The news drew cheers at the Progressive Party’s gathering at Rí Rá on Church Street.
“It’s a new time in Burlington, folks!” Vermont Progressive Party executive director Josh Wronski told the crowd.
After serving a total of 19 years on the council as a Progressive, Knodell lost the party’s nomination at its caucus in January. She later decided to run as an independent, but couldn’t overcome Freeman’s impressive get-out-the-vote effort. Freeman earned 928 votes, about 54 percent of the total, compared to 643 votes, or 37 percent, for Knodell. Democrat Jared Carter earned 144 votes, or 8 percent of the total.
“It feels great,” Freeman told Seven Days. “I’m excited to get to work.”
She specifically highlighted a livable wage campaign and initiatives to help mitigate climate change.
She appeared exhausted after a long, hard-fought campaign. Asked if she’s relieved it’s all over, Freeman quipped, “My dog is glad it’s over.”
In another upset, Progressive Jack Hanson unseated incumbent Richard Deane (D-East District). Hanson won 837 votes (61 percent) to 546 votes (39 percent) for Deane.
“This is a historic night in Burlington,” he said, vowing to “reshape this city.” He thanked his supporters.
“This is a progressive city. East District is a progressive district. Let’s party!” he said.
Democratic Mayor Miro Weinberger described Deane’s loss in the East District as “a real blow.”
“I think people may not appreciate what they’re losing in Richard on council,” the mayor told a Seven Days reporter. “I know there will be some who say this is a real problem for the future of this administration and Democrats.”
Paulino, speaking at the Democrats’ party at the Vermont Pub & Brewery, said his campaign worked to build a diverse coalition of support in the New North End, and that he plans to continue doing so on the council.
“Honestly, I’m just looking forward to working hard for our people, and I think I will deliver on that promise,” Paulino said, describing himself as “excited as heck.”
In the South District, incumbent Democrat Joan Shannon won 1,423 votes, or 66 percent of the total, in fending off Progressive candidate Mohamed Jafar (669 votes, 31 percent) and independent Paco DeFrancis (75 votes, 3 percent).
Jafar, whose campaign was derailed a month ago when his offensive old tweets surfaced, urged on his fellow Progressives at the party gathering.
“We made the progress we needed to make, we flipped the seats we needed to flip, and so we move forward from here!” he said. “Let’s go, let’s go.”
Wronski attributed Freeman and Hanson’s success to their grassroots organizing. “When you knock on doors and you talk to residents like two or three times, this is what you end up with,” he said.
“This was one of the most amazing ground games this city has ever seen,” Wronski told the crowd. “There were those who said Burlington wasn’t ready for an activist city council. I’d say they’re ready.”
Knodell’s supporters, including some longtime Progs, gathered at Butch + Babe’s on North Winooski Avenue.
“We tried hard,” Councilor Brian Pine (P-Ward 3) said while hugging an acquaintance.
“I’m super proud of the campaign we just ran,” she said. “A lot of people in the room worked super hard for me and I really appreciate it. I feel like I let you down.”
Knodell continued: “I was going to set [Burlington Telecom] on a positive path, I was going to look out for the Family Room, I was going to look out for the seniors … and we did all these things. And it turned out to be not the thing that mattered to [voters].”
Knodell said she had emailed Freeman to congratulate her. But the ousted incumbent also appeared to take a shot at her opponent.
“I’m not sure how to interpret what happened today, but I will say that I am a little concerned about the future of the city and exactly what’s going to be happening in Contois come April” when new councilors are sworn in, she said.
“It’s one thing to be an organizer and to win a campaign, and we sometimes win campaigns by telling very scary stories to people, not all of which are true.”
Knodell thanked her supporters, especially Pine, who “gave up a lot” for the campaign. She vowed to stay engaged with city politics.
“I will continue to be involved with issues. I am not throwing my signs away,” Knodell said to laughter and applause. “Hold onto your buttons.”
Burlington Progressives won another victory as they defeated the city’s plan to expand the downtown improvement district. The plan, which was defeated 56 percent to 44 percent, would have allowed downtown businesses to pay to receive services such as additional trash removal, marketing and promotional events. Currently, those are only available to shops along the Church Street Marketplace.
Mayor Weinberger, speaking at the Democrats’ party, said the DID expansion proposal marked a “very big change” that voters weren’t ready for. He said the authorization request left many details to be ironed out later, which made it hard to quell voters’ doubts.
Voters passed the other five ballot items. They overwhelmingly agreed to Weinberger’s plan to reform the city’s permitting process and create a new Department of Permitting and Inspection.
