Candidate forum reveals wide range of views in Washington-Chittenden House race
Oct. 26, 2022 | By Community News Service and Waterbury Roundabout 
Candidates participate in the forum carried on ORCA Media online and on its YouTube channel. Screenshot
There was no universal agreement on any issue discussed recently at a forum featuring the four contenders for the two seats in the Washington-Chittenden legislative race.
Two incumbents and two challengers are vying to represent Waterbury, Bolton, Huntington and Buel’s Gore in the House of Representatives. They participated in a candidate forum on Oct. 11 hosted by The Bridge newspaper from Montpelier and Orca Media community television.
The hour-long discussion was hosted by The Bridge contributor Linda Radtke, a former Harwood Union High School teacher. The recording is available to watch online at Orca Media.
Linda Radtke from The Bridge newspaper in Montpelier hosts the panel discussion. Screenshot
The collaboration produced multiple forums including one with five of the six candidates for the three seats in the Washington 1 Senate district. Other House races are included along with candidates for lieutenant governor and secretary of state.
In the Washington-Chittenden contest, the candidates are: incumbent state Reps. Tom Stevens and Theresa Wood, both Democrats from Waterbury. A Waterbury resident since 1996, Stevens is seeking an eighth term; Wood, a lifelong Vermonter, is running for her fourth term after being appointed in 2015 to succeed Rebecca Ellis.
Stevens chairs the House Committee on General, Housing and Military Affairs; Wood is vice chair of the House Committee on Human Services.
The challengers are Independent William McGorry of Bolton and Republican Kathi Tarrant of Waterbury, both first-time candidates in Vermont.
A resident of Bolton for the past 22 years, McGorry said he previously held elected office for four years on the town council in Westport, Connecticut, and he worked as a clerk for the Insurance and Real Estate Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly. He presently owns a commercial building in St. Albans with a laundromat and leases space to two other tenants.
In Vermont for the past 30 years, Tarrant said she has lived in the Mad River Valley and now makes her home in Waterbury where she works as a professional musician and private music teacher.
Bolton resident William McGorry is an Independent candidate for the Washington-Chittenden House district. Screenshot
State Rep. Tom Stevens, D-Waterbury, is running for re-election to his eighth term. Screenshot
Waterbury resident Kathi Tarrant is a Republican candidate for the Washington-Chittenden House district. Screenshot
State Rep. Theresa Wood, D-Waterbury, is running for re-election to her fourth full term. Screenshot
One hour, eight questions
The forum posed eight questions and included closing statements from the candidates. They directed their answers to the moderator as it was not a debate format.
Questions ranged from open-ended inquiries on issues such as climate change and housing and specific questions including the ballot item that would amend the Vermont state Constitution adding Article 22 to protect reproductive rights.
The latter question offered a good example of the range of views the candidates hold.
Tarrant, who has engaged the community at some length on Front Porch Forum in discussions on the proposed amendment, emphasized that she’s opposed. She claimed that “90% of Vermonters do not think Article 22 is a good idea,” adding that it is “so much more extreme than Roe v. Wade,” the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion and was the law of the land until the high court overturned it in June.
The national decision landed as Vermont nears the end of a lengthy process to amend the state Constitution on the issue. The so-called Proposition 5/Article 22 has been approved by lawmakers in two biennium sessions and moved forward by Gov. Phil Scott to put to the voters for the final say on the Nov. 8 ballot.
“Why should the taxpayers have to pay for somebody’s abortion?” Tarrant asked. “I just have a problem with that.” She also criticized the amendment’s language. “It’s all just lawyer talk. It’s not very clear — it’s vague.”
Speaking next, Stevens pushed back on Tarrant’s statistics. “I totally support Article 22,” he said, noting that a recent poll showed that “70% of Vermonters support Article 22 and that’s been the case since this [process] was started over four years ago.”
Stevens said it was misinformation to claim the measure would lead to abortions at nine months of pregnancy. “This is putting into the Constitution the right of this choice to be between an individual and their doctor,” he said. “And it will prevent the Legislature from easily passing anything that denies that right of those individuals.”
He listed the steps involved in the amendment process. “Changing the Constitution is not a simple thing to do,” he said. “I’m looking forward to seeing it pass in November.”
Wood agreed with Stevens, noting that she voted for the amendment when it was before lawmakers and pointed out that the final say is with the public. “Voters have a right in this state and an obligation to vote on a Constitutional amendment,” she said. “I want to keep this very simple: What Proposition 5 or Article 22 does is to indicate to all individuals that government should not have the right to interfere in your personal health care decisions. Period.”
McGorry was less direct. “I’m not 100% sure on Article 22. I’m a male, not a female. I don’t have the sensibilities of what that would do to a female. How would it change their life, etc.?” he said.
“I'm personally against abortion, but I don't think I have the right to tell anyone what to do with their body. I probably would abstain from any type of telling people that they can't do this or that with their body. But I certainly don't like the idea of a third-trimester abortion or whatever… I think an individual has a right to their own body and their own decision – just as I think people have the right to choose a vaccine or not to be vaccinated.”
The candidates on climate change
A question on climate change brought another range of opinions. When asked whether they would support more steps to limit carbon emissions in Vermont, McGorry replied first saying he supports people moving to electric vehicles but he’s concerned about “getting carried up in a green wave.” He said he favors making changes in energy technology “responsibly and slowly.”
“There was an ice age 10,000 years ago – that was certainly a climate change,” he said. “In 1816 … Mt. Tambora went off and there was no summer that year. That was certainly climate change. I do believe in it, but I don’t believe in it at the extreme that I see other people believe in it.”
