This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2024.
I’m not in the business of predicting elections, but for Burlington’s mayoral race on Town Meeting Day, it was a job requirement. I had to choose which candidate was most likely to win so I could capture the moment when the city elected its first-ever woman mayor. It would be either Democrat Joan Shannon or Progressive Emma Mulvaney-Stanak.
After weeks of covering the campaigns, I thought Shannon had the edge. In a race defined by concerns about public safety, she had an endorsement from the police union, whereas Progs were still being lambasted for leading the 2020 vote to scale back the size of the force. Mulvaney-Stanak wasn’t on the council then, but even she had acknowledged that her party’s label could harm her at the polls.
I strode into Team Joan’s gathering at Halvorson’s Upstreet Café that night feeling fairly confident in my calculus. But as the night wore on, it became clear that I’d picked the wrong party.
Shannon hadn’t yet arrived by the time polls closed at 7 p.m., but her supporters were starting to pack the place. Bartenders were serving up specialty drinks such as All Hands on Deck, a gin and tonic rebranded with Shannon’s campaign slogan. People were laughing and visiting with their neighbors. Vibes were good.
Just past 7:30, the first results came from Ward 6, showing Shannon with 1,019 votes to Mulvaney-Stanak’s 825. It was a lead, but not as strong a showing as I’d expected in a Dem-controlled district. Ward 4 was next, with Shannon notching about 600 more votes than Mulvaney-Stanak. That’s when I got the first prickle of doubt: In the last mayoral contest, Ward 4 voters gave Democrat incumbent Miro Weinberger just over 900 more votes than his Progressive competitor, Max Tracy.
Shannon would need to make up some ground, but she didn’t: The next three wards reporting — 1, 2 and 8 — all went to Mulvaney-Stanak. Our office’s election night Slack channel was blowing up. “Emma’s going to win,” one of my colleagues wrote.
From my perch at a counter, I could see Shannon supporters coming to the same conclusion. Animated discussions had turned to quiet confabs, and Shannon remained conspicuously absent. Bartenders were still slinging drinks, but the mood inside the pub was decidedly sober.
The last results finally trickled in at 9:24 p.m., declaring Mulvaney-Stanak the winner with 51.2 percent of the vote. Back on Slack, my colleague Rachel Hellman — who typically covers small towns — was sending dispatches from the rapturous victory party at Zero Gravity brewery. There were so many people in the room, Hellman said, that it was hard to move.
It was The Place to Be, and I wasn’t there.
At Halvorson’s, Shannon arrived and addressed her supporters, accepting the outcome with grace. I grabbed a few quotes and headed back to the office to type up the story I hadn’t expected to write.
In three years, there will be another mayor’s race. I’ll spend weeks covering it, telling readers what I learn about the candidates.
Just don’t ask me who’s going to win.
— C.L.
As one of the more novice journalists at Seven Days, I’m always eager to help out with assignments outside my “small towns” beat. The opportunities to learn about Vermont’s court system while covering for Derek Brouwer, or to sit in on a city council meeting while filling in for Courtney Lamdin, are invaluable.
So when I was asked to report on Burlington’s Town Meeting Day results from Zero Gravity brewery, the Progressive Party’s command post, I gladly agreed. Lamdin, our adept Burlington reporter, would be at Halvorson’s Upstreet Café with the Dems. My editors assured me that they expected Joan Shannon, the democratic candidate for mayor, to win.
All I had to do was get a quote or two from mayoral candidate Emma Mulvaney-Stanak after she lost, interview Progressives who had run for city council and provide some “color” — journalism shorthand for the details that bring a story to life: a description of the crowd, say, or the music playing during an event.
Lamdin had been following the mayoral race for months and had penned a recent cover story about it.
Meanwhile, I had been busy reporting my annual Town Meeting Day roundup. The story requires my full attention for two weeks: I request and read the ballot warnings of almost all of Vermont’s 247 municipalities and choose seven to highlight. It’s a heavy lift.
Needless to say, Lamdin was meant to be in the room where Burlington history happened. I was just happy to help out. To prepare, I made a cheat sheet with pictures of all the Progressives running for city council.
On election night, I showed up early to Zero Gravity and noticed more, and more, and more people arriving. Soon, I could barely navigate the huge crowd and had to elbow my way to sources as election results came in.
It was becoming clear that Shannon was not the shoo-in my editors thought she’d be. The energy was high at the brewery; cheers erupted as ward counts came in. Around 9 p.m., all results had been reported except those from Ward 5, Shannon’s neighborhood. Mulvaney-Stanak was barely ahead.
My phone buzzed. It was deputy news editor Sasha Goldstein. I would likely be reporting on Mulvaney-Stanak’s win, he told me nervously. I needed to be there when it happened, talk to her after — if I could — and capture the crowd’s reaction. This was a major moment: Mulvaney-Stanak would be Burlington’s first-ever woman mayor, as well as the first openly queer person to hold the seat, and I would be the one to report it for Seven Days.
I fought my way through the crowd to a spot near a podium where Mulvaney-Stanak was expected to speak. I was nervous. Could I deliver the goods? I kneeled on the ground — it was the only way to take in the full room and ensure I could record her speech. From this position I watched as the crowd exploded in cheers as Mulvaney-Stanak was declared mayor of Burlington. The energy was electric. A few people cried with joy.
I scribbled furiously in my notebook, wanting to do Lamdin, and my team, proud. After Mulvaney-Stanak’s speech, I successfully cornered her outside the brewery to ask a few questions, ensuring Seven Days got an exclusive quote. I took a deep breath. What a thrill!
Not bad for a rural reporter.
— R.H.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Worst Call | Highest-Stakes Switcheroo”
This article appears in Dec 25, 2024 – Jan 7, 2025.
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