Vermont Progressive Party | |
---|---|
Chairperson | Anthony Pollina |
Secretary | John Christopher Brimmer |
Vice Chair | Marielle Blais |
Treasurer | Robert Millar |
House Leader | Selene Colburn |
Founded | 1981 March 1999 (state major party) | (coalition)
Split from | Liberty Union Party Democratic Party |
Preceded by | Citizens Party Progressive Party |
Headquarters | Montpelier, Vermont |
Youth wing | Progressive Youth Caucus |
Ideology | Democratic socialism [1] [2] [3] Social democracy [4] Progressivism Environmentalism |
Political position | Left-wing [5] |
Colors | Red |
Statewide Offices | 2 / 6 |
Seats in the State Senate | 1 / 30 |
Seats in the State House | 5 / 150 |
Elected County Judges | 1 / 42 |
Countywide Offices | 1 / 42 |
Mayorships [lower-alpha 1] | 1 / 8 |
Seats on the Burlington City Council | 4 / 12 |
Local offices | 19 (2021) [6] |
Website | |
progressiveparty | |
The Vermont Progressive Party, formerly the Progressive Coalition, is a progressive political party in the United States founded in 1999 and active only in the state of Vermont. As of 2023, the party has one member in the Vermont Senate and five members in the Vermont House of Representatives, as well as several more affiliated legislators who caucus with the Democratic Party. [7] [8] After the Democratic and Republican parties, the Progressive Party has the highest number of seats in state and national offices for any organized political party in the country.
The Vermont Progressive Party originated in the early 1980s with the successful independent campaign of Bernie Sanders for mayor of Burlington (prior to being elected mayor Sanders was a leader in the Vermont Liberty Union Party). Sanders, who was later elected to the House of Representatives [9] and subsequently to the Senate, [10] and who co-founded the Congressional Progressive Caucus, never officially associated himself with the Progressive Party due to the fact it was only organized at the state level and not nationally, although the Progressives were among his biggest supporters. A group of Sanders's supporters, the "Progressive Coalition" as they had come to be known, as well as former members of the dissolved Citizens Party, organized themselves during his final term as mayor to contest future elections within the city as well as other parts of the state. [11]
Progressive Peter A. Clavelle was elected Mayor of Burlington in 1989 and served seven terms. After winning his first term, he remained in office until 1993 when he lost his re-election bid after giving domestic partners of city employees full benefits. Clavelle returned to the mayor's office two years later in 1995, continuing to hold the position until 2006, when he was succeeded by Progressive State Representative Bob Kiss.
The coalition succeeded in electing several members, including Terry Bouricius in 1990, to the Vermont General Assembly, and formally became the Progressive Party after establishing a stable political base following the 1998 elections. [12] In the 2004 elections, the party picked up three new seats and then had five representatives in the Vermont House of Representatives. [13]
By the 2012 elections the party had several members of the legislature and a candidate elected to statewide office, as well as dozens of local office holders around the state.
Year | Gubernatorial nominee | Votes | % |
---|---|---|---|
2000 | Anthony Pollina | 28,116 | 9.58% |
2002 | Michael Badamo | 1,380 | 0.60% |
2004 | Martha Abbott | Dropped out before election | |
2006 | No candidate | ||
2008 | Anthony Pollina | 69,791 | 21.87% |
2010 | Martha Abbott | Dropped out before election | |
2012 | Martha Abbott | Dropped out before election | |
2014 | No candidate | ||
2016 | No candidate | ||
2018 | No candidate | ||
2020 | David Zuckerman | 99,214 | 27.35% |
2022 | Brenda Siegel | 68,248 | 23.38% |
Year | Seats | Seat change | Votes | % |
---|---|---|---|---|
2016 | ||||
2018 | 7 | 21,420 | 5.98% | |
2020 | 7 | 20,362 | 4.2% | |
2022 | 5 | 2 | 9,740 | 2.6% |
2024 |
The Progressive Party encompasses a progressive platform. The party's main focus has historically been advocacy for a single-payer health care system, which has recently made great strides with the implementation of Green Mountain Care, a health care program that was pushed by Democratic Governor Peter Shumlin due to pressure from the Progressive Party. Other major policy platforms are renewable energy programs and a phase-out of nuclear energy, public transportation proposals including one for a high-speed rail system, criminal justice reforms directed at reducing the state's prison population and better protecting convicts' rights, the creation of programs to end homelessness in the state, ending the War on Drugs and repealing No Child Left Behind and ending the focus on standardized testing in the school system. The party also has an anti-war stance, advocating for Vermont's national guard to be restricted from engaging in war zones outside the United States, an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and opposition to all preemptive wars, strikes, or other offensive or interventionist military actions. The party is very supportive of LGBT rights and members of the party were involved in the legalization of same-sex marriage in the state.