Tarrant questioned the public debate around climate change. “I think there’s a lot of scare tactics when it comes to the green issue and I think there’s a lot of people trying to make money from it, quite honestly.” Tarrant said she opposes a system of carbon credits that she believes will hurt energy companies. The issue, she said, “needs to be reframed.”
“What causes climate change has to do with the moon and the sun and the interaction,” she said. This is not being discussed... It’s a very big issue that we need to open it up and discuss more fully than it has been.”
Following Tarrant and McGorry, Wood and Stevens began their responses affirming the reality of climate change.
“The first thing that I want to say is that climate change is real,” Wood said.
She brought up Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 and other severe weather events since that have impacted Vermont and noted that the Legislature has prioritized infrastructure spending for communities to be more resilient in the face of drastic weather events. Lawmakers also passed legislation to prevent fragmentation of forests to offset carbon in the atmosphere, she said.
Wood also pushed back on the issue of carbon taxes. “I want to say unequivocally that the Legislature has not passed a carbon tax. The Clean Heat Standard which is maybe being referred to did not have a carbon tax in it.” Addressing climate change will take many steps over many years, Wood said. “There is no quick solution to this.”
Stevens echoed Wood by saying, “Unequivocally, climate change is real. It's been affecting Vermont for a very long time… We’ve actually been very slow in addressing this.”
Evidence of climate change is commonplace all over the world in severe weather and continuing trends of warming temperatures, Stevens noted. In Vermont, the biggest contributor to carbon emissions is our reliance on personal vehicles for transportation, and, he pointed out, “We don’t have great public transportation.”
The next steps must involve investments, he said. “We know where the answers lie, and we need to have the will to start working on this.”
Guns
The candidates were asked about their thoughts on a ban or more regulation of assault-style weapons as well as on devices to increase firing power.
McGorry said he could support restrictions on high-capacity ammunition and assault-style weapons. “I don’t see any real reason to have a magazine of 50 rounds to go out and hunt deer,” he said.
Noting that an assault-weapons ban would be a federal measure, Stevens said he would support licenses for gun owners. “We license for automobiles. We license for cosmeticians,” Stevens said. “There should be some responsibility when you are exercising your Second Amendment right to the rest of society to say you know how to use this weapon.”
Tarrant said she “whole-heartedly” supports the Second Amendment and would oppose any measure to restrict gun ownership. “As a woman I should be able to protect myself and for somebody to tell me how I can or cannot do that – I don’t think it’s really their place,” she said, adding that “fear tactics” guide that debate. “What constitutes an assault weapon? It can be a knife. There’s more knife deaths per year than guns.”
Wood said she believes support for the Second Amendment can co-exist with support for “common-sense gun legislation.” Laws should consider the impact of guns in circumstances such as domestic violence and suicide, she said.
Election security
On the topic of election security, Stevens and Wood expressed support for and confidence in Vermont’s election system, including steps taken during the pandemic to expand voting by mail.
“We’ve made voting more accessible to more Vermonters than ever,” Wood said. “Vermont has been cited as being one of the most effective states in running its voting process.”
Stevens agreed. “There are states across the country that are trying to deny people the right to vote. I’m really proud Vermont is getting there and getting a way for us to vote at a higher level than we ever have done in the past and doing it securely.”
Tarrant criticized voting by mail, particularly the new law that automatically sends voters ballots in the mail. “In my estimation, voting by mail is very susceptible to fraud,” she said, offering examples of friends who have moved and still received ballots at old addresses. She voiced concern over whether individuals other than the voter sent a ballot might use them.
McGorry said he thinks Vermont should require showing identification in order to vote. “Our vote is one of the most important things in our government. If you go into a liquor store, you got show i.d. You get on welfare, you have to show i.d.,” he said. “Everywhere you have to show i.d. except at the ballot box. I think it certainly warrants matching a person to a ballot.”
Signing off
Other questions sought the candidates’ views on funding public education, how to spend cannabis taxes and housing.
The forum ended giving candidates a chance to speak directly to viewers.
Stevens asked for people’s votes. “What I think I bring to this position is experience, it’s leadership, and it’s commitment to doing the work that’s in front of us in the best way I know how,” he said, reminding viewers that the committee he chairs deals with a diverse range of “everyday Vermont issues… including housing, including affordability, wages, and the ability to make it here in Vermont.”
Wood called serving in the Legislature an honor and a responsibility that she takes very seriously. “It’s an honor to be able to represent your constituents and your communities and to do that in a way that’s respectful of the diversity of opinions that there are,” she said. “We represent everyone in our communities, not just the people who agree with us on a particular issue…. We work across the aisle – Republicans, Independents, Progressives, Democrats – we are all working there for the same thing and that’s to improve the lives of Vermonters and improve Vermont as a state that we all want to live in.”
McGorry returned to an issue topic first. “I do think the environment is a problem. I don’t want to get caught up on a green wave. I want to do things responsibly,” he said, reiterating concerns about how European countries have changed their energy consumption. “I want to have a plan B.”
He also reminded the audience that he’s not part of a major party. “I’m running as an Independent and it is because Democrats and Republicans are at each other's throats.”
Tarrant said in her 30 years in Vermont, she’s seen the state become “a harder place for Vermonters to live to support themselves and their families.”
“This is largely the result of politicians we’ve been sending to Montpelier,” she said. “They’re disconnected from the day-to-day needs of their constituents. Vermonters deserve better representation at the State House that is more reflective of their wants and needs and not based on the parlance of special interest groups or lobbyists.”
The recording of the forum can be viewed online at ORCA Media or its YouTube channel.