One Super Tuesday race to watch today is in Burlington, Vt., where if State Rep. Emma Mulvaney-Stanak prevails, she would become not only the city’s first female but first openly LGBTQ mayor.
“But it’s not the prospect of making history that is dominating the first open mayoral campaign in 12 years. It’s that this ultra-progressive city may be looking for more moderate leadership,” reports the Boston Globe:
The reasons are rooted in a growing perception of lawlessness. Gunfire, once rare, is more common. Drugs are sold openly and overdoses are spiking; a depleted police force and lenient criminal justice system seem unable to stem the tide. Rising homelessness is also grabbing voters’ attention. Some 250 people are sleeping on city streets, five times as many as just a year ago after a pandemic-era motel voucher system ended.
The Progressive Party, which controlled the City Council until the last few years, is on the defensive as critics charge that it has weakened law and order. And suddenly, in a city that once counted Bernie Sanders as its mayor and where being a Progressive with a capital P has always carried cachet, the Progressive mayoral candidate Emma Mulvaney-Stanak has had to defend her party’s policies like never before.
The Progressives’ biggest critic, mayoral rival and Democratic City Councilor Joan Shannon, is benefiting from a campaign heavily focused on public safety. …
In an interview, Shannon said she supports holding police accountable. But she accused the Progressive Party of creating hostility toward police officers, leading some to quit while making it harder to hire replacements.
Shannon, 59, who has served on the City Council for 20 years and works as a realtor, said the lack of officers, not rogue officers, is the real problem. The police and fire unions have endorsed her.
In many places, Shannon would be considered a progressive, with a small P.
“Only in Burlington could we be the right wing,” she said. “I have progressive goals, but I’m a pragmatist.”
In an interview, Mulvaney-Stanak, a state legislator, said that beyond policy differences, her identity “as a woman, a queer person, a mom with two small kids, brings a different perspective” than previous mayors.
Mulvaney-Stanak, 43, said it wasn’t the cuts but the speed with which they were implemented that caused upheaval. She said transitioning the Police Department away from all armed officers to a department with more unarmed social workers would take time and patience.
Mulvaney-Stanak avoids using the term public safety, preferring “community safety,” which she says describes her holistic approach.
“Joan is framing this as more police,” she said. “For me, it has to be much more comprehensive.”
Read the complete Boston Globe story here.
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