Legislative Seats To Be
Heavily Contested

Official filings for office by political candidates earlier this month show a great deal of interest in the Vermont legislature. Incumbents are being challenged in virtually every district, both for the Vermont Senate and the House of Representatives.

The exception is in the Orange County Senate race in which, for the first time in years, no Republican has filed petitions to appear on the Republican primary ballot.

Candidates who successfully filed for office this month will appear on the ballot in the September primary election, which narrows down the election choices to one candidate per major party. If a candidate is running as an independent, however, not as the representative of any party, he or she still has plenty of time to file petitions to be on the November ballot.

Although, incumbent senators and representatives all will have challengers (except perhaps Sen. MacDonald), there will be only one political contest at the primary level in September.

Three Republicans are running for nomination to just two seats in the Orange Addison-1 District, that includes Randolph, Brookfield, Braintree, and Granville. The three are John Rotter and Stewart Skrill, both of Randolph, and Jocelyn Stohl of Braintree.

The two Republican candidates who are successful in the September primary will face Democratic incumbent Patsy French. It is expected that Democrats will appoint another candidate to run in place of Jim Hutchinson, who died unexpectedly this week.

The majority of the contests will result in Democrats running against Republicans in November, but also involved are two Progressives and Liberty Union candidate.

At least one candidate, Henry Holmes of Bethel, has declared his intention to run for office as an independent.

Statewide Surprise

At the statewide level, there was one surprise as the petition deadline approached. Anthony Pollina, long the top vote-getter of the Vermont Progressive Party, told supporters he would not file as a Progressive in his race for governor. Rather, he said, he would run as an independent in a quest for more Republican and Democratic votes. Thus he did not file petitions for a political party, even though he thoroughly intends to run against both Gov. Jim Douglas and Democrat Gaye Symington in November.

Several Liberty Union party members filed for nomination and one other Progressive, as those struggling parties attempted to continue being rated as "major" parties in Vermont.. A party must receive at least 4% of the vote in at least one statewide race to maintain "major" status.

Legislative Candidates

Orange County Senate (one seat)

*Mark A. MacDonald, Democrat, Williamstown

Windsor County Senate (3 seats)

Kent Butterfield, Republican, Stockbridge

*John Campbell, Democrat, Hartford

Ethan Foster, Republican, Andover

*Richard McCormack, Democrat, Bethel

*Alice W. Nitka, Democrat, Ludlow

Kirk Sparkman, Republican, Chester

State Rep. Districts

Orange-1 (two seats)

*Susan Hatch Davis, Progressive, West Topsham

Milan M. Miller, Republican, Williamstown

*Philip Winters, Republican, Williamstown

Orange-2 (one seat)

Peg Coutermarsh, Republican, Bradford

*Sarah Copeland-Hanzas, Democrat, Bradford

Orange Addison-1 (two seats)

*Patsy French, Democrat, Randolph

John P. Rotter, Republican, Randolph

Stewart Skrill, Republican, Randolph

Jocelyn Stohl, Republican, Braintree

Orange Caledonia-1 (one seat)

Chip Conquest, Democrat, Newbury

*Harvey B. Otterman, Jr., Republican, Topsham

Boots Wardinski, Liberty Union, Newbury

Windsor 6-1 (one seat)

*Mark B. Mitchell, Democrat, Barnard

Gayle C. Ottmann, Republican, Hartford

Windsor Orange 1 (one seat)

*David M. Ainsworth, Republican, Royalton

Louise S. Barreda, Democrat, Tunbridge

Windsor Orange 2 (two seats)

*Margaret Cheney, Democrat, Norwich

*Jim Masland, Democrat, Thetford

Windsor Rutland-2 (one seat)

*Sandy Haas, Progressive, Rochester

Henry Holmes, (independent, has yet to file) Bethel

High Bailiff

*Jack Ducharme, Republican, Chelsea