Candidates answers to the Vermont Daily Chronicle's Questionnaire are posted here in the order they are received in the County their campaign is in. We hope this helps voters be informed about the Constitutional stances of the candidates.
Williams: able-bodied homeless should be required to work -
Vermont Daily Chronicle - Sept. 21, 2024 - click for more
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by Sen. Terry Williams
Editor’s note: Senator Terry Williams (R-Rutland) is an incumbent state senator. More than a month ago, inspired by a candidate questionnaire cancelled by Windham County resident Abigail Crosby, I sent him and every other legislative candidate a detailed questionnaire (NOT the Clean Heat Standard survey also sent to every candidate.)
Sen. Terry WilliamsVery few candidates of either party submitted detailed answers to this first, lengthy questionnaire. An exception is Sen. Williams, whose response was received this week. A U.S. Army officer and one of the most thoughtful legislators in Montpelier, Sen. Williams’ responses are informative and thought-provoking. I’ve highlighted some of the (IMHO) most interesting thoughts.
Housing
This problem is most prevalent in my district, Rutland County and I have been involved in meetings at three different levels as we attempt to confront the problem and deal with the people who are most affected by it.
1. Appoint an agency and a person by name to deal with the problem. That organization/person will be the “Tip of the Spear” and needs to be charged with the responsibility and given the authority and resources they need to positively eliminate the problem. Whether it is a government agency or a non-profit that is selected to deal with this, they need to have a clear vision and a strategic plan to systematically take down the situation.
2. Over the past several years, our government has thrown billions of tax-payer dollars at this problem to no-avail. Yes, there have been successes, but overall the system of homelessness and prevention has not changed. Government intervention and oversight needs to happen to ensure that waste, fraud and abuse is eliminated and that every dollar spent contributes to the take down of the problem.
3 The Department of Buildings and Grounds (BGS) has produced a list of all vacant (unused) state owned and leased buildings in the state of Vermont and the administration should look to eliminate those leases or ownership of those buildings or consider using them to help temporarily alleviate the shortage of housing for the unhoused population of Vermont.
I do support the current ‘Housing First’ policy of housing homeless persons with medical and mental disabilities and single parents with children without requiring them to work on the causes. All able-bodied homeless, if a resident, should be required to work to help offset the conditions of their homelessness and get invested in the local workforce to help compliment our labor force. The government needs to be involved in working with these people to ensure that they become active participants in our society.
I do believe that non-Vermont citizens who move here should have a mandatory waiting period required before they can apply for state government assistance. Some states require a one year waiting period. I believe that there should always be exceptions for extenuating circumstances, but it should not be a system where you can arrive here today and be on government assistance tomorrow as it is now in Vermont.
Climate Change & Environment
I do not support implementing the Clean Heat Standard now.
I must confess that I do not know how the carbon credit system created by the Clean Heat Standard works, but I do know how it will affect Vermonters. Even the PUC and experts, including most legislators who voted for this act admit that they do not know how it will work. I guess we will need to wait until January 2025 to find out. But, I know that it will have an adverse financial impact upon most Vermonters, especially the ones most vulnerable and who are supported by a fixed income. We can and must do better than Act 18.
I do not support banning the sale of all non-electric vehicles by 2035 and don’t know why we always thrive to be in compliance with California standards when Vermont has one of the cleanest environments in the country and probably the world. Until we fix the antiquated electrical infrastructure of this country so that it can support total electrification systems, we are attempting a fool’s errand.
Vermont should come up with a plan to relocate their population centers and businesses out of the flood plains but, until we do this, debris (trees and gravel) should be removed from the bends and pools which fill up with sediment. The strategy of ‘let the rivers and streams go where they want to go’ might work after another century, but it is not helping in the interim.
Education
I support “the money follows the child.” I believe that the problems with Vermont education began with the advent of Act 60/68 and that “the equity in education act” should be repealed and we should start over again. We have moved so far from the intent of Act 60/68 that it is no longer relevant.
I believe that competition enhances a quality education and that the state should get out of the state education funding business, that property taxes should not be used to fund education and that we need to get back to local control of our children’s education in Vermont.
