Running as a ticket, Audet and Ralston will challenge two Democrats — incumbent Chris Bray and Ruth Hardy, the former executive director of Emerge Vermont, which trains women to run for office — and Republican Peter Briggs, vice-chair of the Addison Selectboard.
Sen. Claire Ayer (D-Addison) announced in May that she wouldn’t run for reelection.
The Addison Independent was first to report that Audet and Ralston had entered the race.
Ralston is no stranger to politics. He served four years as a Democrat in the Vermont House before stepping down in 2014 to focus on his business. The New Haven resident considered returning to politics in 2016 and even hosted a radio show called “The Reluctant Politician” to explore the possibility.
Ralston, who describes himself as a fiscal conservative and supporter of Gov. Phil Scott, said he decided to run as an independent because, “I wanted to be focusing on policies and principles, and not on party.”
Audet, by contrast, is making her first bid for public office. She and her family own Blue Spruce Farm, a large dairy farm in Bridport. An early adopter of methane digesters, the farm provides power to several hundred homes, including Ralston’s.
“This has been a lifetime coming,” said Audet, who identified a strong economy and affordability as priorities.
“We are all running against a party establishment and that party has a lot of resources,” Ralston said of the decision to run as a ticket. “Together, we can be more time- and cost-effective.”
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They are all pretty great!
This is one of the very few bright spots in the otherwise dismal and depressing world of Vermont politics. I wish them both the best of luck. The two major parties in this state (including the Democrat-coat-tail-riding Progressives) need to be disassembled and thrown in the trash where they belong. The only way we can start that process is by electing independents.
On the surface, Ralston sounds great. But many of us who have been dealing with fossil fuel build out know otherwise. Ralston SUPPORTED the Fracked Gas pipeline and we all know now why that was. So he could pay a surcharge to Vermont Gas/Energir, and say his company, Vermont Coffee Roasters, is burning “renewable” fracked gas. The amount of methane inserted into the pipeline from a landfill in Quebec is minuscule compared to the fracked gas being pumped through the pipe and I seriously doubt any of it makes it to Ralston’s plant in Middlebury. But the ads for the company state that his plant burns entirely renewable fuel. Its an advertising ploy and I am sure it impresses those who don’t know the whole story. I find it despicable and I am sure Ralston will make political decisions based on similar moral code.