ByKevinJ .

Kelley
F
ringe candidate. Long-
shot. Spoiler. The terms
regularly applied to Ber-
nie Sanders in his previous
statewide campaigns don't
seem appropriate this time
around. In fact, after Novem
ber 8, Sanders may have
earned an entirely new label:
congressman.
Although Republican Peter
Smith continues to be the
frontrunner inthe six-way race
for Vermont's only US House
seat, Burlington's mayor isnow
the man with the "mo." Pri-
vate polling by the candidates
confinns what the word on the
streets suggests-Sanders has
areal chance to fulfill his cam-
paign slogan of "making his-
tory in Vermont."
What adifference from two
years ago!
In 1986, the Independent
socialist fared poorly inhis bid
tobecome governor. Sanders'
disappointing campaign man-
aged to raise only about
S60,ooo-one-third of its slat-
ed goal-which meant that
both the Republican and Dem-
ocratic candidates were able
to outspend the outsider by a
margin of almost J (H.
continued on page 6...
S P KW S E mO N: WIN1IR S UR VlVAl-P . 10
NO V 141988
FIFTY CE NTS
BULK R ATE
U. S . P O S TAGE
P AID
Permit No.1
Brodford, VI.05033
"".'*-.....s.don... ,.... l oI I th
BERNIE his off-the-cuff comment
~ continued from page 1 about wanting to abol ish
Those financial woes in federal subsidies for dairy
tum exacerbated pol itical ten- farmers.
sions, with the Sanders-for- Nel son notes.too.that
Governororganization fal l ing Democrats who survive a
apart hal fway through the cl osel y fought primary al most
race. AU 10 of its paid never win the subsequent
worken were laidoff in statewide el ection in Ver-
August, and its central office mont. The UVM pundit fur-
inMontpel ier wasshut down. ther argues that Poirier is
El ection day 1986onl y made "just toonew acommodity-
the inevitahl e official - penpl e who don't know much
Sanden picked up a hitl ess about himhaven't been con-
than 15percent of the vote, vinced 10vote for him."
trail ing Smith and the vie- But the advantages pro-
rorious Madel eine Kunin by vided by his opponents'
several l engl hs. fail ings do not, by themsel ves,
Even ifSmith does hang account for Sanders' impres-
on 10his l ead after all the bat- sive pol l ratings. I n order
l ots are counted next Tues- tomake the most of these
day, it seems prohabl e that openings, he stil l needed to
Sanders will at l east have assembl e an effective cam-
doubl ed his 1986percentage. paign organization. And
I nstead of conducting that's exactl y what Sanders
another val iant but hopel ess has done.
"educational campaign," the The crowded second-fl oor
Burl ington radical has this offices at 209 Col l ege Street,
time put together one of the just around the comer from
strongest statewide inde- Burl ington City Hal l , function
pendent efforts seen inthe US as the nerve center of a grass-
inthe past 50 years. roots movement that extends
How has it happened? throughout the state. Insome
For one thing, the objee- ways, it is a typical seat-of-
l iveconditions inthe House the-pants operation, utterl y
contest are much more l acking inassistance from
favorabl e toSanders than the the Vermont pol itical estab-
situation he faced inthe 1986 l ishment. Very few office-
governor'srace. Rather than hol ders inthestate have
chal l enging a fairl y l iberal endorsed Sanders, and his
femal e incumbent, theoffice onl y media backing comes
he now seeks is wide open. from three weekl y news.
I n addition, many ob- papers: the Barton Chron-
serversthinkl ha.Smith,once icte, White River Valley
the heavy favorite to succeed Herald and the Vanguard
Congressman J im J effords, Press.
has turned in adecid-
edl y l ackl uster perfor-
mance.
"~mith had every-
thing going for him in
September," com-
ments University of
Vermont pol itical
scientist Garrison Nel -
son. "He scored an
easy four-to-one vie-
tory over David Gates
in the Republ ican
primary. He raised a
10' of money, had very
high name recognition
and very l ow negatives.
And the guy at the top
of his ticket, George
Bush, has come on strong in
Vermont."
But the GOP nominee has
pl ayed it much too safe, in
Nel son's estimation. "He just
h~n't excited anyone, or
given voters outside his core
constituency any compel l ing
reason to support him. Re-
sides," Nel son continues,
"there's no aura of in-
evitabil ity surrounding
Smith. He's run several times
for various statewide offices
often without success. I think
some peopl e see him as
desperate to hol d any kind of
political office, and he's al so
got a bit of a reputation asa
l oser."
