Vermont Progressive Party

This article is about the Vermont Progressive Party. For other uses, see Progressive Party (disambiguation).

Vermont Progressive Party
Chairman	Martha Abbott
Senate Leader	Tim Ashe
House Leader	Christopher Pearson
Founded	1999
Headquarters	73 Main Street, Suite 29, P.O. Box 281 Montpelier, VT 05601
Ideology	Progressivism Populism Social democracy Green politics Democratic Socialism
International affiliation	None
Official colors	Red
Political position	Fiscal: Center-left, Left Social: Center-left, Left
Seats in the State Senate	2 / 30
Seats in the State House	5 / 150
Website
www.progressiveparty.org
Politics of United States Political parties Elections

The Vermont Progressive Party is an American political party. It was founded in 1999 and is active only in the U.S. state of Vermont. In terms of the dominant two parties in the United States, it enjoys support from "traditional liberal" Democrats and working class Republicans. The party is largely social democratic and progressive. The Progressives received 9,470 votes (2.96% of the vote) in the 2010 Vermont House of Representatives Elections, and five seats, compared to the Democrats' 55.11% and 96 seats, the Republicans' 38.04% of the vote, and 46 seats. Independents received 3.81% and three seats.

History

The Vermont Progressive Party originated with the independent campaign of Bernie Sanders for mayor of Burlington, Vermont. Sanders, who was later elected to the United States House of Representatives, and subsequently to the United States Senate, never officially associated himself with the Progressive Party, although the Progressives were among his biggest supporters. A group of his supporters organized themselves as the Progressive Coalition to contest further elections.

The Coalition succeeded in electing several members, including Terry Bouricius, to the Vermont General Assembly, and, after establishing a stable political base, formally became the Progressive Party. While the party has traditionally focused on state races, in 2000 it nominated Ralph Nader for president and Winona LaDuke for vice-president. In the 2004 elections the party picked up three new seats; it now has five representatives in the Vermont House of Representatives, making it the only third party in the United States to have more than one state legislature seat, excluding states that allow electoral fusion (primarily New York), a process in which candidates can appear on the ballot as the nominee of more than one party.^{[citation needed]}

In the run up to the Senate election in 2006, there were pressures from numerous Democratic politicians to convince the Progressive Party not to run a candidate for Vermont's sole seat in the House in exchange for Democratic support for Bernie Sanders in the Senate race. The party's chairman, Anthony Pollina, told the press his party was not going to make deals. David Zuckerman, a Progressive Party member of the state House of Representatives and Chair of the House Agriculture committee, was planning to run for Vermont's House seat. However, in early 2006, Zuckerman canceled his bid for Congress, leaving the race open to Democrat Peter Welch, who won the election.

In the Burlington mayoral election on March 7, 2006, voters chose Progressive Bob Kiss, a three term member of the state House of Representatives, over opponents Hinda Miller (Democrat) and Kevin Curley (Republican). He was reelected to a second term in 2009.

Platform

The Progressive Party encompasses a social-democratic and populist platform. The party's main focus has historically been advocacy for a single-payer health care system, which has recently come to fruition through the implementation of Green Mountain Care, a single payer health care program being pushed by Democratic Governor Peter Shumlin, due to pressure from the Progressive Party. Other major policy platforms are renewable energy programs such as a high-speed rail system and a phase-out of nuclear energy, prison reforms to reduce the state's prison population and better protect convict's rights, proposes 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, an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and opposes all preemptive strikes. The party is very supportive of LGBT rights, and members of the party were involved in the legalization of gay marriage in the state.

Economically, the party also calls for converting the minimum wage to a living wage, 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 all trade to be subject to international standards on human rights. The party is also critical of privatization.

Elected officials

Vermont Senate

• Tim Ashe, Chittenden, with 5 others, 4 (D's) and 1 (R)

• Anthony Pollina, Washington, with 2 others, 1 (D) and 1 (R)

Vermont House of Representatives

• Mollie S. Burke, Windham-3-2, single member district
• Susan Hatch Davis, Orange-1, with Philip Winters-(R)
• Sarah Edwards, Windham-3-3, single member district
• Sandy Haas, Windsor-Rutland-2, single member district
• Chris Pearson, Chittenden-3-4, with Kesha Ram-(D)

Local government

• Mayor of Burlington Bob Kiss
• Burlington City Council
  • Vincent Brennan (Ward 3, Elected in special election November 4, 2010 to replace Marissa Caldwell. Term will last until next city-wide election, March 2011.)
  • Emma Mulvaney-Stanak (Ward 3)
• Ward Clerk
  • Wendy Coe (Ward 2)
  • Julia Curry (Ward 3)
  • Linda Ayer (Ward 6)

• Select Boards and other town officials
  • The party also has a significant amount of its members elected to local town governments and appointed to serve as town officials. However, in Vermont these elections are non-partisan; no party name appears before their names on election ballots or during an appointment process.

Sources

^ Burlington Free Press article "House committee OKs recognition of Progressives", February 19, 2005, page 5B.

External links

• Official website
• Article on the Vermont Progressive Party from The Progressive Populist