Northfield’s 40th annual Labor Day parade made its way down the Washington County town’s Main Street on Monday, but with a big change from last year: There was no political campaigning.
A year ago, Gov. Peter Shumlin, Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Milne, Republican state Senate candidate Dexter Lefavour, Progressive lieutenant-gubernatorial candidate Dean Corren, and Democrat Scott Williams, who was running for Washington County state’s attorney, all joined the procession, engaging the sidewalk-filling crowds in the hope of votes. The pols garnered little applause.
This year, Northfield put the kibosh on candidate participation in the parade. The town warned that “applications from politicians and political campaigns will not be accepted. Political campaign displays of any type are not allowed as part of any participation in the parade.”
Shumlin, Lt. Gov. Phil Scott, and Scott Milne, who may seek the governor’s chair again in 2016, all took part in this year’s procession, but nonpolitically. There were no banners, no stickers and no voter solicitation.
The governor assumed his ceremonial role near the head of the procession. Scott drove a tractor-trailer bearing the Norwich University hockey team’s float, and Milne walked with a float for East Montpelier’s Morse Farm. Democratic House Speaker Shap Smith, who recently announced a bid for governor, appeared on the sidelines, pressing the flesh.
While the parade unfolded without campaign taint, the politicians on hand found time to talk with reporters.
Having just returned his tractor-trailer to a garage, Scott told VTDigger, “I’m going to send out a statement tomorrow to state my intentions, and fully expect it’ll be positive in terms of running for governor.” (See separate story.)
As he waited for the parade to begin, Milne noted pointedly that he had “invested a lot of time and energy” in the 2014 race, but declined to tip his hand regarding the upcoming gubernatorial contest. “Whether I’m on my own or helping others, I’m definitely planning on being part of the 2016 election cycle,” he said.
After the event, taking refuge from the baking sun in the registration booth, parade chair Louisa Tripp said that everything had come off well – that is, without any drama over politicians’ free-speech rights marring the festive atmosphere.
‘Some politicians don’t behave well’
Northfield Observances, the private committee that stages the weekend of events that culminate in the parade, originally banned political candidates from the parade in about 1997, Richard Cleveland, ex-president of the group, told VTDigger.
“They wouldn’t march where they were supposed to. They screwed up the line of march and littered the streets with their campaign literature. It was a mess from the staging area to the end of the march.”
An exception was made for the governor’s continued participation. But things took a nasty turn on Labor Day 2000, shortly after Democratic Gov. Howard Dean signed a bill legalizing civil unions between homosexuals. The Take Back Vermont movement rose in furious opposition to the law, Cleveland recalled. The governor’s office informed Northfield police of “vague threats” against Dean, who chose not to march in the parade, Cleveland said. Both Take Back Vermont and a pro-civil-unions group made a lot of noise as they marched in the parade, culminating what Cleveland called “a very stressful weekend for the entire committee.”
That autumn, Northfield Observances decided it had had its fill of politics. The group eliminated even the governor from the parade, on the theory that the state’s chief executive had to be treated as any other politician would be, Cleveland said.
In 2001, then, and for 10 years thereafter, Northfield Observances kept the politicians out of the procession, but in 2012 it readmitted them. No politicians took the restored opportunity to march, however, until last year.
Tripp told VTDigger that several aspirants to public office showed up that Labor Day morning, expecting to march without having registered in advance. That caused no shortage of headaches for organizers trying to position the Norwich University Corps of Cadets, cannons going off for a Civil War reenactment, horses, musicians, antique cars, and 50 or 60 floats in a parade column stretching for more than a mile.
“The problem is that some politicians don’t behave well,” Tripp said, adding that one politician, whom she declined to name, had gone away “a little more than grumpy” after showing up unannounced and being turned away.
In that parade’s aftermath, she said, “We got information from local people just anecdotally that they didn’t want politicians in the parade.”
All that led the organizers to bring the hammer down this year.
First Amendment issues?
“I get why they want to not have politicians in the parade,” said Scott Williams, who was elected state’s attorney for Washington County in 2014. But Labor Day parades are a legitimate opportunity to reach voters, he says. Retail campaigning can be a very expensive, he said, “so you’re down to public events, or spend a lot of money. … [Events] are how we meet people. I would certainly love it if Northfield would have [candidates] in the parade, but I would not be the one to bring some legal action to force them.”
Louisa Tripp, Northfield’s parade organizer, said she doesn’t know if the new policy, which constrains political expression, presents First Amendment issues. Tripp said simply, “I’m not a lawyer, I’m a parade organizer.”
She clarified that the new policy did not exclude politicians from the parade, so long as they were not campaigning. The governor, for example, was welcomed in his ceremonial capacity.
What constitutes campaigning is the key question.
“I think [the policy] does need clarity,” Rep. Anne Donahue, R-Northfield, said. “The parade folks need to make it completely clear what’s allowed, and that would allow one to answer whether it’s constitutional or not. … It’s always tough when it’s something that’s community folks doing a nice thing, and having them be versed in the fine points of constitutional issues is a lot to expect.”
For the Northfield parade, the event’s politicization – or nonpoliticization – has become a durable issue. When politicians intrude, Tripp said, the parade “can’t just be a fun thing.”
This year, it certainly was a fun thing. The sun shone down on the thousand or more spectators who lined Main Street to follow the antique cars, clowns on their go-karts, two bagpipe corps in their tartans and sporrans, the spit-and-polish Corps of Cadets, and an assortment of floats on this year’s theme, Mardi Gras. Following the parade, with the political celebrities having gone on their way, the multitudes thronged the town common, where the fare included a steel-drum band, a bingo tent, line dancers, kiddie amusements and edibles ranging from barbecue to maple cotton candy. And Northfield was, once more, just a town that loves its parade.
