Mayor Miro Weinberger, Infinite Culcleasure and Carina Driscoll at the Seven Days mayoral forum in February Credit: File: Matthew Thorsen
Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger set a new fundraising record during his successful reelection campaign this year, collecting $125,577 en route to a third term in office, according to campaign finance reports filed Tuesday. The effort surpassed the city record $118,000 Weinberger raised during his first run for mayor in 2012.

Weinberger, a Democrat, earned 48 percent of the vote on Election Day. Independent Carina Driscoll won 35 percent and Infinite Culcleasure, who also ran as an independent, tallied 16 percent.

Driscoll, who eschewed corporate campaign contributions, raised $58,400 and spent $52,800. Culcleasure pulled in more than $11,700 and spent $7,700.

The incumbent held a wide fundraising lead throughout the campaign and managed to drum up an additional $18,500 in the final two weeks. Weinberger spent about $107,800 of his war chest on a flurry of radio and newspaper ads, as well as for a telephone Town Meeting, ahead of March 6.

Up until the election, he continued to rake in checks from the Burlington business community, including $1,000 each from Burton CEO Donna Carpenter, Farrell Distributing CEO David Farrell, and landlord and developer Richard Bove, who recently purchased from the city a parking lot on which he intends to build a hotel.

Congressman Peter Welch’s (D-Vt.) and Sen. Patrick Leahy’s (D-Vt.) campaign committees contributed $1,000 apiece, as did Leahy’s Green Mountain political action committee. The third member of Vermont’s congressional delegation, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), backed Driscoll, his stepdaughter — and also contributed $1,000 to her campaign.

Weinberger also collected checks from state politicians, including former Barre mayor Thom Lauzon ($1,000), and state Rep. Tim Briglin (D-Thetford), who pitched in $250.

For her part, Driscoll attracted mostly smaller, local donations from those who have opposed Weinberger initiatives: Greg Epler Wood ($250), who supported Keep BT Local during the Burlington Telecom sale; Keep the Park Green proponent Carolyn Bates ($450), and Ben & Jerry’s founder Ben Cohen, who has spoken against the basing of F-35 jets at Burlington International Airport ($1,020).

Driscoll raised more than $12,000 in the campaign’s final days, while Culcleasure brought in more than $1,300.

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Katie Jickling is a Seven Days staff writer.

9 replies on “Weinberger Raised Record $125K During Burlington Mayoral Race”

  1. That’s a lot of developer/real estate money. Now it’s up to Weinberger to make them all happy.

  2. Oh . . go ahead . .ask me if I’m surprised . . . really.

    Whoever pays the piper calls the tune . . looks like Miro has some dancing to do, and , obedient Neo-liberal that he is, he’ll dance his heart out no matter how it degrades Burlington. Just wait and see how he runs for either Leahy’s or Bernie’s seat once it becomes open. THEN watch the moolah pour in.

    I love “democracy” . . don’t you?

  5. Bold new vision?… more like the old story of money buying elections… and he still couldn’t get more votes than his opponents combined… how much is that per vote by the way?

  6. “Up until the election, he continued to rake in checks from the Burlington business community…landlord and developer Richard Bove, who recently purchased from the city a parking lot on which he intends to build a hotel.”

    This monkey can’t even solve the parking problems of Burlington.. well besides charging people more money, redirecting vehicles from downtown to now in front of peoples homes. Now genius is.. eliminating more parking spots for a hotel. Perhaps to bring more business into Burlington they should actually “create” more and accessible spaces to park first.

  7. Up until the election, he continued to rake in checks from the Burlington business community, including $1,000 each from Burton CEO Donna Carpenter, Farrell Distributing CEO David Farrell, and landlord and developer Richard Bove, who recently purchased from the city a parking lot on which he intends to build a hotel.

    One month you support the sale of public land to a well known slumlord, the next month that slumlord donates to your political campaign, the first time hes donated in a long time.

    Doesnt look great!

  8. Miro seems to be as dishonest as the next politician, he does nothing to help the homeless or low income housing, he just seems to help out the rich or people who pay him off! He is as bad as trump…

  9. Really sad that the Mayor is trying to increase the tax base and add some stability to the tax rate. Crazy huh. You bunch of whiners constantly complain about the development but want your taxes lowered. You cry you want your roads fixed but adding more properties to the tax base to fix them is something you all cry about. You continue to cry about more but want less. Someone could hand some of you a gold bar and you would complain that it isn’t two gold bars.

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