Serial candidates beware.
Legislation has been introduced in the Vermont House of Representatives that would prohibit an individual from running for more than one office at a time.
The aim of the bill, H.281, is to prevent candidates from making bids for multiple statewide offices year over year, according to Rep. Ann Pugh, D-South Burlington, who wrote the measure.
“In this last election it was brought to the forefront for me — we have some perennial candidates who put their name forward for several of the same positions, which if elected to both they could not serve,” Pugh told the House Committee on Government Operations on Thursday.
In the 2020 election cycle several people double-dipped on candidacies for elective office.
In the primary, Ralph Corb ran as a Democrat for the U.S. House of Representatives, governor and lieutenant governor.
Serial candidate Cris Ericson, running as a Progressive, threw her hat in the ring for the above three offices plus state treasurer, secretary of state, auditor of accounts and attorney general.
H. Brooke Paige, another frequent flyer on the ballot, decided in 2020 to scale back from previous years and run for just two offices: attorney general and secretary of state. (In 2018, Paige ran for six GOP nominations simultaneously.) Meanwhile, Emily Peyton made bids for governor and attorney general.
“I don’t think that any person should be eligible to be a candidate for more than one office at a time,” Pugh said Thursday. “I think on some level, it means that they’re not interested in either.”
Rep. Rob LaClair, R-Barre Town, countered that members of Congress routinely run for president — Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for one — with the clear understanding that if they won the contest they would have to give up their congressional seat. He said Vermonters who choose to run for statewide office or the Legislature are no different.
“I totally understand what you’re trying to get to, but it seems like we’re holding us to a different standard,” LaClair said.
But Pugh doubled down, clarifying that her bill is specifically about statewide candidates.
“My purpose in bringing this forward was to bring up what I think is a problem in Vermont — in Vermont elections,” she said.
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