I do not support D/E/I or CRT in public school instruction. We need to place more emphasis upon teaching civics and civil discourse and how to respect others opinions and accept their constitutionally guaranteed rights to be the way that they are without exception as long as it is within societal norms.
Student test scores will improve when our school system moves back to an identifiable standard for student achievement and when they are held to those standards scores will improve. If a student does not achieve those standards they should remain in that grade until they do. Each student should be periodically evaluated to ensure that they are capable of achieving the standards and if they are not, they should be moved to a different course of instruction or remedial instructional methods should be employed.
I do not support Vermont continuing as a sanctuary state and I believe that Vermont should work with federal authorities to apprehend and remove immigrants who entered the country illegally out of fairness to the ones who did come here legally, met the standard of citizenship and assimilated into our society.
Elections
I do not support non-citizen voting and I do support apprehending and removing immigrants who entered illegally.
Drug Crimes
We should enforce the laws on the books to enforce the drug crimes in this state and the country. We need to secure the borders and prosecute the criminals to the fullest extent of the laws on the books already. Being told that we don’t want the “low level violators” and we are after the “big drug dealers” is not acceptable.
Land Conservation
I do not support Act 59 as it is currently written and do not believe that any legislation should pass into law until there is a clearly defined explanation of how that act will work. This act does not pass muster. I also think that every piece of legislation should include the taxpayers of Vermont as stakeholders before the bill should even be considered by a legislative committee.
Firearms Restrictions
I support and defend the constitutions of Vermont and the United States and especially article 16 and the 2nd amendment of those documents. “Shall not be infringed” means exactly what it says!
When I am elected to another term as a Rutland County senator, I want to be on the Natural Resources and Energy and Judiciary committees.
Editor’s note: Senator Terry Williams (R-Rutland) is an incumbent state senator. More than a month ago, inspired by a candidate questionnaire cancelled by Windham County resident Abigail Crosby, I sent him and every other legislative candidate a detailed questionnaire (NOT the Clean Heat Standard survey also sent to every candidate.)
Sen. Terry WilliamsVery few candidates of either party submitted detailed answers to this first, lengthy questionnaire. An exception is Sen. Williams, whose response was received this week. A U.S. Army officer and one of the most thoughtful legislators in Montpelier, Sen. Williams’ responses are informative and thought-provoking. I’ve highlighted some of the (IMHO) most interesting thoughts.
Housing
This problem is most prevalent in my district, Rutland County and I have been involved in meetings at three different levels as we attempt to confront the problem and deal with the people who are most affected by it.
1. Appoint an agency and a person by name to deal with the problem. That organization/person will be the “Tip of the Spear” and needs to be charged with the responsibility and given the authority and resources they need to positively eliminate the problem. Whether it is a government agency or a non-profit that is selected to deal with this, they need to have a clear vision and a strategic plan to systematically take down the situation.
2. Over the past several years, our government has thrown billions of tax-payer dollars at this problem to no-avail. Yes, there have been successes, but overall the system of homelessness and prevention has not changed. Government intervention and oversight needs to happen to ensure that waste, fraud and abuse is eliminated and that every dollar spent contributes to the take down of the problem.
3 The Department of Buildings and Grounds (BGS) has produced a list of all vacant (unused) state owned and leased buildings in the state of Vermont and the administration should look to eliminate those leases or ownership of those buildings or consider using them to help temporarily alleviate the shortage of housing for the unhoused population of Vermont.
I do support the current ‘Housing First’ policy of housing homeless persons with medical and mental disabilities and single parents with children without requiring them to work on the causes. All able-bodied homeless, if a resident, should be required to work to help offset the conditions of their homelessness and get invested in the local workforce to help compliment our labor force. The government needs to be involved in working with these people to ensure that they become active participants in our society.
I do believe that non-Vermont citizens who move here should have a mandatory waiting period required before they can apply for state government assistance. Some states require a one year waiting period. I believe that there should always be exceptions for extenuating circumstances, but it should not be a system where you can arrive here today and be on government assistance tomorrow as it is now in Vermont.
Climate Change & Environment
I do not support implementing the Clean Heat Standard now.