Economically, the party also calls for converting the minimum wage to a living wage and having it tied to inflation rates, having the economy focus on small and local businesses, empowerment of worker cooperatives and publicly owned companies as democratic alternatives to multi-national corporations and to decentralize the economy, for the strengthening of state law to protect the right to unionize, for implementing a progressive income tax and repealing the Capital Gains Tax Exemption and residential education property tax, and for all trade to be subject to international standards on human rights. The party is also critical of privatization. [14]
Vermont House of Representatives
The current chair of the party's State Committee is State Senator and former Gubernatorial nominee and Congressional candidate Anthony Pollina, and the current vice-chair, Marielle Blais, was first elected in 2019. Secretary Chris Brimmer, also the Chair of the Caledonia County Committee, has served since 2009. The current Treasurer is Robert Millar, who briefly served as Acting Chair in 2001, and Assistant Treasurer Martha Abbott previously served as Treasurer and twice as chair. After being in the position of Acting Chair while the State Committee was not formalized, Heather Riemer served as the party's first chair at its formation as a statewide party in 1999. The position of executive director was added in 2011, and since 2015 has been the party's only paid staff, and has been occupied by Joshua Wronski. Current Treasurer Robert Millar previously served as executive director from 2011 to 2015. [18] [19] [20]
# | Name | Term |
---|---|---|
- | Heather Riemer Acting | 1995–1999 |
1 | Heather Riemer | 1999–2001 |
- | Robert Millar Acting | 2001 |
2 | Martha Abbott | 2001–2005 |
3 | Marrisa S. Caldwell | 2005–2007 |
4 | Anthony Pollina | 2007–2009 |
5 | Martha Abbott | 2009–2013 |
6 | Emma Mulvaney-Stanak | 2013–2017 |
7 | Anthony Pollina | 2017–present |
Bob Kiss is an American politician and former mayor of Burlington, Vermont. Kiss was a member of the Vermont House of Representatives from January 2001 until he stepped down to assume office as mayor of Burlington, following his election to that office in March 2006. He is a member of the Vermont Progressive Party. Kiss won re-election in 2009, and was endorsed by Vermont's Independent U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. In November 2011, Kiss announced that he would not seek re-election in the 2012 Burlington mayoral election.
Anthony Pollina is an American politician who has served as Chair of the Vermont Progressive Party since 2017, and was as a member of the Vermont Senate from 2011 to 2023.
Elections in Vermont are authorized under Chapter II of the Vermont State Constitution, articles 43–49, which establishes elections for the state level officers, cabinet, and legislature. Articles 50–53 establish the election of county-level officers.
Timothy R. Ashe is an American politician who ran for a wide range of political offices in Vermont and served as a Democrat/Progressive in the Vermont State Senate from Chittenden County from 2009 to 2021 and as President pro tempore of the Vermont Senate from 2017 until 2021.
Terrill G. Bouricius is an American politician who served in the Vermont House of Representatives from the Chittenden-7-4 district from 1991 to 2001, as a member of the Vermont Progressive Party. Prior to his tenure in the state house, he served on the city council in Burlington, Vermont, from 1981 to 1991, from the 2nd district, and served as president of the city council.
Vermont's 2012 general elections were held on November 6, 2012. Primary elections were held on August 28, 2012.
Dean Russel Corren was an American politician and scientist who served in the Vermont House of Representatives from the Chittenden 7-3 district from 1993 to 2000, as an independent and member of the Progressive Coalition. He unsuccessfully ran for lieutenant governor of Vermont in 2014. Corren was the third member of the Progressive Party elected to the state legislature.
