Orleans County’s interim State’s Attorney Farzana Leyva is looking to stick around, but she has some competition on the ballot.
According to the Caledonian Record, Leyva took over as interim state’s attorney in late September, when former State’s Attorney Jennifer Barrett left to become a state Superior Court judge. Before Republican Gov. Phil Scott appointed her to the state’s trial court bench in August, Barrett had filed for reelection as the Northeast Kingdom county’s top prosecutor.
Leyva, now in the role on an interim basis, is campaigning for election herself. But it was too late for Leyva to seek a party nomination by the time the seat opened, so she is running as a write-in candidate.
As of Friday, Leyva did not appear to have any major competitors — at least not any who would actually do the job, if elected. Will Senning, director of elections for the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office, told VTDigger on Friday that Barrett never withdrew her name from the race, and so Barrett’s name still appears on the ballot.
However, Sennett said in August that, if Barrett won reelection as state’s attorney, she would need to resign from that office, because she can’t simultaneously serve as both a prosecutor and judge. In that situation, Senning said, the governor would appoint a new state’s attorney to fulfill the four-year term.
For now, Leyva is in the state’s attorney role and is campaigning to keep it. A resident of Westfield, Leyva was admitted to the Vermont Bar in February 2019 and has worked for the Orleans County State’s Attorney Office for four years.
Asked by VTDigger what her message is to Orleans County voters, Leyva pointed to her two young children, ages 5 and 9, and said, “I want to create a community that is safe for all children and adults.” She said she sees herself continuing Barrett’s work in the office, but added that there has been a recent uptick in drug use and violent crime that she wants to take on.
“I want to work collaboratively with law enforcement to ensure we are vigorously prosecuting drug activity here, as well as getting addicts through the system faster, rehabilitated, and use the community resources that we have to be able to do that,” she said.
