Five City Council seats are up for grabs in Burlington in March, and Democrats picked their candidates during a virtual caucus on Thursday night.
In the only contested nomination of the evening, Joan Shannon, D-South District, fended off three challengers to keep her name on the ticket, according to results shared by Adam Roof, chair of Burlington Democrats.
Roof said 856 votes — the vast majority of the total — were cast in the South District race, which Shannon won with 651 votes, or 76% of the tally.
Jason Van Driesche earned 188 votes, Faried Munarsyah had 17 and Lenora Travis had none.
Three other district council seats are up at Town Meeting Day. One special election was also added to the ballot to fill the Ward 8 spot that was vacated by Ali House’s resignation.
Councilor Maea Brandt, who won her East District seat in a special election last week, is campaigning to keep it. In the Dec. 6 special election, Brandt won a three-way race against Dina John, a Progressive, and Jake Schumann, an independent. John said last week that she had not yet decided whether she would run again.
Avery Muzikar came forward as a candidate for the Democrats in the Central District. That seat is currently held by Progressive Perri Freeman, who told Seven Days earlier this month that they would not run again. Melo Grant, who serves on the police commission, said in an interview last week that she is running for that seat as a Progressive.
Mark Barlow, an independent seeking the Democrats’ endorsement, is running to retain his North District seat. Barlow said he has had “friendly and respectful” relationships with all councilors in his nearly two years in the role, “but I’ve had particularly strong working relationships with Democratic councilors.”
If elected, Barlow said, he would continue to work closely with Democrats.
In the lone upcoming ward race, Hannah King is running again for Ward 8 following a close loss last March to House, who resigned in October. She acknowledged that she wasn’t sure if she wanted to run again following that loss.
“I also didn’t know that Ward 8 would be left without representation so soon after that election,” King said. “Frankly, it was upsetting not only as a former candidate, but also as a resident of Ward 8. But what I can promise our community today is that I am someone who will stick by the responsibilities I am seeking by receiving this nomination tonight and becoming a city councilor this spring.”
In the Democrats’ contested South District race, public safety emerged as a major theme. Both Shannon and Van Driesche spent the majority of their speeches discussing the topic.
Van Driesche said he focused on the topic for two reasons, including that it’s a generally important issue.
“And the second,” he said, “is that if we can figure out public safety, we can figure out anything.”
In her remarks, Shannon said public safety was “broader than policing. Public safety begins with health care for everyone. That includes mental health care.”
Travis spoke about frequent thefts from the store she works in and expressed frustration with staffing issues at the police department. Both she and Munarsyah ran unsuccessfully against Ben Traverse, D-Ward 5, last year.
Burlington Democrats held the caucus virtually, with Traverse orchestrating the event. More than 1,000 people had registered for the caucus, he said, which “breaks any known records” for a non-mayoral election.
The Progressive caucus is scheduled for Jan. 8, according to Josh Wronski, the party’s executive director. “We fully expect we’re going to have a full slate in every district,” Wronski said in an interview last week.
