In 2019, Alyssa Black tried to push Vermont policymakers to enact a waiting period for firearm purchases. Her son, Andrew, committed suicide in 2018, hours after buying a gun.
After Andrew died, Black reached out to her state representative, Rep. Bob Bancroft, R-Westford, to ask him for guidance about the legislative process, and how to propose a waiting period policy.
She called it a “discouraging phone call.”
“I was looking for support, I was looking for guidance, I didn’t know who I had to talk to. I didn’t know how the Legislature even worked, really,” Black said. “And he basically told me to go away.”
But Black continued to press for change, and the next year, the Vermont House and Senate voted to adopt a 24-hour waiting period for handgun purchases. Gov. Phil Scott vetoed the bill in June 2019.
Now, Black, 51, a Democrat, says she’s running against Bancroft because he “consistently votes against the interests” of her district, which includes a section of rural Essex and the town of Westford.
In an election year with President Donald Trump on the ballot, the Vermont Democratic Party believes it has a strong chance of winning the Essex-Westford House seat. Bancroft was first elected to the House in 2014, beat his Democratic opponent in 2016 by just 60 votes, and ran unopposed in 2018.
Republicans also feel confident about the race, and think Bancroft will keep his seat. Paul Dame, a former state representative from Essex, is leading strategy for the Republican Party’s House races, and said the No. 1 thing on the minds of Essex-Westford voters is economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Bancroft, 73, is a self-employed economist with a Ph.D. from Purdue University and is a member of the House Economic Development Committee. He has the right background to tackle the economic recovery issue, Dame said.
“There has never been a cycle where Bob’s skills are more needed in the Legislature than in this cycle,” he said.
Bancroft did not respond to requests for comment.
Dame added that Andy Watts, an independent, is also running for the seat. He’s a member of the Essex Selectboard, and will likely siphon off some votes of more liberal residents in the district, Dame said, making Black’s bid tougher.
Abortion issues
Black has criticized Bancroft for his positions on social issues, particularly his stance on abortion.
In 2019, when Democrats passed what could be the strongest abortion protections in the U.S. into law, Bancroft proposed several amendments to limit the scope of the legislation; all were shot down.
They included requiring minors to obtain parental consent for a abortion, and allowing abortions only in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy unless women have medical complications and needed the procedure to avoid death or serious injury.
He also proposed a 48-hour waiting period for women seeking abortions.
“Bob Bancroft likes to talk about how he would never support a waiting period. Well, Bob Bancroft loves waiting periods when it comes to women’s bodies, just not guns,” Black said.
Rep. Robert LaClair, R-Barre Town, who has served with Bancroft in the House, said Bancroft identifies as pro-choice, but, like “a lot of Vermonters,” believes the 2019 abortion legislation went too far.
The law, which Democrats supported and Scott, a Republican, signed, forbids the government from interfering in a woman’s decision to have an abortion at any stage in her pregnancy.
Many Republicans were concerned that the legislation didn’t outlaw late-term abortions, while Democrats stressed that abortions five or six months into a pregnancy are not common in Vermont.
But Dame said that, because of the pandemic, voters are less interested than usual in gun control and abortion.
“I think people just aren’t as concerned with a lot of the social issues that Black wants to make the campaign about, now, the way that they would have been, you know, eight and ten months ago,” Dame said.
And, while Bancroft may have opposed gun controls, many voters in the district are strong gun rights supporters.
Campaign derailed by Covid
Black’s campaign isn’t limited to social issues. She said that, if elected, her focus would be on health care reform. Black works as an administrator at Evergreen Family Health, a family medicine clinic in Williston.
Black said the state’s all-payer health care reform hasn’t done enough to lower health care costs for patients. The all-payer model is an experiment that combines money from Medicare, Medicaid and commercial insurance to fund health care services on a per-patient basis, rather than a fee for services rendered.
The objective is to incentivize preventive care, and slow the growth of health care spending.
“It incentivizes providers to give good care, but it doesn’t do anything for the patient to be able to afford the good care that they need,” Black said.
Black would favor a universal primary care system in Vermont. She also supports gradually raising the minimum wage, expanding access to child care, and a paid family leave policy.
Like many candidates, Black said her campaigning has been set back by Covid-19. Before the pandemic, she intended to knock on every door in the district. Now, she’s cold-calling voters from her dining room table.
“Obviously my campaign plan was completely derailed because of Covid,” Black said. “And I’m just hoping that there are enough people out there that know who I am, and I will not be ashamed to say that I hope that I’m voted in on a blue wave.”
So far, Black has raised close to $10,000 in her bid against Bancroft, and spent nearly $4,000. Bancroft has spent about $5,400. He has raised $4,400, and had $1,600 left over from the last election.
LaClair, who helped oversee the Vermont Republican Party’s House races in 2018, doesn’t think Bancroft is in trouble this year.
“We’re surely not taking anything for granted, but I think Bob is more in tune with his constituents than I think a lot of the representatives up there, and those that are running against him,” LaClair said.
