Democrats sweep Washington County Senate race

Nov. 10, 2022  |  By Eric Blaisdell  |  Times Argus Staff Writer 

Editor's note: This story was published originally in the Times Argus on Nov 9, 2022. 

MONTPELIER — Two incumbents and the mayor of Montpelier, all Democrats, have been elected to the three seats representing Washington County and the towns of Braintree, Orange and Stowe in the state Senate. 

According to the Vermont Secretary of State’s website, Democratic incumbent Ann Cummings received the most votes at 20,507, Democrat/Progressive Anne Watson finished second with 17,860 votes, and Democrat/Progressive incumbent Andrew Perchlik came in third with 16,521 votes. Republican Paul Bean, of Northfield, received 9,739 votes, Republican Dwayne Tucker, of Barre Town, received 8,377 votes, and Republican/Libertarian Dexter Lefavour, of Middlesex, received 4,932 votes. 

Cummings, Watson and Perchlik were elected to the three seats representing a district that had covered only Washington County until the latest legislative reapportionment added the three towns of Braintree, Orange and Stowe. Watson replaces Progressive Democrat Anthony Pollina who did not seek reelection. 

Ann Cummings. Courtesy photo

Anne Watson. Courtesy photo

Andrew Perchlik. Courtesy photo

Cummings is a former mayor of Montpelier and retired real estate agent who has now been elected to her 13th term. She said in a Wednesday interview she was grateful to the voters and appreciated their support.

 “I love working to make government work for people and it’s a privilege for me to be allowed to continue to do that,” Cummings said. 

She has served as the chair of the Senate Committee on Finance. Cummings said she’s assuming she’ll keep that position and there will be multiple issues to deal with. 

Cummings said one area of focus will be if the state should change from a property tax-based system for education funding to an income-based system. She said a report on that idea should come out during the next session and she’ll see what the conclusions are. 

She said the state received a large amount of federal dollars in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Cummings said once that money is used up, the state will need to get back to its normal economic reality. 

“It’ll take members of the public and the advocacy community some time to really understand that. There are a lot of needs out there and we’re going to do our best to meet them,” she said.

Watson is the mayor of Montpelier, a position she was elected to in 2018, and a math teacher at Montpelier High School. 

She said in a Wednesday interview she is delighted to be elected and grateful for those who supported her. “I am just really looking forward to getting into the work,” she said. 

Watson, a parent with a young child, said she’s interested in working on the state’s child care crisis. She said she’s hopeful the Legislature can give families and child care workers some relief. 

She said she’s also interested in working on issues dealing with the climate. Watson said she wants to reexamine the clean heat standard. Gov. Phil Scott vetoed a bill earlier this year that would have reformed the state’s heat sector, citing concerns with the possible financial impacts such a standard could bring. 

Watson said she wants to see if it’s possible to make the standard easier and more affordable to help residents stop using oil. 

Perchlik, who was elected to a third term, is the director of the Vermont Clean Energy Development Fund and a Marshfield resident. 

He said in a Wednesday interview he’s excited to get elected again, and he was honored and humbled by the voters’ support. “I’m really looking forward to working with the other representatives and senators and the governor on how we can make Vermont better for everybody,” he said. 

Perchlik said this race was run “the way you want campaigns to be.” He said there was no divisiveness between the candidates and residents had three good Republicans running for the seats. “I’m glad that we can still show that democracy can work and people can disagree, but not be disagreeable,” he said. 

Perchlik said, in the Legislature, he will continue work on building a clean-energy economy. 

He said he also would like to look at increasing voter turnout. Every registered voter was mailed a ballot for this election, though it’s clear a significant portion of them opted not to submit that ballot. 

Perchlik said officials thought mailing ballots would make the process easier, but some residents just don’t vote. He said they don’t see how their vote impacts their lives, and they aren’t interested in casting a ballot. 

He said while it may be a good thing for some that they aren’t seeing government as so problematic that they have to vote, the apathy needs to be addressed and residents need to be given a reason to vote. 

Perchlik cited what Nevada does for its elections as something that could be done here, where a resident can vote for “none of the candidates” and still cast a ballot even if they don’t want to vote for who is running. 

He said if residents felt as if they had more than just the two choices from the two major political parties, they might show more interest in elections.

Email Blaisdell at eric.blaisdell@timesargus.com.