This is the first in a series of profiles of Burlington’s three mayoral candidates running in the March 6 Town Meeting Day election.
[B]URLINGTON — It’s tough to keep up with mayoral candidate Carina Driscoll as she hurries along Main Street. Fliers in hand, she’s stopping at every shop and restaurant, inviting owners and managers and employees to a listening session the next day. “Meet Carina: Talk about issues that matter to you,” the fliers say.
Campaigning is Driscoll’s full-time job these days, and she works like the underdog she says she is. She is hardly an unknown, coming from one of the most well-known political families in Vermont — Sen. Bernie Sanders is her stepfather and former Burlington College President Jane Sanders is her mother. But in entering this race, Driscoll is re-entering the political scene.
Driscoll got an early start in politics. She was in her early 20s when she ran successfully for a seat on the Burlington School Board. In 2000 she was one of the youngest women elected to the Vermont House. She left the Legislature in 2002 when her seat was eliminated due to redistricting, and ran for a seat on the Burlington City Council, serving until 2004.
She started a family, and a business. Save for 2012, which she spent as an assistant to newly elected Mayor Miro Weinberger, whom she is now challenging, the City Council was her last foray into electoral politics.
Running as an independent, Driscoll will face off against Democratic incumbent Weinberger and independent Infinite Culcleasure in the March 6 election.
At 43, Driscoll is a year older than Weinberger was when he was first elected mayor, and a few years older than Sanders when he beat the odds to become Burlington’s mayor in 1981.
She has a long history in Burlington. She attended Edmunds Middle School and then Burlington High School. She was in high school when she landed her first job at the Burlington Bagel Bakery, after being turned down two times because she was too young. On the third try, the manager gave in and created a job for her — packing cream cheese and filling the coolers with juice and soda. She was 14.
Following graduation from BHS she attended Smith College, but says now it was not a good fit.
“It was very close to home, very safe, and there were also a lot of women who came from privilege,” Driscoll says. “And I really did not feel at home.”
So she transferred to the University of Montana, “for adventure” she says, where she studied sociology and political science and supported herself working as a resident assistant.
“I am a populist, and I felt much happier at a state school,” Driscoll says — a not-so-subtle comparison with the Ivy League-educated Weinberger, who has an undergraduate degree from Yale and a master’s from Harvard.
The early political successes notwithstanding, it is her experience starting the Vermont Woodworking School in 2007, with her husband Blake Ewoldsen and business partner Bob Fletcher, that she likes to tout as proof of the leadership and management skills she says she’d bring to City Hall.
“You rely on building a solid team of people who you learn to listen to and respect and lead, but also allow them an opportunity to lead,” Driscoll says. “That’s the type of management skill that I bring.”
The woodworking school has also been a source of controversy — specifically its business relationship with the now-closed Burlington College. Driscoll’s mother, Jane Sanders, was president of the college from 2004 to 2011.
Under an initially informal arrangement, Burlington College students took courses at the school in furniture-making and woodworking design and other subjects. From 2009 to 2012 the financially-struggling college with an enrollment of no more than a few hundred students paid the woodworking school a total of $500,000 for “materials, charges and lease of bench space,” VTDigger reported last year.
The college and woodworking school formalized the arrangement after Jane Sanders’ departure from Burlington College; the contract was signed by her successor, Christine Plunkett. Heavily in debt, Burlington College closed its doors in 2016. Driscoll and others involved have consistently denied charges of nepotism, and Vermont Woodworking School has gone on to forge similar partnerships with other schools. Driscoll’s opponents have not made the controversy an issue in the mayoral campaign.
“We’ve addressed all those concerns. I feel very comfortable in my integrity around Vermont Woodworking School and the relationship with Burlington College, as well as our relationship with UVM, and with ReSource, with Johnson State College,” Driscoll says, referring to the school’s other partners.
A worthy challenger
When Driscoll announced her candidacy in early December last year, many looked to her as the first legitimate challenger to Weinberger since his election in 2012.
The event to which Driscoll is inviting the merchants of Main and Church streets is a simple get-acquainted session, geared toward business people. Driscoll talks for about a half hour, about business and development issues with an emphasis on parking, and then opens it up for questions. The issues range from infrastructure to public safety, such as the presence of transients in front of shops on Main Street.