Democrat Paul Poirier has
l ikewise fail ed tocapital ize on
his potential . Much of the
momentum that Poirier ac-
~uired with his upset triumph
10 the September primary
quickl y dissipated fol l OWing
Boucher served asavol unteer
agricul tural consul tant in
Nicaragua during a five-year
period beginning in 1981.
He came to the campaign
from the Nicaraguan NeLWoik
in Washington, DC, after
seeing an advertisement in
The Nationier the Sanders-
for-Congress fundraisingjob.
Boucher had bel ped bring in
some significant dol l ars for
the network, but everything
he knows about sol iciting
donations he taught himsel f
over the past two years.
Direct-mail techniques,
which have proven enor-
mousl y successful for Sanders
inrecent weeks, areBoucher's
special ty. "The New Right
got into this area much ear-
l ier than did the l eft,"
Boucher tol d the Vanguard.
"I find that kind of ironic, be-
cause the thing I l ike about
direct mail is that it's a way
for peopl e without weal thy
contacts to raise money from
ordinary donors."
Many of the roughl y 7,000'
contributors to Sanders' cam-
paign responded to a l el l er
sent either by the candidate
himsel f or by one or another
l eftist l uminary, incl uding I .F.
Stone, Barbara Ehrenreich
and former Berkel ey mayor
Gus Newport. The names of
potential givers were cul l ed
from the subscription l ists of
several progressive peri-
odical s and from the member-
ship rosters of groups l ike the
Nicaraguan Network and
J obs for Peace. Boucher con-
tinuousl y tested dif-
ferent l etters and
l ists, l ooking for
maximum returns
from the campaign's
investment in direct-
mail appeal s.
"Some peopl e
here give me credit
for bringing inamar-
vel ous new techno-
l ogy ," Boucher said,
pointing to the com-
puter on an adjoining
desk. "But this isn't
an especial l y high-
tech operation. and
I 'm not doing any-
thing differentl rom
what everyone el se does in
this business. The main
reason for our fundraising
success is that we have acan-
didate who's saying the right
things in a year when al l the
others are tal king mush."
Hundreds of activists
around the country agree that
Sanders' message makes
sense. More than hal f of the
$300.000 sent to the cam-
paign so far has come from
outside Vermont, general l y
from individual progressives
who contribute an average of
about $28. Itwas onl y this
week that the campaign
received its first donation
from a pol itical action com-
mittee-a $300 offering from
the SANEl Freeze antinucl ear
PAC.
The support ofl el tists
throughout the country and
all over Vermont has enabl ed
the Sanders organization to
Saadon' .. soy -.IlootI ........
For once, though, a San-
ders campaign is not des-
titute. On the contrary, the
l eftist House hopeful wil l
probabl y have raised an
astonishing $350.000 by the
time al l the conrributions
have been tal l ied.
That amount, al most six
times greater than his 1986
total , has enabl ed Sanders to
transmit his message to every
comer of the state. Never
before has an independent
US social ist been abl e to raise
this kind of money for a
statewide race. '
Doug Boucher is the
somewhat unl ikel y hero who
oversees the Sanders fund-
raising drive. Boucher found
out about the mayor whil e
teaching ecol ogy and agron-
omy at the University of
Quebec in Montreal . Their
pol itical affinities are ap-
parent from the stints
bUyaround $75.000 worth of
radio and tel evision ads. It
has also paid for printing of
the 115.000 tabl oid handouts
distributed by vol unteers
from Brattl eboro to Swanton.
J im Schumacher super-
vises this intensive and far-
fl ung fiel d operation. He is
constantl y on the phone to
workers in the campaign's
four other offices in
Springfiel d, Montpel ier, Rut-
l and and Brattl eboro, whil e
al so coordinating the efforts
of vol unteers who wal k into
the Col l ege Street head-
quarters. Even though he is
one of 10 paid staffers, it is
doubtful that Schumacher
makes more than the mini-
mum wage, since he puts in
about 100hours aweek at his
job.
"When Icame back to
Burl ington from Tucson
about 10 months ago, I was
absol utel y amazed at how
much devel opment has taken
pl ace in Chittenden County
in so short a time," Schu-
macher says. "This is one
of the main reasons I 'm work-
ing for Bernie. He can hel p
save the famil y farm, which
is what makes Vermont so
special ."
Asked todescribe a typi-
cal Sanders vol unteer,
Schumacher maintained that
the 500 peopl e in that cate-
gory are "just too diverse to
make general izations." He
did note, however, that fewer
than 10 percent of them are
students. "We get very l ittl e
hel p from UVM~and a bit
more from Middl ebury and
from the state col l eges," he
expl ained. "Mostl y, our
vol unteers are working
peopl e of al l ages who come
in at night and on the week-
ends, sometimes with their
kids."
