall if he will run again.
“While my plan is still the same now, there’s a little bit of a crack in the door,” he said.
