Progressives flipped two seats Tuesday and seized the majority on Burlington’s City Council.
Jane Stromberg defeated incumbent Adam Roof, a Democrat, in Ward 8, and Zoraya Hightower, another Progressive, was victorious in Ward 1 against Sharon Bushor, an independent and longtime incumbent.
Progressives now hold seven of the council’s 12 seats.
The Prog takeover began last year, when Freeman and Hanson scored victories in council races while helping to engineer the defeat of a controversial downtown business proposal that the party had fought.
The shift of power will likely put the City Council at odds with Mayor Miro Weinberger, a moderate Democrat, and marks a remarkable turn of events for Progressives, who in 2012 held only two seats on the council. Other Progressives on the City Council include Brian Pine, Jack Hanson, Perri Freeman and Max Tracy. Ali Dieng is a Democrat/Progressive.
At a victory party at the Irish bar RiRas on Church Street, Josh Wronski, the executive director of the Vermont Progressive Party, was ecstatic.
“This is one of the most incredible victories we’ve had…since last year,” Wronski said. “We’re just going to keep on winning like this, if we keep on going to work, if we keep on organizing, if we keep on mobilizing, if we keep on bringing people out to vote.”
Wronski said that Tuesday’s results showed that the city was ready for change, and said the party was going to start recruiting a candidate for mayor tomorrow.
“The Progressive movement in this city is stronger than ever, and we’re going on to win back the mayor’s seat next year, starting tomorrow.”
Eight of the council’s twelve seats were up for election.
In Ward 4, Sarah Carpenter, a Democrat, defeated independent Ericka Redic and a write-in candidacy organized by supporters of incumbent city council President Kurt Wright, R-Ward 4.
Democrat Chip Mason, D-Ward 6, and Progressive Max Tracy, P-Ward 2, both won re-election. Mason defeated Progressive Nathan Lantieri by just under 200 votes and Tracy defeated Democrat Ryan Nick, winning nearly 70% of the votes.
Incumbents Progressive Brian Pine, P-Ward 3; Karen Paul, D-Ward 5; and Ali Dieng P/D-Ward 7 all won re-election running unopposed.
Mayor Miro Weinberger said he does not feel the results of the city council race were a referendum on his administration. Rather, he said the success of the four ballot items before voters demonstrate that citizens agree with the city government on issues including school funding and public safety.
“I haven’t seen the final numbers yet but it appears those ballot items won overwhelmingly,” he said. “I think that’s a sign that a lot of voters continue to think we’re headed in the right direction.”
Voters approved the school budget and supported a public safety tax increase that will fund the operation of an ambulance in the New North End, an increase to the city’s Housing Trust fund and a change that will make local ballots available 45 days before elections.
Weinberger said he believed Democrats and Progressives could work together on the council.
The mayor expects that there will be general agreement on priorities, but possible dissension about how to address issues.
“I’m kind of excited about this council,” he said. “The issues that dominated the races were issues about housing, addressing the climate crisis, a lot of discussion to make further changes to our transportation system. I think there’s going to be a lot of alignment between the administration and this council on those issues.”
Stromberg received 635 votes to Roof’s 427 in Ward 8. The recent University of Vermont graduate said she had not been expecting such a decisive victory.
“I thought it was going to be so close,” said Stromberg, 22. “I just knew that, no matter what, even if we lost it was a win because we really just put in everything.”
Stromberg ran because she believes the city isn’t taking time-sensitive issues like climate change and social justice issues seriously enough.
Standing outside the double doors at the Fletcher Free Library polling station, Stromberg’s team was emotional.
“We ran a really clean, ethical campaign the entire time and our team was so well put together and so passionate and I’m just so proud of them,” Stromberg said. “This is because of them.”
Stromberg, a member of the VPIRG board of directors, said she benefited from so many college students live in her ward.
“Students were very passionate about this,” she said. “We engaged purposefully with as many people as possible, including as many students as possible.”
Roof, who was first elected to the seat in 2014, had served as an independent but ran this time as a Democrat.
Hightower’s win in Ward 1 came after she secured the Progressive endorsement in December from the 32-year incumbent Bushor.
Hightower won 912 votes to Bushor’s 408. Jillian Scannell, the Democratic candidate and UVM’s student body president, received 369 votes.
Hightower said she was proud to have received such a high percentage of the vote in a competitive three-way race.
“It feels like a real vote of confidence, which obviously also means a lot of work to come,” she said.
Hightower, who works at an international development firm in Burlington, said it was exciting to get a vote of confidence from both voters and the Progressive Party.
“It’s huge,” she said. “Especially being pretty new to the Progressive Party, it’s exciting to be a part of this.”
Tracy said Tuesday was an “unbelievable win” for Progressives.
“I’ve been doing this for probably the last 15 years, and I’ve not had a night as special and as meaningful and important as this night,” he said.
Lantieri said that while the Progressives were unable to secure Ward 5, they were “chipping away” at Mason’s winning margins in the district.
“East District, we control it,” he said. “Old North End, we control it. Ward 5 is next, and in two years it is ours.”
The Democratic post-election party at Halvorson’s Upstreet Cafe struck a more somber tone.
Carpenter celebrated her victory, which flipped Ward 4 blue after it was held by Wright on and off since 1995. Wright announced that he would not seek reelection in December, although a local group led an unsuccessful write-in campaign on his behalf.
At the election after party, Carpenter said her next task was to learn as much as she could to prepare for her new role.
“I have so much to learn it’s like drinking from a firehose,” she said. “I’m a very thorough person so I need to really figure out the depth of what the conversation is and all the important factors. I’ve got a lot of learning to do.”
Mason told the gathered crowd that it had been a stressful day, but that he was glad to win re-election.
“There wasn’t much of a policy difference separating me and my opponent,” he said. “Affordable housing, affordability, infrastructure, those are the issues we campaigned on and I’m hopeful that even with the new council those are the issues we will continue to lead on and carry forward.”
Roof also addressed the crowd after losing his seat, and spoke of the need to move forward despite the day’s setbacks.
“Success is not defined by one evening,” he told the group. “If you think of the most successful communities, they’ve had setbacks. And tonight I think it’s fair to say that at least folks in this room can agree that we had a setback. But that does not mean that we are down and out that just means that we are behind for the moment.”
Roof said that the Democratic party in the city needs to recognize that voters are shifting and adapt. He spoke about how he originally joined the city council as an independent in 2015, but during his time in office found the Democrats welcomed collaboration, more so than the Progressives.
“The Democratic Party is far more inclusive,” he said. “Together we will find a way forward. We have bright days ahead in Burlington.”