I must confess that I do not know how the carbon credit system created by the Clean Heat Standard works, but I do know how it will affect Vermonters. Even the PUC and experts, including most legislators who voted for this act admit that they do not know how it will work. I guess we will need to wait until January 2025 to find out. But, I know that it will have an adverse financial impact upon most Vermonters, especially the ones most vulnerable and who are supported by a fixed income. We can and must do better than Act 18.
I do not support banning the sale of all non-electric vehicles by 2035 and don’t know why we always thrive to be in compliance with California standards when Vermont has one of the cleanest environments in the country and probably the world. Until we fix the antiquated electrical infrastructure of this country so that it can support total electrification systems, we are attempting a fool’s errand.
Vermont should come up with a plan to relocate their population centers and businesses out of the flood plains but, until we do this, debris (trees and gravel) should be removed from the bends and pools which fill up with sediment. The strategy of ‘let the rivers and streams go where they want to go’ might work after another century, but it is not helping in the interim.
Education
I support “the money follows the child.” I believe that the problems with Vermont education began with the advent of Act 60/68 and that “the equity in education act” should be repealed and we should start over again. We have moved so far from the intent of Act 60/68 that it is no longer relevant.
I believe that competition enhances a quality education and that the state should get out of the state education funding business, that property taxes should not be used to fund education and that we need to get back to local control of our children’s education in Vermont.
I do not support D/E/I or CRT in public school instruction. We need to place more emphasis upon teaching civics and civil discourse and how to respect others opinions and accept their constitutionally guaranteed rights to be the way that they are without exception as long as it is within societal norms.
Student test scores will improve when our school system moves back to an identifiable standard for student achievement and when they are held to those standards scores will improve. If a student does not achieve those standards they should remain in that grade until they do. Each student should be periodically evaluated to ensure that they are capable of achieving the standards and if they are not, they should be moved to a different course of instruction or remedial instructional methods should be employed.
I do not support Vermont continuing as a sanctuary state and I believe that Vermont should work with federal authorities to apprehend and remove immigrants who entered the country illegally out of fairness to the ones who did come here legally, met the standard of citizenship and assimilated into our society.
Elections
I do not support non-citizen voting and I do support apprehending and removing immigrants who entered illegally.
Drug Crimes
We should enforce the laws on the books to enforce the drug crimes in this state and the country. We need to secure the borders and prosecute the criminals to the fullest extent of the laws on the books already. Being told that we don’t want the “low level violators” and we are after the “big drug dealers” is not acceptable.
Land Conservation
I do not support Act 59 as it is currently written and do not believe that any legislation should pass into law until there is a clearly defined explanation of how that act will work. This act does not pass muster. I also think that every piece of legislation should include the taxpayers of Vermont as stakeholders before the bill should even be considered by a legislative committee.
Firearms Restrictions
I support and defend the constitutions of Vermont and the United States and especially article 16 and the 2nd amendment of those documents. “Shall not be infringed” means exactly what it says!
When I am elected to another term as a Rutland County senator, I want to be on the Natural Resources and Energy and Judiciary committees.
Todd Nielsen
Brandon - House of Representatives
To the editor:
I am writing to ask you to vote for change in the Nov 5 election. As a Brandon citizen, taxpayer, and business owner for the past 36 years, I am deeply concerned about affordability in Vermont and my neighbors and friends who are seniors, parents raising their children, working people, fellow business owners, and fellow horseback riders/farm owners.
Long time Vermonters can see the health provider crisis, health insurance company crisis, housing crisis, childcare provider crisis, worker shortage crisis, education cost and outcomes crisis, drug crisis, and the affordability crisis as indicators that our current legislative majority is not solving problems by the spending they are forcing us to pay.
Following the Global Solutions Warming Act (GSWA) to mandate reduction of greenhouse gas emissions or be sued for non compliance, the Legislature will be tasked with instituting rules and plans for converting heat and transportation to reduce gashouse emissions in January. Every Vermonter should be concerned with the plans of the Legislature and the Public Utilities commission that affects our heat and transportation, both basic needs. Rep. Stephanie Jerome voted for GSWA and votes along party lines. Will she support any plan to comply, no matter the cost to you or your small fuel dealer business?
