The Special Session Begins
The Special Session began on Wednesday, When will it end? No one knows. The first session on the floor lasted 35 minutes. Four bills were introduced and shunted off to committees, and that was it. Done for the day.The committees that received the bills worked for the rest of the day and came in on Thursday and Friday as well. The rest of us stayed home and saved the beleaguered Vermont tax payers some money. We meet again this coming Wednesday to see what has been accomplished.
This page on my website explains what a Special Session is and what we are doing. I'll update is fairly regularly.
The Primary Election
May 31st, this coming Thursday, is the deadline for submitting petitions to get a candidate's name on the August primary ballots. There were some interesting turns this week as more Colchester candidates filed their petitions.Colchester is divided into two voting districts (CH-9-1 and CH-9-2). Here's a map that roughly shows the two districts. One (CH-9-1) is referred to as the The Village. The other is referred to as The Bay. They are each two-seat districts, meaning they each send two representatives to the House. The current Representatives are:
- The Village
- Me. Curt Taylor (Democrat)
- Jim Condon (Democrat)
- The Bay
- Pat Brennan (Republican)
- Maureen Dakin (Democrat)
Both Maureen Dakin and Jim Condon are not seeking re-election. Pat Brennan and myself are. The question, for the last month or so, has been: Who else might run?
The Secretary of State website has a button for downloading a spreadsheet to see who has filed petitions. Currently there are the following for these two districts.
- The Village
- Me (Democrat) FaceBook Page, Website
- Deserae Morin (Republican) FaceBook Page, Website
- The Bay
- Pat Brennan (Republican)
- Herb Downing (Democrat)
- Sarita Austin (Democrat)
- John Nagel III (Republican)
Unless something changes by Thursday, there will be no real race in my district as both Deserae Morin and myself will be on the November ballot and voters will then send both of us to Montpelier. There will be a real race in November on the Bay Side. Herb Downing is a well known Select Board member and Sarita Austin is a motivated member of the Colchester Planning Commission. As things stand, all four will progress to the November ballot where voters will select any two to represent The Bay.