Both school and city budgets, which included property tax increases, also passed.
Related Stories
Can Max Tracy Ride the City’s Progressive Wave to Become Burlington’s Next Mayor?
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
DING DONG the witch is dead!! So, so happy Perri won!
Many people worked hard to oust Knodell, corruption has deep tentacles and requires constant vigilance to eradicate. Knodell threatened that she will run again, If so we will never stop fighting to make sure she keeps on losing elections along with the ability to further harm Vermonters. Congratulations Perri!!
Must be lot of voters who do not remember (or were not living in area) during the Kiss years. And I say that with all due respect to former Mayor Kiss, who by all accounts is very decent human being. But under his mayoralty, Progressives ran the ship onto the rocks and left Burlington in dire financial straits. OTOH, Bernie Sanders mayoralty was by all accounts very positive and productive. I do not believe either of the newly elected councilors lived here during either time, the recent Kiss years nor Bernie years. Can understand a luke-warm vote for Democrats because certainly there are plenty of issues with them. Plenty of ways I disagree with Weinberger administration. But has overall been seeking to strike a balance.
One of ironies in opposition to Sinex “Tall Mall” is that it arguably could have been built already if Sinex had just been allowed to go forward initially under existing zoning requirements. However, because of Progressive pressure on City Council, Sinex was mandated to add extra subsidized affordable housing. Which certainly is a great idea. But, it also has to be paid for. So, in order to pay for new mandates imposed by City Council, Sinex needed special permission to build taller and violate the zoning and PlanBVT. Some people were up in arms about violating PlanBVT (perhaps justifiably); and many people up in arms about not having enough affordable housing (perhaps justifiably). Ultimately, result was a compromise, leaning in favor of more affordable housing (in fact, most in any development project in city’s history). That is nature of politics.
Hoping new councilors will remember and reflect on our history, and be guided by where we have come from in recent past, as they simultaneously lead the way into the future.
Knodell rakes in $130k from UVM as a professor on an annual basis. She taught 0 courses Spring 2019. This doesn’t include fringe benefits or retirement pay. To say she’s out of touch is an understatement.
Congrats to Perri and Jack. Now we can have some representation on City Council besides Max Tracy that will not roll over for Miro.
Maybe now the gentrification that is being rammed thru can be stemmed. I’m also glad to see the downtown expansion giveaway to the local oligarchs and Miro’s Money Buddies went down in flames. Had it passed Downtown would start to become a gated community for the Elite and Elect to enjoy fine dining and shopping without all those pesky and dirty poor folks and homeless folks. We can’t have that and be “vibrant”., now can we?
Unfortunately Jane Knodell sounds like Hillary Clinton in defeat: bitter and entitled. What a disappointment, I thought she was better than that. Guess not.
Geez Jane, it’s a “concession” speech, not a “condescending” speech, but it seems you can’t open your mouth without looking down on us.
I appreciate the enthusiasm for providing a higher minimum wage, for spending $23,000 per preK to 12 student, for providing subsidized low cost downtown housing to those in need, for creating new programs to mitigate and stop climate change. I also would like to see lower medical costs, and lower cost for college. These are all great goals, and all achievable.
To achieve these goals, however, we need to bring in substantial amounts of new private sector business to Vermont. Without that, none of the goals listed above will be achieved. I urge all of you to work with private sector to make this happen. Focus on issues not sides. Agree to disagree. Compromise. Understand the desire of private sector to prosper, and the need to have prosperous business in order to further social programs.
congrats to perri and jack! great to see a good team joining max in restoring integrity and representation on the council!
Often in these tumultuous political times when embittered, fossiliferous incumbents are ousted from public office by an engaged and energized citizenry, their true feelings are spinelessly masked by gracious concession speeches that encourage all to put aside our differences and work together for the common good.
So kudos to Ms. Knodell for possessing the personal integrity and resolve to publicly share her personal petty outrage and petulant condescension in losing to her up-and-coming Progressive opponent by a huge margin for the second time in as many months!
Progressive landslide.
* Freeman demolished Knodell – winning by a massive 17-point margin. Knodel can say what she wants – the people showed they don’t enjoy her pedantism.
* Hanson steamrolled Deane with a 22-point margin of victory.
Sure, taxes will still skyrocket.
But the two victorious newcomers will make fewer claims that they are conservatives with our hard-earned tax money.
In other words, they are unabashed socialists.
Pedantic, big-spender Knodell pretended she had taxpayers’ interests at heart. Deane’s claim to fame was rubber-stamping liquor permits.
Hats off to “Damon” and “flipflopfly” for exquisite posts.