Folks who have moved to Vermont from other places may believe the taxes aren't too bad as compared to where they came from. However, the stories I heard at the polls at the August primary and since then are heartbreaking that native Vermonters are having to sell out because they can't afford the legislation that is being forced upon them. Why would we elect representatives that force our native Vermonters to leave their homes? Why are the laws prioritizing policy over our people and not caring about all diverse members of our town?
Brandon's VT House Representative has been in office since 2019. When I have approached Rep. Stephanie Jerome to discuss concerns about health insurance, rising costs, and increased administrative burdens on businesses, good jobs for our children that aren't in government or hospitals, she has not been helpful in any way. Other Brandon business owners have shared the same feedback with me. They, as with me, were told that how Stephanie voted was what was best for me, even when we knew better, or she says she pays even more than we do. I am embarrassed to be a Vermonter now based on some of the ridiculous and harmful votes she has voted for in the past few years, and our taxes have continued to increase, and this year, it was significant increases. It is time for change!
Vermont needs change in the statehouse to have more careful votes to consider the effects on our people and our childrens' futures. We need people who will think twice about spending. We need a representative who will talk to their neighbors and listen and can relate to a working person's income, a business owner wanting to support their family, and who has the strength to vote against party lines for Brandon. It is time for a change!
Todd Nielsen listens, he cares, he wants Vermont to be more affordable, and he wants his children to have a future in Vermont! Please vote for change and affordability and vote Todd Nielsen in the Nov 5 election.
Sharon Stearns, Brandon
Brandon - House of Representatives
To the editor:
I am writing to ask you to vote for change in the Nov 5 election. As a Brandon citizen, taxpayer, and business owner for the past 36 years, I am deeply concerned about affordability in Vermont and my neighbors and friends who are seniors, parents raising their children, working people, fellow business owners, and fellow horseback riders/farm owners.
Long time Vermonters can see the health provider crisis, health insurance company crisis, housing crisis, childcare provider crisis, worker shortage crisis, education cost and outcomes crisis, drug crisis, and the affordability crisis as indicators that our current legislative majority is not solving problems by the spending they are forcing us to pay.
Following the Global Solutions Warming Act (GSWA) to mandate reduction of greenhouse gas emissions or be sued for non compliance, the Legislature will be tasked with instituting rules and plans for converting heat and transportation to reduce gashouse emissions in January. Every Vermonter should be concerned with the plans of the Legislature and the Public Utilities commission that affects our heat and transportation, both basic needs. Rep. Stephanie Jerome voted for GSWA and votes along party lines. Will she support any plan to comply, no matter the cost to you or your small fuel dealer business?
Folks who have moved to Vermont from other places may believe the taxes aren't too bad as compared to where they came from. However, the stories I heard at the polls at the August primary and since then are heartbreaking that native Vermonters are having to sell out because they can't afford the legislation that is being forced upon them. Why would we elect representatives that force our native Vermonters to leave their homes? Why are the laws prioritizing policy over our people and not caring about all diverse members of our town?
Brandon's VT House Representative has been in office since 2019. When I have approached Rep. Stephanie Jerome to discuss concerns about health insurance, rising costs, and increased administrative burdens on businesses, good jobs for our children that aren't in government or hospitals, she has not been helpful in any way. Other Brandon business owners have shared the same feedback with me. They, as with me, were told that how Stephanie voted was what was best for me, even when we knew better, or she says she pays even more than we do. I am embarrassed to be a Vermonter now based on some of the ridiculous and harmful votes she has voted for in the past few years, and our taxes have continued to increase, and this year, it was significant increases. It is time for change!
Vermont needs change in the statehouse to have more careful votes to consider the effects on our people and our childrens' futures. We need people who will think twice about spending. We need a representative who will talk to their neighbors and listen and can relate to a working person's income, a business owner wanting to support their family, and who has the strength to vote against party lines for Brandon. It is time for a change!
Todd Nielsen listens, he cares, he wants Vermont to be more affordable, and he wants his children to have a future in Vermont! Please vote for change and affordability and vote Todd Nielsen in the Nov 5 election.
Sharon Stearns, Brandon
Part II of a Two-Part Series on election runs in Rutland for House of Representatives
By Russell Flannery Vermont Daily Chronicle, Oct. 25, 2024
Chris Keyser
The last time a member of the Keyser family was on a ballot for public office in Vermont was in 1962. Then incumbent Republican Governor Ray Keyser of Proctor was defeated by “Young Turk” Democrat Phil Hoff who backed a larger state government role in society.
