In the county-spanning Bennington-Rutland Vermont House district, voters will elect a replacement for the unpredictable, sometimes party-crossing Linda Joy Sullivan, D-Dorset.
William “Bill” Gaiotti, a Republican from Mount Tabor, has pitched himself as the natural successor. A self-proclaimed moderate, he’s even picked up a tacit endorsement from the district’s Democratic office holder, with Sullivan posting Gaiotti’s campaign messaging to her Facebook page.
“The best laws and policies are not enacted for the majority of us if only one side has control,” Gaiotti said. “I’m a big checks and balances guy.”
First-time candidate Mike Rice, a 31-year-old Democrat from Dorset, believes his youth would give him an important perspective in the Legislature. Having raised more than $23,000 — a hefty sum for a Vermont House race — he’s determined to give Gaiotti a run for his money.
“I think where we differ is on whether we’re really willing to step up and take action to make this a place that is livable for families and for working people,” Rice said. “Housing affordability, child care affordability, climate — I think those are things that I haven’t heard a lot from my opponent about.”
A recent renter, Rice said his direct experience with Vermont’s affordability challenges help him better understand the issues facing his neighbors. He and his partner spent months searching for a reasonable place to live and jobs that paid decent wages.
“Those are the kinds of experiences that I think would be valuable in Montpelier,” he said.
Gaiotti has served on local school boards and the Mount Tabor Selectboard, and worked 12 years as a Rutland City police officer. His frequent campaign refrain of “common sense” digs at Rice’s more progressive priorities around climate change and the opioid epidemic.
That “common sense” approach worked for the district’s current officeholder, Sullivan, who’s represented Danby, Dorset, Landgrove, Mount Tabor and Peru since 2017. Sullivan strayed from the party line when she voted against the clean heat standard and paid family leave, drawing the ire of her Democratic colleagues.
On his campaign website, Gaiotti highlights his endorsement from Vermont’s most famous moderate, Republican Gov. Phil Scott. Gaiotti, though, has not always followed the governor’s high-profile steps away from the Republican Party.
Scott supports Proposal 5, also known as Article 22, which would enshrine the right to abortion in the state’s constitution. Gaiotti? “My problem with it is the vagueness,” he said. “My ‘no’ vote has absolutely nothing to do with a woman’s right to choose, totally. For a woman’s right, it’s not my business.”
Gaiotti also repeated a talking point from some opponents of Prop 5, who suggest it could allow minors to receive gender-affirming care without parental consent. Proponents say Prop 5 only protects an individual’s rights to become pregnant, carry a child, have an abortion, and choose or refuse contraception and sterilization.
When a child “determines how they want to move forward in transitioning,” parental involvement is crucial, Gaiotti said. Parents are “going to need to understand. They’re going to need help processing,” he said. “The worst thing you can do, as someone who’s been there, is to exclude (parents) from this process.”
It’s an important topic to Gaiotti as the parent of a transgender son, who he supports “1,000%,” he said.
“The only thing I want from people is to be happy, healthy, safe and productive,” he said.
During the 2020 presidential election, Phil Scott famously crossed party lines to cast his ballot for Democrat Joe Biden. Meanwhile, “I wrote in Ronald Reagan in the last election,” Gaioitti said.
Like the governor, though, Gaiotti opposes the clean heat standard, arguing it would unreasonably increase fuel prices.
“We can’t just flip a switch and change how we’re doing things right now. We have to look at how it’s going to affect everyone,” he said. “You have to be cautious of someone who says, ‘If we don’t do something right now, it’s the end of days.’”
To back his claim, Gaiotti points to the shuttering of Vermont Yankee, the Vernon nuclear power plant that closed in 2014. Even though Democrats backed the plant’s closure, Gaiotti said nuclear power is one of the cleanest energy sources.
In contrast to his opponent’s economics-first attitude toward the climate crisis, Rice, development director at the Northeast Organic Farming Association, has advocated for an “all-hands-on-deck” approach.
“We’ve been talking about climate change my whole life and how we’ve been too slow to act on it,” he said, highlighting the need for building weatherization and increased in-state renewable energy production.
With only a week to go until Election Day, Gaiotti and Rice are knocking on doors, introducing themselves to voters. The race’s results will help determine whether Democrats achieve a veto-proof majority in the 150-member House of Representatives — something they failed to obtain in the previous biennium.
For Gaiotti, sustaining Scott’s veto power is critical to a future that benefits the majority of his neighbors.
“If you have a governor who’s as popular as Phil Scott is and who has more vetoes than any governor in history,” he said, “that has to say something.”