Here if you missed them is what each posted:
Damon:
“Geez Jane, it’s a “concession” speech, not a “condescending” speech, but it seems you can’t open your mouth without you down on us.”
flipflopfly:
“Often in these tumultuous political times when embittered, fossiliferous incumbents are ousted from public office by an engaged and energized citizenry, their true feelings are spinelessly masked by gracious concession speeches that encourage all to put aside our differences and work together for the common good.
“So kudos to Ms. Knodell for possessing the personal integrity and resolve to publicly share her personal petty outrage and petulant condescension in losing to her up-and-coming Progressive opponent by a huge margin for the second time in as many months!”
Too funny… The Private Sector folks seriously think “compromise” is to acknowledge their way is the only way forward. Perhaps, the private sector will stay in it’s lane now, and leave the governing to those who are concerned with all interests and not just the interests of an elite few…
Wow, email a concession and then take shots at your opponent. Very classy. Seems like anything anyone will remember about Knodell will be her arrogance. What a way to go out. It’s encouraging to see new Progressives ousting the old entrenched ones who feel like they’re entitled….yes, like Gordon Paquette way back when. They rested on their laurels and didn’t do the work to maintain any kind of serious presence on the city council back when the Democrats had no interest in saving BT, but using it to regain power. The Progressives had nobody who had the balls to help so they decided it was easiest to dump on Kiss. These new Progs seem like the old ones (before they became old and comfortable.) Go forth, young people.
Congratulations Perri and Jack! Solid victories…..well done!
Winning an election does not mean you have to trash the loser. You can be supportive of Perri and still understand Jane Knodell has provided a lot of good service, well thought out policy and other aspects of representing our ward. Have I agreed with a number of her recent votes? No. Do I think she is a horrible person? Absolutely not.
Maligning others is not a good way to create community, much less political good will. Take the higher ground — Don’t be a sore winner (or winner supporter). Vermont is a small place and things have a way of coming back to you. So congrats to Perri and good wishes for the future for Jane.
Good luck to the winners. It’s about time we have new blood and hopefully Burlington will get back on track with things except we still have Miro to deal with but hopefully he’ll be gone next year!
” . . . we still have Miro to deal with but hopefully he’ll be gone next year!”
He was elected in 2018 for the three-year Burlington mayoral term. The next mayoral election is in 2021.
Well, wretched nastiness never feels good whether you’re catching it or serving it.
Knodell did have some useful ideas and she is quite learned. It’s not difficult to figure out why she is not re-elected. She wasn’t engaged beyond her crucible of die-hard supporters in O.N.E. and so its voters did not engage her. Basic s*** y’all.
I am not going to say she’s a meanie… it’s exceptionally difficult to be a woman with any measure of power given the biases that reign. I’m not even going to call her a massive sellout for strumming Prog grooves on the left side and then Dem’igogy on the right.
The moment that horrified me was when she denied the primacy of direct democracy in local affairs. Last 7D article (I’m paraphrasing here) she said we can’t turn into a debate society with people packing city hall. No, sorry, wrong-wrong-wrong.
That tuff gnarl politics is exactly how Kshama Sawant and Socialist Alternative passed their landmark $15 minimum wage in Seattle. Go check the video… I’ll wait. Let them strut, let them gas on; but when anti-historical alternative facts start huffing out, you vote them out with your throwing arm.
To be clear re: my comment above — I think winners and losers need to refrain from snarky remarks, even understanding there are hurt feelings. Put on your big boy or big girl pants, congratulate or concede civilly and in style and move forward. If there’s anything we’ve learned in the past 2 years, it’s that putting people down, maligning them, doesn’t *build* community.
While I was no fan of Knodell, does the poster who accused her of *corruption* have any evidence for this serious charge? I dont remember any story in 7D, or BFP, or WCAX, or any law enforcement investigation, accusing this councilor of selling any vote for money, or accepting a bribe, or trading her vote for a specific personal benefit like free airline tickets. Thats the definition of corruption. If you have evidence of that, I assume youve alerted the authorities. Not liking a public official, or disagreeing with her votes, or positions, or maneuvers (which I almost always did) does not entitle you to accuse a public official of *corruption.*
Thank you.
With regards to Chris S, speaking about the mall, there are no toilets open in the mall. I went to Church St the other day and really had to go. I walked into the mall and found a person at the information desk. He informed me there were no bathrooms and I needed to use Starbucks or Five Guys. Both restaurants had long lines for the 1 bathroom. Really? How can this be? Why not put a port a potty outside or on the old bus station side? Do our city councilors and the Mayor know there are no bathrooms in the mall?