BURLINGTON — Kurt Wright seems to know every voter on Hardy Avenue in Burlington’s New North End.
Wright, the Republican city council president, was greeted with open arms by most voters while going door-to-door with Democratic city council candidate Franklin Paulino on a recent chilly Friday afternoon. He pitches Paulino as a reasonable centrist who would bring more “common sense” to the council.
While voters know Wright from his years on the council and in the state Legislature, Paulino is a fresh face.
But so are his opponents in the race for the open city council seat in Burlington’s New North End.
Kienan Christianson — who is endorsed by the Progressive Party but chose to be listed as an independent on the ballot — and independent Ericka Bundy Redic are running for the seat currently held by Democrat Dave Hartnett.
Hartnett unexpectedly dropped out of the race in January, citing a temporary family issue.
Since Redic is not running an active campaign, the race appears to be between Christianson and Paulino, and is expected to be close. Progressives see the opening in the New North End as one of a handful of seats they are hoping to pick up on the council.
Meet the candidates
Christianson, a 30-year-old attorney, moved to Burlington with his husband five years ago. He said he had fond memories of Burlington from visiting during his youth as a closeted teenager after Vermont had been the first state to allow civil unions.
He works in private practice, including representing survivors of violence in restraining order hearings.
Over a beer at North Avenue brewery Simple Roots, Christianson says housing affordability, North Avenue safety and ensuring the New North End gets its fair share of community resources are his main focuses.
To keep housing affordable, Christianson said the city needs to be careful about taking on big projects after passing the high school renovation bond and the wastewater bond in November 2018.
“We have a number of folks living in the New North End on fixed incomes, some folks who are New Americans, some folks who are young families just starting out,” he said. “Increasing taxes, even if it’s a small amount, really impacts those folks.”
Christianson is running a very professional campaign, with a crisp website. He’s quick to name-drop residents of the over 1,200 doors he says he’s knocked on since starting to campaign in late December.
He paints himself as a problem-solver, who wants to work on building bridges and bringing people together.
While he received the endorsement of the Progressive Party and the liberal group Rights & Democracy, Christianson has decided to list himself on the ballot as an independent. He unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination after Hartnett dropped out.
Asked where would he stand ideologically on the council, Christianson deflects.
“I’m focused on building bridges and bringing folks together,” he said. “One of the things I’ve consistently heard from our neighbors is that the sort of toxicity of national politics, the hyper-polarization, no one wants to see that coming down into our local politics.”
Paulino, a deputy Chittenden County state’s attorney, lives with his wife, who grew up in Burlington, and three children in the New North End. He was born in the Dominican Republic, and lived in Puerto Rico before moving to Miami when he was in sixth grade.
Paulino touted his experience as a prosecutor to the voters on Hardy Avenue, and said his work in the state’s attorney’s office would inform his work on the city council.
“I’m exposed to the struggles of our community every single day,” he said.
He said Burlington has taken important steps to address the opioid crisis and that the city offers excellent services overall. On the council, he said he’d like to bring more attention to alcohol abuse issues, and work to open sober houses and more residential treatment centers.
Paulino said he also wants to work for New North Enders to make sure their concerns — such as poor road and sidewalk conditions — are addressed. Also, he said he hopes that zoning laws in the New North End can be tweaked to spur more business growth.
Redic moved back to Burlington in November as she decided she wanted to live in the house her grandmother used to live in, which her mother and aunt were planning to sell. She had lived in Burlington off and on over the years, and is a graduate of Champlain College.
She said that the biggest question around the major projects on the city’s plate — the renovations of Memorial Auditorium, Moran Plant and City Hall Park — is financial. She believes the solution is attracting more businesses to the city and growing the tax base.
Redic, a conservative, said there aren’t enough practical people on the council.
However, she said she is not running an active campaign. As an accountant, she said that her top responsibility is to her clients and that she was too busy to campaign during tax season.
“This is really just an opportunity for me to get out there and start to know people,” she said.
Candidate questions
Mayor Miro Weinberger and his allies currently have a solid grasp on the council, but Progressives are hoping to gain ground this election cycle. While many of the decisions the council makes are unanimous or nearly unanimous, party affiliation becomes more evident in contested issues.