Keyser’s son Chris, one of three children, “wanted to be my own self” early in his career and go a different direction than his lawyer-politician father. Young Keyser worked in outdoor recreation management in Quechee before accepting a leadership role at a family-owned energy company, Keyser Energy. There, he led nine acquisitions and eventually built a multistate petroleum and propane distribution business with annual sales of more than $10 million. “I enjoyed the deal-making – of finding out what your issues were, see if I could solve those, and create a win-win,” said Keyser, now living in Rutland, in an interview. Nearing retirement, Keyser sold the business in 2011, stayed on as the company’s chief executive until he was aged 66 in 2019, and moved on to consulting and industry-level board work part-time.
This year, things changed. Keyser became frustrated by the big increases in property taxes and looming large increases in residential and business energy bills passed by Vermont’s Democratic Party-controlled legislature this spring over a veto by Republican Governor Phil Scott. Though also dismayed by what he considers to be toxic political culture in Montpelier, Keyser was also unhappy about the big pay raise approved (though not enacted due to Gov. Scott’s veto) by the legislature’s Democratic majority last year. “When that came up, there was a complete disconnect between what I felt (was fair) and what was going on” in Montpelier, Keyser said. “I had the audacity to think I could have some influence over that.”
Finally, Keyser said, Scott himself called while the businessman was out hiking near his Rutland home one day and asked him to take on powerful Assistant Majority House Leader William Notte in the city’s election district 7.
“I was hiking, and I was mad – stuff goes through your head,” Keyser said.” “My phone rang and I didn’t recognize it. It was the Governor, and he asked me to run,” he recalled. “I’m not a politician. I’ll be one,” he said.
Republican Senator Brian Collamore of Rutland also called to encourage Keyser to run. “They got me at a weak point,” Keyser smiled. “But it was all of these things that let up to it.”
Rival Notte, who manages a Phoenix bookstore in downtown Rutland, was among two of Rutland’s seven House representatives to vote for the tax increase, higher energy bills and pay raise. The other was Democrat Mary Howard.
These days, Keyser spends time out knocking on doors and then trying to estimate the number of members of his city district that will support him. “I’m a numbers guy,” said Keyser, who keeps a log of the more than doors he’s knocked on a 8x11-inch sheet of paper printed out from a spreadsheet. Keyser views district residents without a Notte campaign poster in front of their home as a potential vote for him.
“As my father used to say, when you’re campaigning, people that are for you will build you up and tell you you’re the greatest thing. People that don’t say anything are the people you have to watch out for,” he said. The 71-year-old Keyser does wave-ins at traffic intersections – including one recently with Collamore in front of a convenience store; Keyser figures that he will need about 900 votes to win, and expects to get them.
Keyser’s latest step back from retirement is a part of a wider effort by Republicans that were trounced in the more recent legislative election two years ago. That showing, he feels, owes in part to the disproportionate number of Democratic and Progressive voters in the Burlington area population.
That means working harder to elect moderates elsewhere – such as Rutland -- in defeating Democrats Notte and Howard. “Keyser” lawn signs dot the streets along with Notte’s near his residence. Keyser accepted an interview in a cramped home study that abuts a crowded kitchen whose refrigerator is plastered with pictures and notes. He lives with Jane Keyser, his wife of 38 years; they have three children and four grandchildren.
Regarding Vermont’s big real estate tax increases this year, Keyser’s view is simple: the state’s increased take from homeowner income far exceeds inflation, and particularly hits middle class and lower-income families; the measure also didn’t do anything to address underlying high costs in Vermont for education that help drive up taxes.
“I got this sort of uneasiness about me,” Keyser said. “It’s all regressive taxes. The Democrats don’t stand for that.” Higher property taxes are part of a self-feeding downward economic trend that hurts the state’s competitiveness, makes it difficult to attract workers and grow new businesses, he noted.