The 2016 Vermont gubernatorial election took place on November 8, 2016, and elected the governor of Vermont, concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
The 2022 United States Senate election in Vermont was held on November 8, 2022, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the state of Vermont. It was held concurrently with U.S. Senate elections in other states, along with elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections across the country. The incumbent senator, Democrat Patrick Leahy, announced on November 15, 2021, that he would not seek re-election to a ninth term, leaving the seat open for the first time since 1974.
The 2018 Vermont Senate election took place as part of the biennial United States elections. Vermont voters elected State Senators in all 30 seats. State senators serve two-year terms in the Vermont Senate. A primary election on August 14, 2018, determined which candidates appeared on the November 6 general election ballot.
Peter C. Brownell is an American politician who served as the 39th Mayor of Burlington, Vermont. Prior to his tenure as mayor he was active in local politics with him serving on the school board and the city council. After his tenure as mayor he served in the Vermont Senate. He is the most recent Republican elected as mayor of Burlington.
The 2022 United States House of Representatives election in Vermont was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the U.S. representative from Vermont's at-large congressional district. The election coincided with other elections to the House of Representatives, elections to the U.S. Senate, as well as various other state and local elections.
The 2021 Burlington mayoral election was held on March 2, 2021. Incumbent Democratic Mayor Miro Weinberger defeated Progressive nominee Max Tracy, independent Ali Dieng, and various other minor candidates. Weinberger's victory by 129 votes was the smallest margin of victory in Burlington's mayoral elections since Bernie Sanders' ten vote victory in 1981.
Selene Colburn is an American politician currently serving in the Vermont House of Representatives from the Chittenden-6-4 district since 2017 as a member of the Vermont Progressive Party. Prior to her tenure in the State House, she served on the city council in Burlington, Vermont. She is the first female chair of the House Progressive Caucus.
On March 7, 2006 a mayoral election was held in Burlington, Vermont, United States. Incumbent Mayor Peter Clavelle declined to seek reelection and Progressive nominee Bob Kiss was elected to succeed him.
Emma Mulvaney-Stanak is an American politician who serves in the Vermont House of Representatives from the Chittenden-17 district as a member of the Vermont Progressive Party. Prior to her tenure in the state house she served on the city council in Burlington, Vermont, and as chair of the Vermont Progressive Party.
The 2022 Vermont lieutenant gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the lieutenant governor of the state of Vermont. The election coincided with various other federal and state elections, including for Governor of Vermont. Primary elections were held on August 9. Vermont is one of 21 states that elects its lieutenant governor separately from its governor.
The 2022 Vermont Senate election took place on November 8, 2022, as part of the biennial United States elections. The election coincided with elections for other offices including the U.S. Senate, U.S. House, Governor, and State House. Vermont voters elected all 30 state senators from 16 districts, with each district electing between one and three senators. State senators serve two-year terms in the Vermont Senate. Primary elections were held on August 9, 2022. This election will be the first to use new districts adopted by the Vermont General Assembly to allocate for population changes across the state after the 2020 census.
The 2016 Vermont Senate election took place as part of the biennial United States elections. Vermont voters elected State Senators in all 30 seats. State senators serve two-year terms in the Vermont Senate. The election coincided with elections for other offices including the Presidency, U.S. Senate, U.S. House, Governor, and State House. A primary election held on August 9, 2016 determined which candidates appeared on the November 6 general election ballot.
The 2014 Vermont Senate election took place as part of the biennial United States elections. Vermont voters elected State Senators in all 30 seats. State senators serve two-year terms in the Vermont Senate. The election coincided with elections for other offices including the U.S. House, Governor, and State House. A primary election held on August 26, 2014 determined which candidates appeared on the November 4 general election ballot.
The Vermont Progressive Party is a competitive third party that currently provides a visible democratic socialist presence in the state's politics.
We believe the economy should be democratically owned and controlled
In addition, some notable examples of social democratic third-party success at the subnational level are the Socialist Party in Oklahoma in the 1920s and 1930s, the Non-Partisan League in North Dakota, the Washington Co-operative Commonwealth in Washington State, the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party, and the current Vermont Progressive Party, which has relationship with the Democratic Party.
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