Parking is a major concern for business owners, and a situation that some say will only get worse during and after construction of Burlington Town Center, which Driscoll says will have the “largest valet parking situation in the country,” a fact she gleaned from a meeting with mall developer Don Sinex.
Driscoll tells attendees about her work with the Downtown Accessibility Group, an organization that has worked to make the city more accessible to people with disabilities but is now largely dormant.
Lynn Brelsford, who has worked as the city’s land records clerk since Sanders was mayor in the 1980s, says morale is down in City Hall. Brelsford says she is “70 percent” for Driscoll.
“I judge people a lot on their character,” she says. “She’s probably a little easier to talk to than he (Weinberger) is.”
Brelsford says the old city ethic of serving the taxpayer has waned under recent mayors.
“Like Bernie said, our jobs should make life easier for the taxpayer. And it’s definitely not that across the board anymore,” Belsford says. “But you can’t blame Miro,” she adds, for failing to create “what wasn’t there.”
Mark Mackillop, owner of the popular Muddy Waters coffee shop on Main Street, says he attended the event simply to learn more.
“There’s things that Miro has done that I feel may support my business,” Mackillop says, “but there are things that he supports that may or may not help, like the Burlington Town Center.”
Driscoll’s is likely to draw some support from a wide array of city voters, including progressives, Democrats and Republicans, but a major source of support will likely be well-organized citizen groups who are frequent opponents of Weinberger’s policies.
Driscoll says she defines her constituency as a coalition of people who share a goal of being a part of an inclusive city. “Among many constituency groups, there is generally agreement that Burlington has leadership that is currently not listening,” Driscoll says.
Activist Charles Simpson, a retired professor and Progressive Ward 6 City Council candidate, has led or helped lead some of these groups. One, the Coalition for a Livable City, is opposed to the scale of development planned for the downtown mall.
Other groups have mobilized around the issues of their choice. Save our Skies, for example, was successful in its effort to place an item to the March 6 ballot that may serve to put political pressure on city leaders like Weinberger and many on the City Council who support basing F-35 fighter jets at Burlington International Airport.
Weinberger has since said that should the public vote overwhelmingly against basing the F-35s in Burlington he would have to “do some additional work”. Driscoll supports the referendum but also has said she is keeping an open mind on the larger issue.
Another issue has been Burlington Telecom. Activists supporting the Keep Burlington Telecom Local cooperative bid to buy Burlington Telecom regularly packed City Council meetings last year to show their support for the effort, and the progressive councilors who stuck with it.
The cooperative was one of four finalists vying to buy the utility but was dropped by the council after Weinberger and others declared it was not viable because of a threat of legal action should the city adopt it. The co-op was offering the city roughly $10 million less than the other three private bidders.
Indiana-based Schurz Communications eventually won and will take over the company later this year, once the deal is approved by state regulators.
Driscoll says she is committed to talking with all Burlington residents, and is not limiting herself to the vocal activist groups, though “they are also people in the city looking for change.”
Simpson, the activist and Ward 6 council candidate, says there is a common thread running through all of the issues. “In each case,” he says, “people perceived a human need, a livability need that wasn’t being addressed.”
Simpson, who is backing Driscoll in the race, says, “City Hall was water-tight. Other than giving you two minutes to speak at public forum at City Council, that was about it. We just weren’t being listened to.”
He says Driscoll “gives a fresh analysis of city problems, and I expect that that will resonate with a lot of people who are tired of this notion of just another 14-story building will save us.”
In a small irony, Driscoll said during a Feb. 5 mayoral forum that the Burlington Telecom sale is perhaps the biggest reason she is running. Weinberger’s first campaign for mayor was focused on restoring the city’s financial footing following a scandal involving Burlington Telecom. Then-Mayor Bob Kiss’ decision to prop up an ailing Burlington Telecom with $17 million in city funds resulted in several lawsuits and a significant credit downgrade.