Keyser said voters are also worried about the economic fallout of homelessness, a big issue in the Rutland area, where hotels designed for tourism routinely report crime by homeless dwellers that hurts the city’s business and visitor appeal. “There’s a very strong feeling that” many living in hotels aren’t from the Rutland area, and that the state needs to better manage the problem, he said. For the truly needy, Keyser said, “We’re going to get you housed and fed,” but more details and assessments are needed about how to move the group into a sustainable life.
By Russell Flannery Vermont Daily Chronicle, Oct. 25, 2024
Chris Keyser
The last time a member of the Keyser family was on a ballot for public office in Vermont was in 1962. Then incumbent Republican Governor Ray Keyser of Proctor was defeated by “Young Turk” Democrat Phil Hoff who backed a larger state government role in society.
Keyser’s son Chris, one of three children, “wanted to be my own self” early in his career and go a different direction than his lawyer-politician father. Young Keyser worked in outdoor recreation management in Quechee before accepting a leadership role at a family-owned energy company, Keyser Energy. There, he led nine acquisitions and eventually built a multistate petroleum and propane distribution business with annual sales of more than $10 million. “I enjoyed the deal-making – of finding out what your issues were, see if I could solve those, and create a win-win,” said Keyser, now living in Rutland, in an interview. Nearing retirement, Keyser sold the business in 2011, stayed on as the company’s chief executive until he was aged 66 in 2019, and moved on to consulting and industry-level board work part-time.
This year, things changed. Keyser became frustrated by the big increases in property taxes and looming large increases in residential and business energy bills passed by Vermont’s Democratic Party-controlled legislature this spring over a veto by Republican Governor Phil Scott. Though also dismayed by what he considers to be toxic political culture in Montpelier, Keyser was also unhappy about the big pay raise approved (though not enacted due to Gov. Scott’s veto) by the legislature’s Democratic majority last year. “When that came up, there was a complete disconnect between what I felt (was fair) and what was going on” in Montpelier, Keyser said. “I had the audacity to think I could have some influence over that.”
Finally, Keyser said, Scott himself called while the businessman was out hiking near his Rutland home one day and asked him to take on powerful Assistant Majority House Leader William Notte in the city’s election district 7.
“I was hiking, and I was mad – stuff goes through your head,” Keyser said.” “My phone rang and I didn’t recognize it. It was the Governor, and he asked me to run,” he recalled. “I’m not a politician. I’ll be one,” he said.
Republican Senator Brian Collamore of Rutland also called to encourage Keyser to run. “They got me at a weak point,” Keyser smiled. “But it was all of these things that let up to it.”
Rival Notte, who manages a Phoenix bookstore in downtown Rutland, was among two of Rutland’s seven House representatives to vote for the tax increase, higher energy bills and pay raise. The other was Democrat Mary Howard.
These days, Keyser spends time out knocking on doors and then trying to estimate the number of members of his city district that will support him. “I’m a numbers guy,” said Keyser, who keeps a log of the more than doors he’s knocked on a 8x11-inch sheet of paper printed out from a spreadsheet. Keyser views district residents without a Notte campaign poster in front of their home as a potential vote for him.
“As my father used to say, when you’re campaigning, people that are for you will build you up and tell you you’re the greatest thing. People that don’t say anything are the people you have to watch out for,” he said. The 71-year-old Keyser does wave-ins at traffic intersections – including one recently with Collamore in front of a convenience store; Keyser figures that he will need about 900 votes to win, and expects to get them.
Keyser’s latest step back from retirement is a part of a wider effort by Republicans that were trounced in the more recent legislative election two years ago. That showing, he feels, owes in part to the disproportionate number of Democratic and Progressive voters in the Burlington area population.
That means working harder to elect moderates elsewhere – such as Rutland -- in defeating Democrats Notte and Howard. “Keyser” lawn signs dot the streets along with Notte’s near his residence. Keyser accepted an interview in a cramped home study that abuts a crowded kitchen whose refrigerator is plastered with pictures and notes. He lives with Jane Keyser, his wife of 38 years; they have three children and four grandchildren.
Regarding Vermont’s big real estate tax increases this year, Keyser’s view is simple: the state’s increased take from homeowner income far exceeds inflation, and particularly hits middle class and lower-income families; the measure also didn’t do anything to address underlying high costs in Vermont for education that help drive up taxes.
