Waterbury’s House district gets a primary contest
June 6, 2024 | By Lisa ScagliottiTwo familiar faces and two newcomers have filed to get on the August state primary ballot as candidates for the Vermont House seats representing Waterbury.
Candidates for the Washington-Chittenden House district primary: First-time candidates Elizabeth Brown, a Democrat, and Republican Jonathan Griffin; incumbent Democratic Reps. Tom Stevens and Theresa Wood. Courtesy photos / Glenn Russell, VTDigger.org
Incumbent Democratic state Reps. Tom Stevens and Theresa Wood of Waterbury are both seeking re-election. They now have one challenger in the Democratic primary: Elizabeth Brown, who was recently appointed to fill one of the four seats representing Waterbury on the Harwood Unified Union School Board.
The top two vote-getters in that contest will be on the November ballot as Democratic contenders.
Stevens was first elected in 2008 and is seeking his ninth term in the House. He chairs the House Committee on General and Housing.
Appointed to her House seat in 2015, Wood has been elected to four consecutive terms since. She chairs the House Committee on Human Services and serves on several other committees including the Joint Fiscal Committee.
With a background in banking and finance, Brown describes in her campaign announcement how she’s watched the legislative process closely over recent years and decided to run with a particular interest in the issues of “education, housing, affordability.”
With no competition on the Republican primary ballot, first-time candidate Jonathan Griffin, also of Waterbury, is likely to land on the November ballot. Griffin is an engineer with the Vermont Agency of Transportation. In 2021 he was named VTrans Vermont Young Engineer of the Year.
The two-seat Washington-Chittenden House district represents Waterbury, Bolton, Huntington and Buel’s Gore.
Thursday, May 30, was the deadline for candidates for statewide offices and the state Legislature this year to file with the Vermont Secretary of State.
Washington-2 House district
The other local House district has attracted just two Democratic candidates so far: incumbent Rep. Dara Torre of Moretown filed to seek a second term and Waitsfield newcomer Candice White is running for the other seat. Incumbent Rep. Kari Dolan, D-Waitsfield, is not seeking re-election.
They are running in the Washington-2 House district which covers Duxbury, Fayston, Moretown, Waitsfield and Warren. Torre is a member of the House Environment and Energy Committee. White has worked in corporate marketing and communications. She has a communications consulting practice and is a freelance writer.
Both Torre and White have shared campaign announcements in the Waterbury Roundabout Opinion section.
Washington Senate district
Candidates for the Washington state Senate district: Incumbent Democrats Ann Cummings, Andrew Perchlik, Anne Watson and Republican candidate Donald Koch. Courtesy photos
For the state Senate, the three Democratic senators representing the region have all filed to run for re-election: Sens. Ann Cummings, Andrew Perchlik and Anne Watson.
The Washington Senate district covers all of the communities in Washington County along with Stowe in Lamoille County and the towns of Orange and Braintree in Orange County.
Cummings and Watson are both Montpelier residents and former Montpelier mayors. The chair of the Senate Finance Committee, Cummings is seeking her 14th term. She also serves on the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs.
Seeking her second term, Watson is vice chair of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy and serves on the Senate Government Operations Committee as well.
Perchlik, who lives in Marshfield, is running for a fourth term. He chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, is vice chair of the Appropriations Committee and serves on the Senate Rules Committee.
Both Perchlik and Watson have run in the General Election on the Progressive Party ticket as well as having the Democratic Party nomination.
A first-time Republican candidate has also filed for the Washington Senate district primary: Donald T. Koch of Barre Town. Koch has worked as a truck driver for 20 years, running his own independent business for the past decade. He says he is now returning to his family farm in East Barre and would like to serve in the state legislature.
All four names are likely to be on the November General Election ballot given that the top three vote-getters in each primary contest advance to the November election.
Candidates looking to run as Independents have until Aug. 8 to register with the Secretary of State to get on the Nov. 5 ballot as well. According to the Secretary of State’s office, a candidate may file as both an Independent and in a party primary, deciding after the primary which designation they prefer for the General Election.
State Democrats honor Stevens and Schlegel
Just ahead of the primary filing deadline, the Vermont Democratic Party held its annual fundraising and awards gathering where it honored Waterbury state Rep. Stevens along with his spouse Liz Schlegel, who is active in local Democratic Party organizing.
On May 17, they were presented with 2024 Curtis-Hoff Awards, which recognize party members for their leadership and service in the example of former party leaders David W. Curtis and former Vermont Gov. Philip H. Hoff. Winning his first term in 1962, Hoff made history as Vermont’s first Democratic governor of the 20th century. He served until 1969. Curtis, who died in 1999, was a former Vermont Democratic Party chair, lawyer and state legislator known for his advocacy for the poor and disadvantaged.
A third Curtis-Hoff Award was given posthumously to former South Burlington state Rep. Louvenia Dorsey Bright, Vermont’s first Black woman to serve in the legislature. Bright died in 2023 at the age of 81 in Illinois. Elected in 1988, she served three terms in the Vermont House.
The dinner’s keynote speaker was California Congressman Ro Khanna of Fremont in California’s 17th district in Silicon Valley. The Curtis-Hoff Leadership Awards Dinner kicks off the biennial campaign season and proceeds support Democratic Party candidates.
Candidate campaign announcements are posted in the Roundabout Opinion section which will be updated as more are submitted.