This commentary is by Elaine Haney of Essex Junction, a former chair of the Essex Selectboard, former trustee of the Village of Essex Junction, and executive director of Emerge Vermont.
As VTDigger’s recent panel discussion (“The future of Vermont’s congressional representation”) shows, the Vermont political universe is preoccupied these days wondering whether Sen. Patrick Leahy will run for reelection and who will take his place.
There’s no doubt that Vermont has been well served by him and his fellow members of the delegation, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Congressman Peter Welch. But it’s time to pass the baton, and it’s time for Vermont to elect a woman to Congress.
A vacant congressional seat would also open up new opportunities to serve at all levels of government. Right now, senior leadership at the statewide level is stagnant, with few openings for women, people of color, or young people to serve.
There’s a similar kind of stagnation at the local government level. The Center for Rural Studies at the University of Vermont recently released a report indicating that two-thirds of Vermont’s selectboard members and three-quarters of our municipal managers are men. Two-thirds are over age 50 and almost half are over 60. Unsurprisingly, 97.5% are white.
The monopoly on leadership held by older white men exists both statewide and locally, but at the local level there is far more room for change.
There are nearly 250 towns and cities in Vermont with locally elected boards.
In my own unscientific research as executive director of Emerge Vermont, which recruits and trains Democratic women to run for office, I have found fewer than two dozen selectboards with a majority of women. And congratulations, Pittsfield! You appear to be the only town in all of Vermont at the moment with an all-woman selectboard.
Why is it important to elect more women to local governing boards? It’s a matter of priorities. The three top issues for municipalities identified by the respondents to the Center for Rural Studies survey were infrastructure, taxes, and lack of growth. Of the 227 respondents, only 35 identified education and child care as top issues, and only 28 chose affordable housing and the opiate crisis.