Woodstock
Voters will choose between Charlie Kimbell, head of the Woodstock Economic Development Commission, and Ron Miller, head of Sustainable Woodstock, during the Aug. 9 primary for the Windsor-5 House dis
trict, which includes the towns of Woodstock, Plymouth and Reading.
Clarkson, who has held the seat for 12 years, is running in a contested primary for one of Windsor County’s three seats in the Vermont Senate.
Kimbell, a 51-year-old former village trustee who in 2004 ran for the state Senate as a Republican, says he still thinks of himself as a fiscal conservative, but that the GOP’s drift to the right over the last decade has made him rethink his party affiliation.
“My personal political philosophy is more in line with the Democratic Party, and I came to realize that,” said Kimbell, who said his focus will be on bringing economic development to the state. “I’m more of a social liberal.”
Kimbell and his wife own Elevation Clothing, and he recently concluded a six-year stint selling and marketing manufacturing industry software.
“I left there about six, seven weeks ago so that I could pursue other opportunities, this being one of the main ones,” Kimbell said.
Kimbell was one of the key supporters of Woodstock’s 1 percent local option tax on rooms, meals and alcohol sales in the town, which was narrowly approved by voters in 2015. The town’s share of the money is used to promote Woodstock as a place to visit and live.
Kimbell said his candidacy is his first formal action with the state party.
Miller, a 60-year-old former professor of history and education at Goddard and Champlain colleges, described himself as “generally liberal” and “Jeffersonian.”
“I have liberal values for the most part,” said Miller, who owned Shiretown Books in Woodstock from 2011 to 2014. “But I also have a sense of the limits of what government can or should do. I sometimes call that a decentralist position. I don’t think big government is very effective.”
Kimbell and Miller definitely have different approaches to problem-solving, with Kimbell describing himself as detail-oriented.
“I enjoy getting behind the numbers and getting into the data to make sure that what is proposed actually has the right consequences,” he said.
Kimbell pointed to the state’s recent solar power boom as an example of a situation where there are counter-intuitive outcomes.
“The unintended consequence is that it actually increases electricity rates because of how much power is required to be purchased on the net metering rolls by (Green Mountain Power),” he said. “We might actually have an increase in electricity rates for other Vermonters. We can’t go without considering the consequences.”
Miller, by contrast, described himself as a more “big picture” thinker.
“Because of my own background as a historian and educator, I think in terms of big picture and systemic change,” he said.
For example, Miller said, the No. 1 issue he’s heard from voters while the campaign trail is concern about taxes.
“The big picture is affordability. It’s not just about taxes. We also have to look at the cost of housing and health care, the cost of higher education,” he said. “That’s all part of it. I think taxes have to be part of the picture in looking at any other issue because we have all these problems to solve.”
Following the recent decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana in the state, both men said they’d be concerned about preventing youths from using the drug in any kind of future full legalization scenario.
But Miller seemed more supportive of the concept of legalization.
“I have come to think that marijuana should be treated in the same way as alcohol and tobacco. … I think legalization is probably inevitable,” he said. “It’s where this culture is going at this point, but let’s do it in a thoughtful way that will help people make informed choices.”
Kimbell said he was “willing to entertain” legalization legislation, but expressed more reticence, citing research that shows usage can lead to problems like impaired driving, and negatively impact the development of young people.
“We also have to consider the consequences of what legalization would do,” he said. “I don’t want to do it to make money, and I don’t want to see marketing increase its use.”
Miller and Kimbell also expressed different approaches to how the state can best encourage towns to welcome solar and wind farms. For the past few years, the Public Service Board has been given authority to greenlight projects, without giving more than a token nod to the objections of towns.
Working in anticipation of new state rules being rolledout by the Vermont Public Service Department, the Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Planning Commission is proposing a regional energy plan that would give towns more weight before the board, as long as they agree to site green energy projects somewhere within their borders.
Kimbell said he was withholding judgment on the regional plan pending further review, but that renewable energy projects should be held to the same local approval requirements of other large projects under Act 250’s state permitting process.
“It doesn’t make sense to overstep any kind of local input,” he said. “To me, that’s ridiculous.”
Miller said he was torn by what he called the “environmentalist’s dilemma,” the need to balance a desire for green energy with the conservation of natural resources like agricultural soils, wetlands and viewsheds.
He agreed with Kimbell that local communities should have more say in project siting, but said the state’s renewable energy goals have to be met, too.
“The critics on the other side are correct, that if you have the community fighting each project one by one, that attitude of (not in my backyard) could really put a dent in our renewable energy production and we don’t want that either,” he said.
Miller said he supported the regional plan that would require communities to each identify appropriate green energy development sites.
Kimbell and Miller are scheduled to take the stage in the Woodstock Town Hall at 7 p.m. on Thursday for the forum, which will be moderated by Bob Hager, the former NBC correspondent who lives in Woodstock.
The winner of the primary will move on to face Republican Keith Cappellini, 42, a real estate investor and former television news producer who moved to Plymouth from New York two years ago.
Matt Hongoltz-Hetling can be reached at mhonghet@vnews.com or 603-727-3211.