Vermont electoral blowout

By TED COHEN/PATCH.COM

BURLINGTON, VT -- The conservative mayor of the socialist capital of the northeast has gone down in flames, thanks to crime, needles in the street and Israel invading Gaza.

This was not just an electoral defeat for Democrat Joan Shannon - it was a clear drubbing.

Shannon, a city councilor for 20 years, was the de facto mayor-to-be even though she didn't hold the title.

She was running to succeed Miro Weinberger, a 12-year incumbent mayor and Shannon's political mentor whose city is in such a crime and financial crisis he refused to run for reelection.

The dark horse in the race to succeed Weinberger was Emma Mulvaney-Stanak of the leftist Progressive Party, who came up the inside lane and wiped Shannon out.

It was voter repudiation of the way Democrats have run - or not - the crime-and-drug-infested city.

To add injury to insult the victor parlayed in to a huge win raw constituent anger over her opponent's failure to acknowledge Israel's unpopular invasion of Gaza.

No one saw it coming - allegedly including Shannon who claimed after losing that she was "surprised" at the outcome - but never said why.

She indeed may have seen it coming, issuing a campaign email a week before the election that said "we're behind." She begged contributors for more money.

In fact, Shannon had all the money. She had all the endorsements. She had 20 years on the council.

Shannon solicited from donors $165,000 for a job that pays $115,000. She far outspent her competitor.

Yet none of it mattered.

Mulvaney-Stanak not only defeated a veteran, entrenched, city politician but she beat her by a shocking six points.

The victory margin was so overwhelming it even negated the need for invoking a "ranked-choice" runoff to determine the outcome.

The dark horse, who once served a couple of years on the council and is currently a member of the Vermont House, won with 51% compared to the incumbent's 45%.

The incumbent nearly lost her home district, in fact, symbolic of the overall shellacking she took.

The pro-Palestinian vote - led largely by a group of young Turks from the University of Vermont - helped carry the election for the newcomer.

They were hopping mad at Shannon for recently refusing to condemn Israel's invasion of Gaza.

They also punished former fellow-UVM student Hannah King, a Democrat city councilor who managed Shannon's failed campaign, choosing her Progressive Party socialist opponent by a whopping and 14 points.

Here's the kicker to the whole thing: The mayor-elect held her victory party in the heart of the defeated candidate's district, which the booted incumbent has represented for two decades.

Shannon, a Vermont transplant who should have held what could have been the pinnacle of her political career's victory party in her home district, instead held it in her opponent's.

Political pundits have been strangely silent on the biggest election upset that Vermont's largest city has seen since 1981 when a Brooklyn socialist named Bernie Sanders defeated a hometown Democrat mayor in a shot heard 'round the world.

The only media outlet other than Patch.com that came close to understanding the shock of Shannon's defeat is Vermont Daily Chronicle.

Kolby LaMarche's Burning Sky column in the Chronicle said Shannon suffered a "devastating defeat."

In what LaMarche called Shannon's "political obituary," the columnist, who just two years ago managed Shannon's council re-election effort, said that at her concession speech she was "visibly shocked" that she lost.

LaMarche, himself elected in 2019 as the youngest municipal GOP chairman in the country, said a widely popular Instagram page created by Shannon's opponents helped seal the win for her opponent, a Vermont native.

Shannon and her unsuccessful primary opponent, council president Karen Paul, both figured they could remain relevant simply by repeatedly publishing useless council agendas on a relic known as Front Porch Forum.

But they were too outdated by half.

The new, young, vibrant political force in Vermont's largest city is driven by grievance against aged, antiquated politicking that's based on who can post the larger number of endorsements by big-moneyed, self-important politicians and real-estate developers.

The Democrat Party in Vermont's largest city also saw its chairman quit in the wake of its stunning loss to the Progressive Party. Adam Roof, who himself lost both a council seat and a state legislative race a few years ago, said he was moving to Massachusetts to work for Democrats there.

- News/Commentary