Carina Driscoll, the stepdaughter of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), on Monday announced she’ll run for Burlington mayor. Driscoll, who said she’ll run as an independent, will challenge incumbent Democrat Miro Weinberger, who’s up for reelection in March. Another independent candidate, Infinite Culcleasure, announced on Friday that he’ll run.
all so proud to live,” Driscoll said in a press release. “It is time to bring our actions in Burlington back into line with our community values.”
Driscoll told Seven Days last month that she was considering a run.
The lifelong Burlington resident, who described herself as a “civic leader and entrepreneur,” previously served on the Burlington School Board, the city council and in the Vermont legislature. She currently runs the Vermont Woodworking School in Fairfax with her husband, Blake Ewoldsen.
The couple and their two children live in Burlington’s South End.
Related Stories
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
Good luck. Weinberger has to go.
Good luck Carina. I saw what you achieved at Vermont Woodworking which is a lot. I have nothing against Miro, but fresh eyes and minds are welcome.
Well, you can’t say this woman doesn’t have a lot of nerve thinking there are enough Burlington residents ignorant enough to vote for her to be mayor while many still mourn the death of Burlington College. And the ongoing scandal over her mother’s shady role in its demise. Carina Driscoll is no Bernie Sanders and trying to parlay his popularity for her own aggrandizement after her mother doled out cushy jobs is par for the course.
Here’s a few questions Driscoll will never truly answer: How does she justify the outrageously padded six-figure salary her mother gave her to run a woodworking class at the struggling college? Is the FBI still investigating the college’s misappropriation of loans during her mother’s tenure as president? How did her and her mother’s overly generous pay help to speed the demise of this institution?
It’s pretty hard to kill an entire college, that takes quite a bit of manipulative self-serving incompetence. Although given the corruption displayed by selling BT to a private family firm dismissed by all except a republican councilor, and then the petty behavior of councilors led by Knodell and Hartnett to reject the high bidder Ting because it was the choice of democrats, Driscoll probably figures she’ll slither right in to Burlington’s political club of stupidity and corruption.
Through this campaign, and then as mayor if elected, I will work to bring Burlington to again be that vibrant, forward-thinking city where we are all so proud to live,” Driscoll said in a press release. “It is time to bring our actions in Burlington back into line with our community values.
This is completely meaningless blather. It is empty happy-speak. It’s “Make Burlington Great Again!”
Vibrant and forward-thinking? Like under Progressive administrations when we didn’t build any housing, didn’t pay our pension liabilities, and secretly gave away $17 million to a foundering telecom company?
LOCK HER UP!
So does Bernie get to transfer all of his unused campaign money to her or does she just use the $500,000 she “earned” from Burlington College???
Burlingtonians, call your local Federal Prosecutor and demand they prosecute those directly involved in the demise of Burlington college, Including Jane Sanders and Carina Driscoll!
Weinberger and Sanders.
Really? Are you sure there are no better choices out there? Anyone? Please?
Dont let this daughter of the two greatest crooks in Vermont anyware by the Burlington bank accounts they will be empty in days. The apple does not fall far from the tree. She is as dirty as her mommy Jane and her dirty step dad Bernie. Never vote Carina in and
#timetovotethebaldguysout
Another crook in the family running for election.. shouldn’t she clear up the charges that mommy dearest funneled money from Burlington College to her “woodworking school” while president of Burlington college????
Great. Vermont’s own political dynasty family. Federal investigation and everything.
As a starting point, I guess I’d like to know what Burlington’s “community values” are and how the current administration has strayed from them. Second, I understand how some people can be disappointed with outcomes like Moran, BT, and the mall redevelopment. But in every instance, “public participation” was NOT the problem. BT was ranked last in viability by independent evaluators, but they still made it to the final round of three precisely because of public pressure. The Moran plant has had 20+ years and multiple public processes to find a workable solution for that property, but every effort has failed because no viable contender could be found. The mall redevelopment only got a green light after the voters (including Driscoll) went to the polls in support of it. I’m curious to see how Driscoll’s magic wand could have changed any of these outcomes.
I have an idea how Carina Driscoll can more effectively help her community other than by running for political office!
She can teach a class about how we can get our mothers to use their positions to pay us half a million dollars for a self-created job. I bet there are lots of woodworkers and other artists in town who would love to know how to earn this kind of money from a parent.
Even a parent like Jane Sanders, who is a stain on Bernie’s wonderful legacy. She represents everything that is wrong with politics and leadership, and I have no doubt her grasping daughter emulates her ethics. I hope the FBI investigation results in large fines and community service for what Jane Sanders did to that school and her insidious actions against our beautiful Burlington. Heaven help us if we let her daughter anywhere near our purse strings.
Fact: Carina Driscoll was an active Burlington City Counselor AND Burlington School Board Member 10+ years ago, way before Bernie’s meteoric rise. Carina’s past and future service to the city should be judged on its own merits. Let’s keep the conversation to the issues at hand.
Please look aT Carina Driscolls Property tax records for the year she bought and remodeled her Scarff Ave home. Some how when it came time to pay her property taxes surprise surprise she turned her pockets inside out and said ohhh whow is mee I only make 40k a year rebate all of my tax money. After spending hundreds of thousands nothing for the teachers, fire fighters, police, city officials, pension fund. But the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree Jane and Bernie Sanders stay fat and happy by abusing the free and reduced lunch tax deduction for millionaires and billionaires.
