WINDSOR — Five candidates are running for two seats representing the towns of Windsor, West Windsor and Hartland in the Vermont House of Representatives.
State Rep. John Bartholomew, D-Hartland, is seeking his sixth term serving the three towns. The other Democrat is Elizabeth Burrows, a Brownsville resident who chairs the Mount Ascutney School District Board and is also on the Progressive ticket. Outgoing state Rep. Zachariah Ralph Watson, P-Hartland, is not seeking reelection and endorsed Burrows to succeed him.
The Republican candidates are Hartland residents Wesley Raney, who has a firearms instruction business, Green Mountain Armory, and Jacob Holmes, a police officer in Woodstock. Also on the ballot is Windsor resident John MacGovern, a Woodstock-area real estate agent who was active in Republican politics but is now running as an independent, in part because of his concerns about President Donald Trump.
Bartholomew, a 65-year-old retired National Institutes of Health veterinarian, said his experience in office will help to address the continued challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Legislature must hit the ground running in 2021 to address very challenging issues,” he said in an email. “There won’t be time to catch up and learn the often bewildering legislative process.”
In addition to addressing the fallout from the pandemic, Bartholomew said his list of priorities is long and includes addressing systemic racism and economic injustices; food insecurity; and opioid misuse. Also, as a longstanding member of the Climate Solutions Caucus, Bartholomew said he hopes to address climate change and set a course for the state’s energy future.
He supports paid family and medical leave and said he was disappointed when Republican Gov. Phil Scott vetoed the Legislature’s bill on that front.
“Paid family leave and family medical leave could help to grow our workforce, attract young people to Vermont, and support our families,” Bartholomew said.
The 51-year-old Burrows, who was not available for an interview on Thursday due to her School Board responsibilities, indicates on her campaign website that she also supports paid family leave and paid sick leave.
“In this pandemic, it becomes ever clearer that we must not take one more step without providing for our workers’ health and for the ability to care for sick family members without fear of losing one’s income,” she said on her website.
Her other priorities include ensuring high-quality child care, working toward universal health care, as well as ending mass incarceration, the militarization of the police and qualified police immunity, she has previously told the Valley News.
The 32-year-old Holmes supports paid family leave but would prefer to see such a program designed as optional, rather than mandatory.
“My biggest issue is making sure that no more bills are pushed through that will needlessly tax Vermonters,” Holmes said in an email. “There are too many feel-good bills that are being pushed through that are going to make a lot of people feel good but when it comes time to pay their bills, they will be hurting due to their money going towards their taxes.”
For example, Holmes said that the Global Warming Solutions Act, which survived a veto by Scott last month, is too expensive for Vermonters.
“I think Vermont is one of the greenest states in the United States and I don’t think making laws that make it so people can sue the state for not meeting emission goals by a certain date is smart,” he said.
The 34-year-old Raney, a lifelong Hartland resident, said via email, that he was motivated to run by the “erosion of civil liberties and repressive taxes in our state.”
He said it’s a “great thing” for companies to provide paid family leave.
In a September Facebook post, Raney said he supports “more freedom and lower taxes. Personally, I just want the government to leave me alone.”
MacGovern, a 65-year-old Dartmouth College graduate who has lived in Windsor for about 20 years and has previously run at both the state and federal level as a Republican, said he is running as an independent this time because he opposes “rigid partisanship.”
“I abhor the behavior of the current president and will not be voting for him,” he said in an email.
MacGovern, who served in the Massachusetts Legislature 30 years ago, co-chaired the Vermont presidential primary campaign of Republican Bill Weld because “I admire leaders who work with people of all parties to solve problems,” he said.
MacGovern does not support paid family leave because he thinks the government’s focus should be on reopening businesses that have been affected by the pandemic, not adding burdens to them.
“You can’t have 10 priorities,” he said. “Right now, we’ve got to get the economy going again.”
Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.