The Burlington Telecom sale irked Driscoll, who found herself watching largely from the sidelines. The process favored the highest bidder, and all but ignored the large group of city residents and an advisory board that recommended keeping some local control of the fiber optic network, she says.
“Local control and maintaining a local interest was very important, yet there was never any way that was going to be possible with the way the bidding process was set up, ” Driscoll says. “That for me was the final straw. We need a change, and people said I was the one to do it.”
Three-way contest
Culcleasure, the other independent in the race, also believes he’s the right candidate to lead the city. A longtime community organizer with deep roots in Burlington but no experience in electoral politics, Culcleasure announced his candidacy about a week before Driscoll.
He has gathered some support in the traditionally progressive Ward 2 and among Burlington’s large student population — groups that may also be inclined to side with with Driscoll.
Culcleasure’s story has been attractive to many, Simpson said. After serving two jail stints for felony cocaine charges in the 1990’s, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees and dedicated himself to community service, arming himself with anecdotes and policy ideas that he uses freely in debates.
Culcleasure has described his campaign as a movement that goes beyond simply “beating Miro,” but Driscoll worries he may split support with hers and bring them both down, securing a Weinberger victory.
Culcleasure bristles at the idea, and posted in a campaign blog that his campaign is “all in” until election day and beyond.
Driscoll later demurred, saying she did not want to pressure Culcleasure either way, but that a three-way split would be an unfortunate outcome. “Then you have someone who has been elected, or re-elected, without the majority of the people who live here,” she said.
Weinberger’s allies cast the choice between Driscoll and Weinberger as the choice between inaction and action. During forums, the developer-turned-mayor uses his six-year record to cast himself as a dealmaker and a leader who gets things done, often citing the city’s improved credit rating and financial position, progress on popular city amenities like the bike bath, and says he has set up the city for future success after helping shepherd through the Burlington Mall redevelopment, for example.
Neale Lunderville, general manager of the Burlington Electric Department and a Weinberger ally, said the mayor has shown himself to be a leader who can work effectively across party lines. A self-described “Yankee Republican,” Lunderville served under Vermont Govs. Jim Douglas, a Republican, and Peter Shumlin, a Democrat, and said Weinberger follows in the mold of those leaders.
Lunderville said Driscoll’s family ties provide her a better starting point than most candidates for office in Vermont, including Culcleasure. But he said Weinberger’s record is difficult to beat.
“Ultimately, she will have to prove she can deliver results better than Miro, which I think is a very tall order,” Lunderville said.
“People are looking for an executive,” he said. “It’s different than a legislative position, where you are judged by how well you can advocate for a position.”
Joan Shannon, another Weinberger ally and Democratic city councilor representing Burlington’s South District, said those who criticize city leaders for pushing them out of the process may not realize how important their input is when shaping public policy.
“Banning smoking in bars and clubs came to me through my NPA (Neighborhood Planning Assembly),” Shannon said, referring to a measure she helped pass early in her tenure on the City Council that went on to influence a state law, passed in 2009. “This has been a long history in Burlington, not a recent history.”
“He has demonstrated an ability to get to the finish line,” she said.
In the endorsement race, Driscoll picked up a win recently when a union of city employees endorsed her, though questions are being raised about if the endorsement was indeed unanimous as initially claimed, according to Seven Days. She also gained the backing of the Burlington Free Press.
Weinberger has said that over his six years in office, voters approved all 17 of the ballot items he has helped put before voters, casting it as a reassurance of his mandate.
Driscoll said it’s not so cut and dried: she voted for all those ballot items, she said, which ranged from approving city bonding to changing zoning to allow for the Burlington mall redevelopment project, which is underway.
“I don’t think it’s a fair equation, to equate that with his public support,” Driscoll says.
Despite her self-described underdog status, Driscoll says her campaign is seeing positive signs.
“Of course I’m concerned that it won’t be enough,” Driscoll says. “But participation is strong, and I feel like we are going to do very well.”
Learn more about incumbent Burlington mayor Miro Weinberger’s track record here.
Read about Burlington mayoral candidate Infinite Culcleasure here.
Disclosure: Neale Lunderville serves on the board of the Vermont Journalism Trust, VTDigger’s parent organization.