Running for Office

Everybody and his grandmother can pretend to run for a major office in Vermont, and get on the ballot, too. That's well known. It's one of the quirky things that Vermonters tend to be proud of. "Only in Vermont," they say with a self-satisfied sigh.

There are any number of ways to get on the ballot and pretend to be running for such exalted positions as governor, Congressman, or U.S. Senator. You can be the nominee of a "major party." Take that designation with a grain of salt: a party is "major" if it has gotten just 5% of the vote in ANY statewide election two years previously. Major parties choose their candidates in a statewide primary election, with ballots printed and distributed by the Secretary of State. In 2006, exactly 141 people voted in the Liberty Union primary election. (Just printing the ballots cost the state $40,000.)

Or maybe you want to be the nominee of a "minor party," defined as a party that has an organization in 10 of Vermont's 251 towns. In that case you can be picked as a candidate by a party caucus, which is sort of like a meeting of a bunch of friends. Or if even that is too complicated, you can convince, badger, or browbeat just 250 people to sign a nomination petition for whatever statewide office you think you'd like to hold.

Once you've done that, the Secretary of State will put your name on every ballot it sends out in November (and you can choose a pretend party, too). Even better, you can get your name and photograph in the newspaper and get yourself invited to debates with the real candidates, since the more naïve sponsors of these debates like to be "inclusive."

And so it was that when Bernie Sanders and Rich Tarrant, two extremely serious gentlemen who are running for the highest political office Vermonters can confer, met to debate in South Royalton Tuesday, they were joined by four … well, by four other people.

One of them (Peter Diamondstone, who was eventually handcuffed) was the representative of a "major party," the Liberty Union Party. Another (Craig Hill) was candidate for a "minor party," the Green Party. Peter Moss, who has a delightful Hungarian accent, found his way there by petition and said he was running with the Anti-Bushist Party. Finally, Chris Ericson petitioned her way onto the ballot as well as an Independent.

What these folks said at the debate can be perused by Herald readers in this week's issue. Readers may decide for themselves what to make of them, and whether Vermont is being well served by its electoral system.