Councilor Ali Dieng, who runs with both Democratic and Progressive support but often votes with the Progressives, supports Christianson.
Dieng said that he believed Paulino would support everything Weinberger proposes, while Christianson would be more independent.
“Paulino is saying the New North End and the city doesn’t need new ideas, he’s in support of everything the mayor is doing, and that raises some flags as well,” Dieng said.
Paulino said that he would not always support Weinberger’s initiatives, but that he thought the mayor has done a good job.
“I have no reason to be a rubber stamp for the mayor, people here are encouraging me to be an independent voice for the New North End,” he said. “I’m going to say what I think is the truth, and what I think is the truth is I think the mayor’s done a good job with the circumstances he was dealt.”
He said Weinberger has done a great job getting the city’s finances in order, but he said that the council should make sure the city doesn’t get overdeveloped.
Hartnett said that he believes Christianson has flip-flopped on some key issues, including the CityPlace Burlington redevelopment and City Hall Park renovation plan.
Christianson said that he did not consider his positions on CityPlace and the park to be flip flopping.
He said he was very excited about CityPlace at the start, but believes the city council should not have allowed developer Don Sinex to break ground before he had lined up the project’s funding. On the park, he said he supports the renovation plans but thinks voters should have gotten a chance to weigh in.
Hartnett questions why Christianson is running as an independent after accepting the Progressive nomination.
“I think he’s had a tough time defining who he is and what he represents and what he stands for,” Hartnett said.
Hartnett’s Role
Hartnett’s shadow looms large over the race. During the district’s debate on CCTV, Paulino praised Hartnett and said he was running a campaign “centered” around Hartnett’s endorsement.
Hartnett said that he was proudly supporting Paulino’s campaign, and Paulino signs are all over the Jolley store Hartnett manages on North Avenue. He said he thought his experience as a deputy state’s attorney would prepare him well for a spot on the council.
“He has to make tough, fair decisions every day, and I think he really understands the problems facing this city,” Hartnett said. “I think he’d be an outstanding representative of the New North End.”
Hartnett said that he thinks his endorsement in the race will be helpful to Paulino, especially since all three candidates entered the race with low name recognition, but that the endorsement is only a small piece of the race.
Stylistically, the soft-spoken Paulino could not be more different than Hartnett, who is outspoken, and at times brash.
“He hasn’t really taken my approach of speaking off the cuff, and sometimes I speak before I think, I’m emotional and I’m passionate about politics,” Hartnett said. “I think he is too, but in a whole different way.”
Dieng says he believes that Hartnett was losing support in the New North End and that Paulino was making a mistake in campaigning with Hartnett.
“Dave is no longer the Dave of 10 years ago, or five years ago,” Dieng said.
Dieng said that he believes New North Enders were disappointed in Hartnett for his vote against the sale of Burlington Telecom to a local co-op, and for his behavior on the council. Hartnett publicly apologized after yelling at fellow Democrat Joan Shannon during the BT debate.
Progressives are also pointing to the changing demographics of the New North End. More New Americans and young families have been moving into what has historically been the most conservative region in the city.
For example, Progressives eye Democrat Bob Hooper’s win over incumbent Republican Kurt Wright — who also serves on the city council — in a state House race in November as a sign that the New North End is moving leftward.
“The New North End has been changing, and I think we showed that with Kurt Wright last election, and I think people need new blood, new perspective, new ideas, and that person is Kienan, definitely,” Dieng said.
Hartnett said that he does not think what New North Enders are looking for in their representatives has changed, noting that Wright had received a substantial number of votes, even though it was a losing effort.
While Dieng said he believes that Christianson would have won even if Hartnett stayed in the race, Hartnett said that he thought he would have easily won had he run.
There’s another reason Hartnett doesn’t see this election as a reflection on his legacy — he’s hoping that his time off the council will be brief.
Wright had announced he was not planning on re-election after he lost his state House seat, but has since said the door is open. Hartnett said if Wright does not run, he would be interested in running again.
