The 1990 United States House of Representatives election in Vermont was held on Tuesday, November 6, 1990 to elect the U.S. representative from the state's at-large congressional district. The election coincided with the elections of other federal and state offices.
Smith, a liberal Republican, was considered to have acquitted himself well in his first congressional term, and The Washington Post noted that under most circumstances he would have been considered safely assured of re-election.[5] However, the presence of Sanders, who was well known in Vermont and who was considered more famous than Smith, meant that he faced a tough re-election battle.[5] Sanders, a democratic socialist, had narrowly lost to Smith in 1988, which was widely attributed to the presence of a strong Democratic candidate in the form of Vermont House Majority Leader Paul N. Poirier.[5] No such event occurred during the 1990 cycle, as the Democratic nominee, Professor Dolores Sandoval, held positions to the left of Sanders on several issues, with her advocating for the legalisation of heroin.[5][6]
Despite this, Smith had an advantage in the polls until March 1990, when he backed a series of bills designed to alleviate the Savings and loan crisis, including a bailout bill and a bill that cut funding for social programs.[7] Sanders used Smith's support for these plans to tie him to President George H. W. Bush, who was unpopular in Vermont,[7] and to portray him as overly supportive of the rich.[8] Smith also faced backlash from voters for his support for extensive restrictions on guns, which earned him the enmity of several gun rights organizations. These organizations turned to Sanders as the only viable alternative even though his positions on guns were not radically different from Smith's.[6] Feeling that he was losing ground in the race, Smith ran an ad campaign attempting to tie Sanders to left-wing authoritarian regimes such as Cuba, and attacking him for his self-declared democratic socialist views.[7] This decision backfired, as Smith's tactics were denounced as "red-baiting" and "McCarthyism" in the press, and many Smith backers voiced their displeasure with the campaign.[7]
^Tuesday, March 20, 1990, Bernard Sanders, 48, returns to the political battlefield as he tells a Montpelier news conference he will challenge U.S. Representative Peter Smith, Republican of Vermont, for the state's lone House seat. Sanders decides to eschew a possible run for governor following Governor Madeleine Kunin's decision to step down after three terms. "This campaign for Congress is about hope," he says. "It is saying to the people of Vermont, especially the working people, the elderly people, environmentalists, peace activists, people who year after year feel that they've been knocking their heads against Washington: 'Please don't give up.'" http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/politics/2015/05/26/sanders-begin-political-revolution/27991467/
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