Politics

Brattleboro Town Schoolboard will hold a pre-town meeting information forum on Wednesday, March 22 at Academy School beginning at 6:30 PM in the Music Room. At 6:00 p.m., town meeting members of each district will be available to meet with constituents to offer residents an opportunity to share their views and discuss articles to be voted on at the annual meeting. Also, at that time, Districts 1 and 2 will be accepting nominations to fill town meeting member vacancies for 1 year.

Good morning,

It’s Town Meeting Day in Vermont.

After watching President Trump’s first address to Congress, it occurred to me that he and his administration seemed similar to another recent administration, that of Bill Clinton.

Questions remaining at the end of the Selectboard Candidate Forum on BCTV were sent to the candidates. Here are the answers from Brandie Starr, candidate for the one year seat on the Brattleboro Selectboard.

Below is information that might be helpful to know for March 7th local elections.

Attached is a sample ballot from each of Brattleboro’s three districts. All districts’ ballots are the same except for Town Meeting Members for each district. Absentee ballots are currently available at the Town Clerk’s Office and may be requested until 5:00 pm on Monday, March 6.

Polling place for all three districts in Brattleboro is the Selectboard Meeting Room, second floor of the Municipal Center, 230 Main Street, Room 212, from 7:00 am until 7:00 pm on March 7, 2017.

The entire back parking lot at the Municipal Center will be reserved for voters on election day. There are handicapped parking spaces close to the back entrance.

A mile is four times around the track. Each lap can be seen as a year, with a full presidental term of office being a mile.

This administration, after four weeks out of the blocks, has covered a bit more than 100 ft. of that mile.  Pace wins races.

So far stiff headwinds, skipping lanes, some doping, and stalking horses doing their thing. Still holding rallies yet not out of the first turn (which seems weird, kind of like stretching after the race has started).

Any early indications or predictions of how this ends? 

We hope you enjoy this interview with Rich Holshuh regarding a Representative Town Meeting article advising Brattleboro change to Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

What question would you like Brattleboro to vote on?

To simply change the holiday observed on the second Tuesday in October from Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Why is this an issue for Brattleboro?

We hope you enjoy this interview with David Schoales, candidate for Brattleboro Selectboard.

Which seat are you running for, and why do you want to be on the Selectboard again?

I am running for the three year seat and I want to serve a few more years to help assure the good progress we made over the past four years continues as new members gradually replace us.

Give us your stump speech/qualifications…

I’ve served on a day care board, health center board, land trust board, school boards, union boards- lots of experience working with others to get things done that will help my neighbors. I’m a good listener, a strong advocate, I love learning new stuff, and I care a lot about what happens to people.

We hope you enjoy this interview with Davey Cadran, candidate for the Brattleboro Selectboard.

Which seat are you running for, and why do you want to be on the Selectboard?

I am currently running for one of the two open one-year seats on the Selectboard. I previously ran for the Selectboard and I believe that some of the issues facing the town then are still facing us now. Particularly around economic development and a pro-business atmosphere. I have had several conversations with business owners in the community who feel that the town is either outwardly against their business or suffering a form of complacency. They actually want the government to do more. You don’t often hear that from business owners.

Give us your stump speech/qualifications…

Brattleboro is an incredible town that suffers from a lack of good middle-class jobs. Go out and find someone in their late 20’s in this town and ask them what they do for work. They will often tell you that they have to string along multiple jobs just to get by.

A brief message from Hilary Francis, Town Clerk in Brattleboro:

“Avery Schwenk has withdrawn his candidacy for the one year Selectboard seat.”

We hope you enjoy this interview with Tim Wessel, candidate for the Brattleboro Selectboard.

Which seat are you running for, and why do you want to be on the Selectboard?

I’m running for a one-year seat. I feel that this is a good time for me to contribute to the town by serving the community that I have grown to love over the past 17 years of living in this area, and I think I can bring a good listening ear and solid judgment to the board.