“I got this sort of uneasiness about me,” Keyser said. “It’s all regressive taxes. The Democrats don’t stand for that.” Higher property taxes are part of a self-feeding downward economic trend that hurts the state’s competitiveness, makes it difficult to attract workers and grow new businesses, he noted.
Keyser said voters are also worried about the economic fallout of homelessness, a big issue in the Rutland area, where hotels designed for tourism routinely report crime by homeless dwellers that hurts the city’s business and visitor appeal. “There’s a very strong feeling that” many living in hotels aren’t from the Rutland area, and that the state needs to better manage the problem, he said. For the truly needy, Keyser said, “We’re going to get you housed and fed,” but more details and assessments are needed about how to move the group into a sustainable life.
- Russell Flannery, a former long-time editor at Forbes, lives in Rutland.
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JIM HARRISON
Jim was first appointed by Governor Scott to represent Rutland-Windsor 1 district on April 11, 2017, to complete the term of former Rep. Job Tate. He was elected to a new term in 2018 and re-elected in 2020 and 2022. He served as president of the Vermont Grocers’ Association (now Vermont Retail & Grocers Association) from 1987 to the end of 2016. He was also the administrator of the Vermont Specialty Food Association. Those roles gave him a front row seat to the legislative process at the State House where he was a respected voice for association members. He graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science and has an MBA from New Hampshire College. Mr. Harrison is a past Chairman of the Food Industry Association Executives, a past trustee and treasurer of the Vermont Foodbank and a former board member of the Green Mountain Credit Union. He serves as Treasurer for the Friends of Chittenden Public Library, is a member of the Chittenden Historical Society and a member of the scholarship selection committee for VRGA. |
He and his wife, Pat, live in North Chittenden, VT. They have two adult children and five adorable grandsons.
He is honored to serve residents of Chittenden, Killington, Mendon & Pittsfield as their state representative and looks forward to helping bring positive change to the region and state. For Jim Harrison's website - click here. |
Chris Brown
for State Representative
As Vermonters, we cherish our independence, our heritage, and our way of life. We believe in limited government, personal responsibility, and economic freedom. Chris Brown is dedicated to preserving these timeless Vermont values and fighting for the interests as his hometown's voice in Montpelier.
For Chris Brown's website click here.
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Kevin C. Winter
s a Ludlow resident of 25 years and a 2024 candidate for the Vermont House of Representatives for the Ludlow, Mt. Holly and Shrewsbury district. Kevin was born in St. Louis, Missouri, is the oldest of four children and by the age of four had moved 4 times following his father’s career with IBM. Kevin enjoyed his high school years working part time and was a “jack of all sports” (except basketball). After high school he graduated from Alfred University with a BS in Engineering and enjoyed exhilarating success in his 45 year career in corporate Manufacturing and Sales for GE, UTC, Teco-Westinghouse, Airgas, Kalow and others and also understands the hardships and challenges of lack of work during times of economic downturns. Kevin is now retired and happily married 41 years, has three successful adult children and seven grandchildren. Earlier in their lives two of Kevin’s sons were addicted to opioids and are now clean and sober many years through rehabilitation and free by God’s Grace. They are now productive and loving husbands. Kevin was on a NY school board for 11 years when his children were young and is an Elder in his local church for over 20 years now. Kevin’s unique life experiences have equipped him to understand the economic needs of all Vermonters including businesses and those struggling to make ends meet. He has keen personal insight into how to help Vermonters with the current drug addiction crisis and a solid understanding of school funding and operations to tackle Vermont’s failing educational system. |
Kevin’s unique life experiences have equipped him to understand the economic needs of all Vermonters including businesses and those struggling to make ends meet. He has keen personal insight into how to help Vermonters with the current drug addiction crisis and a solid understanding of school funding and operations to tackle Vermont’s failing educational system.
Kevin is a constitutional originalist and wants to preserve individual liberties embodied especially in the 1st and 2nd Amendments and will bring balance back to the Legislature on the excessive taxes and financial burdens on Vermonters that have been created by the current Democratic Super Majority in Montpelier. He looks forward to working with Governor Scott to make Vermont affordable. His desire is to live and lead in a virtuous loving manner helping others experience the abundant life he so cherishes. For his website - click here |
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