Political Parties
Minor parties flourish. Rules which eliminate smaller parties from the ballot in most states do not exist in Vermont, where electoral fusion is also legal. As a result, voters often have extensive choices in general elections.
The Vermont Progressive Party is a liberal left wing political party which has held a handful of seats in the Vermont legislature for two decades and has run candidates for numerous state and local elections. In 2009, they had five members in the Vermont House of Representatives and one member in the Vermont Senate. Progressive Bob Kiss is mayor of the largest city, Burlington. It has had official recognition as a political party by the state government since 1999.
The Liberty Union Party is a democratic socialist minor party which holds a few local offices.
The state's legislature is dominated by Democrats. The governorship in Vermont has alternated between Democrats and Republicans since 1961. The current governor is a Democrat. Most notable, perhaps, is Democrat Howard Dean, Governor from 1991 to 2003, who ran for the 2004 Democratic Presidential Nomination and went on to chair the Democratic National Committee.
Read more about this topic: Elections In Vermont
Famous quotes containing the words political and/or parties:
“An inquiry about the attitude towards the release of so-called political prisoners. I should be very sorry to see the United States holding anyone in confinement on account of any opinion that that person might hold. It is a fundamental tenet of our institutions that people have a right to believe what they want to believe and hold such opinions as they want to hold without having to answer to anyone for their private opinion.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“Like other parties of the kind, it was first silent, then talky, then argumentative, then disputatious, then unintelligible, then altogethery, then inarticulate, and then drunk. When we had reached the last step of this glorious ladder, it was difficult to get down again without stumbling.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)