Give us your stump speech/qualifications…

I offer voters a good balance between relative youth and a good amount of experience with town politics and board positions. I served for 11 years on the board of BCTV, and served as President for my final year. I was a town meeting representative for 6 years, and I also served on the BACC board for 5 years. I’m a local fiscal conservative, with the taxpayers’ concerns at the forefront of my mind, but I also recognize the need for some creative thinking and smart expenditures when it comes to new revenue sources and making Brattleboro affordable to all.

Rumor has it a new president is being sworn in. I believe his name is Donald Trump.

Here’s some space for you to opine, praise, vent, or otherwise comment on this solemn tradition of our great nation.

From noon to 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 21, there will be a SIster Vigil at Pliny Park, at Main and High Streets in Brattleboro, to stand in solildarity with marchers in Washington, D.C. — and all over the world (https://www.womensmarch.com/sisters).

There may be many people in the area who would like to join the Women’s March but will be staying here for whatever reason.  This vigil is for them — for us.

I am circulating a petition to get a positive question on the Brattleboro Town Meeting Warning for a March vote. In short, it provides a chance for Brattleboro to say we have our standards and values and we will live up to them regardless of what happens in Washington.

Please use the link below to download a copy of the petition, sign it (and maybe get a couple of signatures from folks in your household) and return in to the Brattleboro Town Clerk by Thursday, Jan. 19. Or you can stop in at Everyone’s Books on Elliot Street and sign the copy on their counter.

Petitions for Brattleboro Town and Town School District Officers and Town Meeting Members are now available at the Town Clerk’s office. Town elections will be Tuesday, March 7, and the Annual Representatives Town Meeting, Saturday, March 25.

Petitions for Town Officers must contain at least 30 valid signatures of registered Brattleboro voters and be filed in the clerk’s office no later than 5:00 P.M. on Monday, January 30 in order to have their name placed on the ballot.

Every single claim Trump made to the American people that we would benefit from his “outsider” status and intentions to “drain the swap” in D.C. of corporate abuse, lobbyists and greed has been a lie. Under his leadership, the interests of Americans will be replaced with those of self-serving billionaires and corporations.

“Washington Republicans are plotting a war on seniors,” (Sen. Charles Schumer incoming Senate minority leader.)

President-elect Donald Trump reassured voters during his political campaign that he would protect Medicare, Social Security and other popular federal assistance programs.

However, in tapping Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) to be his Health and Human Services secretary, he has elevated
one of the most aggressive proponents of dramatically overhauling the government safety net for seniors and low-income Americans, a long-held conservative goal.

I was very wrong about this election.  I started saying “It’s going to be Hillary” back in June and I said it so many times, I started to believe it myself. Clinton had it in the bag, a done deal.  I couldn’t imagine a scenario in which Trump could win, given all the negative stories about him and the number of people who seemed to hate him.  And then Trump got out to an early lead and stayed there. I was confused at first, and almost as incredulous as the PBS News Hour staff at midnight on  Election Day — where were those big piles of Hillary votes that were going to drop in at the last minute to save the day?  They just weren’t there.  All the same, I bravely went to bed shortly after 1 AM thinking, when I wake up, maybe it’ll be different — or at least, I’ll be better able to deal with it. But, when I woke up very early the next morning, my partner in crime, who had stayed up to see the final results, muttered sleepily, “President Trump,” and I knew the unimaginable had happened.  Donald Trump, President of the United States.  Even now, it feels weird to type it.

The attached jpg file documents inexplicable anomalies between the presidential election results and exit polls, based on screen shots of news broadcasts taken election night by Jonathan Simon of Code Red.

According to the exit polls, which were conducted by Edison Research for the National Election Pool, a consortium of ABC News, The Associated Press, CBSNews, CNN, Fox News and NBC News, Clinton won four key battleground states (NC, PA, WI, and FL) in the 2016 Presidential Election that she went on to lose in the computerized vote counts.  With these states Clinton would have won the Electoral College with a count of 302 versus 205 for Trump.  Clinton also won the national exit poll by 3.2%, according to the exit polls, but only received a narrow lead in the reported vote count.