Ten-term Windham County state Sen. Jeanette White is set to join regional colleague and Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint in relinquishing her position, spurring a rising number of newcomers to seek the two southeastern Vermont seats.
“I don’t look forward to a primary and raising money. Campaigning is not my favorite thing to do,” White said this week of her decision not to run for reelection. “I like meeting people and selling them on ideas, but I don’t like trying to sell them on myself.”
The Putney Democrat, who turned 79 on Monday, has served this session as chair of the Senate committees on government operations and reapportionment and co-chair of the Public Records Legislative Study Committee and Pension Benefits, Design and Funding Task Force.
“I love the institution, the policy work and the people,” she said.
On the flip side, White dislikes what she sees as increasing polarization in and out of the Statehouse.
“I see less willingness to respect everybody’s opinion,” she said, “and instead more an attitude of, ‘I have a corner on the truth, and therefore I don’t need to listen to you.’”
The departures of White and Balint — also a Democrat, who is running for the U.S. House — are expected to lead that party to hold a primary in August, where the two winners would face off against at least one independent and one Republican.
On the Democratic side, social justice advocate Wichie Artu of Athens and former state Rep. Nader Hashim of Dummerston already have announced their candidacies. They are expected to be joined as soon as this week by Wendy Harrison, a Brattleboro resident who has worked as a municipal manager in Rockingham and an interim administrator for Vernon and, currently, Winooski.
“My decades of experience in local government will be of value to the people of Windham County and Vermont,” Harrison has written in an email to supporters, many of whom also know her as the spouse of recently retired Brattleboro Town Manager Peter Elwell.
The winners of the Democratic primary will face off in November against Brattleboro Selectboard member Tim Wessel, who is running as an independent, and fellow Brattleboro resident Richard Morton, chair of the Windham County Republican Committee.
Correction: An earlier version of this story understated how many Democrats will advance from the primary to the November election.