Enough with these venal greedy entitled bratty children of politicians the class of you know who I am Clinton goon or the Trump scum we don’t need Sanders NEPOTISM in Burlington go away .
Help Bernie rename another post office and tell him Obama and the Dems holed us with 9 trillion to pay off while he renamed Danville’s post office. A good name may be the house of paper paste and spit or in Bernie’s case along with the rest of the geriatric stale ideas crew ripping us off in DC …
Democrat drooling dotard dunces.
knowyourassumptions is at it again
you said that “Progressive administrations…didn’t build any housing”
that is false and you know it
a recent report found that 188 affordable units were produced from 1990 – 2009, and that’s just what resulted from the (Progressive-initiated) inclusionary zoning ordinance, and doesn’t include activity from 2009 -2012, which was the end of the Bob Kiss era
https://www.burlingtonvt.gov/sites/default…
not sure why you insist on knowingly posting false information
Wow. 188 units in . . . 19 years. Wow.
“Wow. 188 units in . . . 19 years.”
In a post in another article you said 20. Then I corrected you and you said 18. Then I corrected you again. Now you say none. When corrected yet again, you say 188 is too little. You really have no shame.
And of course the total is not 188. That’s the number of affiordable units. The report states that 1,773 units of housing were added from 1990 – 2015 (15% affordable as required by the ordinance). The people who made that happen deserve our respect.
188 units of affordable housing, and 18 units of market-rate housing, in Burlington in 20 years. Yes, Mr. Hoffer, that’s a Prog miracle.
Excluding high end housing, student housing, and since you don’t count it, affordable housing, how many units of housing is the Sinex tower really going to create?
Hoffer really seems to be earning a lot of favor on these comment sections. Don’t you have something to go audit?
Some of the best posts I’ve ever read especially Penelope’s . I like Bernie and sometimes even agree with his positions but Carina should be embarrassed to run.
“Don’t you have something to go audit?”
Ah, Mr. Cronkite. You are referring to my day job. Indeed, there is a lot of work to do. You would know what we’re doing if you visited the website. On the other hand, we don’t know who you are or what you do because you hide behind the name of a great journalist.
In any case, the fact that a few people vote thumbs down on this site doesn’t bother me that much since almost 160,000 Vermonters voted thumbs up in Nov. 2016. What does bother me is that ‘knowyourassumptions’ clearly doesn’t care enough about these issues to respect the facts and that a few dozen others (like you) are more interested in ad hominem attacks than a reasoned discourse.
C’mon Seven Days. Isn’t it time to insist that those who post use their real names?
Speaking of audits! Has anybody heard how the audit of Burlington College is going? Did they ever figure out who pilfered money out of the college while it went down the tubes? It seems like the state auditor would be all over this issue if it reflected badly on Democrats or Republicans! But obviously he won’t make the Progressives look bad!
Mr. Hoffer, why do you only care about the pseudonyms of posters who don’t post left wing opinions? Dozens of pseudonymous posters post left-wing opinions on this site every week (one on this very thread), sometimes with obviously-false and scandalous accusations, such as the mayor’s taking bribes. But not a peep from you about them. Why not?
And you know the posting rules of this site allow pseudonyms, and if you haven’t read 7D’s detailed, evidence-based explanation of why they allow it, perhaps you should. I may not like some of the knee-jerk left wing opinions that I see every day here from pseudonymous posters, but unlike you I don’t take issue with their use of pseudonyms. If you don’t like the established rules of this site, don’t visit this site and don’t post.
seahorsealum said “It seems like the state auditor would be all over this issue if it reflected badly on Democrats or Republicans! But obviously he won’t make the Progressives look bad!”
If only the world was as you imagine it – filled with conspiracies and corruption. In fact, the statutory authority of the State Auditor does not extend to private entities. You might want to become acquainted with the responsibilities of my office before you make your sordid allegations.
I’m proud to work in the public interest. I have no idea what you do. Why don’t you tell us?
knowyourassumptions just doesn’t get it
I didn’t ask sevendays to require Right Wingers to use their names, I asked that all those who post be required to use their names; your acceptance of the current rules is hardly evidence of your courage as it serves your purpose
you are a coward
I’d say cowardice is your deliberate and repeated dodging of my question: why it’s ok for left-wingers to use pseudonyms on this site to attack the Mayor, Democratic and Republican officeholders, anyone who questions Bernie, and anyone who offers non-leftist commentary — without a peep from you about anonymity until one or two non-Progs post pseudonymously.
“Ah, Mr. Cronkite. You are referring to my day job.”
“I’m proud to work in the public interest.”
That day job. Which you seem to spend a lot of in posting your opinions on Seven Days blogs. Like posts on weekdays at: 12:54 pm, 4:05 pm, 4:10 pm, 12:21 pm, 4:32 pm, 2:51 pm, 9:38 am, 4:00 pm, 3:43 pm, 1:22 pm, 12:24 pm, 11;36 am, 2:24 pm, 9:14 am.