Like Schumacher, cam-
paign manager Rachel Levin
is a l ongtime Sanders sup-
porter. Now 28 years ol d.
Levin says she has known the
candidate since she was 11or
j2. Her mother, aBennington
resident, was one of the
founders of Liberty Union,
the third party under whose
banner Sanders ran four
times in the 19705.
For aUitsefficiency, Levin
concedes that the campaign
has not been without
probl ems and tensions. She
does not characterize her
rel ationship with the can-
didate himsel f in that way,
however. Doting that "it's
been real l y easy towork with
Bernie this time. He's been
very cooperative and under-
standing."
Levin hints that the cam-
paign has not been entirel y
satisfied with the assistance
provided by the Vermont
Rainbow Coal ition. Fresh
from its success with the
J esse J ackson caucus drive,
the coal ition gave Sanders its
endorsement in the congres-
sional race this summer. But
the Vermont Rainbow has
concentrated on some 20
l ocal l egisl ative contests
around the state, assigning
the Sanders campaign a
secondary priority.
"We've given Bernie ac-
cess to our mail ing l ist and
have provided his campaign
with office space in Mont-
pel ier," notes Rainbow exec-
utive committee member Mary
Deaett, I n addition, she says,
several coal ition activists
are working as Sanders vol un-
teers.
Deaett al so strongl y
defends the Rainbow's
decision to focus on l egisl a-
tive races. "Candidates at
that l evel don't have the
capabil ities of a statewide
candidate," she observes.
"We feel that we can have
much more of an impact on
the state House and Senate
races, which isal so where the
future of a grassroots move-
ment l ike ours l ies."
Deaett is nonethel ess
highl y enthusiastic about
Sanders' chances. "Bernie
has a good shot at winning,"
she asserts. "Ifhe's real l y just
three points behind Smith
and if there are stil l about 15
percent undecided, then it
l ooks awful l y good. My guess
is that a l ot of those un-
decideds are peopl e who are
dissatisfied with the process,
and most of them coul d wel l
go with Bernie."
The same degree of con-
fidence is evident among al l
the workers at 209 Col l ege
Street. Their predictions of vie-
tory can be taken as standard
campaign boil erpl ate,nodif-
I erent from the rosy assess-
ments coming from Smith
and Poirier headquarters as
wel l . But there is a certain
quiet conviction in the
Sanders camp that carries an
air of authenticity. I t's as
though the staff senses that
something trul y historic is
about to happen.
BONDS
... continued from page 5
pol ice protection, apoint city
official s concede.
Leopol d, however, argues
that the city isfar from being
too deep indebt and that if it
were, financial institutions
woul d not continue to rate the
bonds as a good investment.
"By the standards used to
anal yze the bonded indebted-
ness and burden on the tax-
payer, Burl ington is recog-
nized by the financial com-
munity as having a l ow l evel
of debt and al ow l evel of bur-
den on the taxpayer,"
Leopol d says.
Al dermanic President
Nancy Chiol l i said the board
decided tospl it the waterfront
proposal s into three parts in
Case voters decided they
coul d not afford the whol e
package. Chioffi said she is
unaware of any information
that woul d l ead her to bel ieve
the city was heading for finan-
cial troubl e.
City official s al so argue
that the $6.4 mil l ion package
represents the upper l imit of
costs for the three projects
and that taxpayers coul d see
a substantial savings if ex-
pected revenues are
generated.
For exampl e, the city
pl ans to l ease space in the
Naval Reserve Station and
the cost of the park property
coul d drop if the Vermont
Supreme Court rul es the city
has ownership rights to the
four-acre parcel owned by
Central Vermont Rail way.
I ronical l y, the CV l and is
smack in the middl e of the
Sanders-backed $100 mil l ion
Al den Waterfront devel op-
ment pl an, which died be-
cause voters were unwil l ing
to invest S6 mil l ion in the
project three years ago.
Al derman David Thel an-
der, Ward 6 Republ ican and
member of the Al dermanic
Waterfront Committee, as
wel l as Cl avel l e, argue that if
the city does not move this
year, the Navy wil l probabl y
renovate the buil ding and
stay at the waterfront site.
"The timing is critical .
There are stil l many ques-
tions from the committee
perspective as to cost, and
certainl y costs are critical in
the final anal ysis, but the fun-
damental premise behind this
istosecure control over these
properties at this 'time and
move forward," said Thel an-
der.
Mark .J ohaHn