News
Huntington Republican seeks Vt. Senate seat

LANDEL COCHRAN
HUNTINGTON — After just three years of residency in Huntington, Republican Landel James Cochran in 2018 decided to invest in his community. He ran successfully for a seat on the town’s selectboard and was recently elected to a third straight three-year term.
Now Cochran, 36, wants to expand his public service impact, as one of two state senators representing Addison County, Huntington, Rochester and Buel’s Gore.
But first, he’ll have to pass two election hurdles in a race that thus far features six hopefuls: Leicester Republican Lesley Bienvenue; incumbent state Sen. Christopher Bray, D-Bristol; Cochran; current state Rep. Caleb Elder, D-Starksboro; incumbent state Sen. Ruth Hardy, D-Middlebury; and Bristol Republican Steven Heffernan.
The three Democrats and three Republicans will duke it out in separate primary runoffs on Aug. 13. The top two vote-getters in each primary will advance (along with any independent or minor party candidates) to the Nov. 5 general election.
Cochran is a St. Michael’s College graduate who works as a data services manager at Vermont Systems, a software company in Essex Junction. His job keys on supporting the U.S. Army’s Child and Youth Management System and in building custom analytics tools.
Landel and his spouse Rachael have a 2-year-old daughter, Cora.
Having a perch on the Huntington selectboard has allowed Cochran to troubleshoot myriad community challenges — some of which, he noted, have stemmed from policies devised in the state Legislature. He said he wants to play a role in reversing or adjusting some of those policies — particularly those that are having an impact on property taxes and housing development rules.
As voters prepare to go to the polls, Cochran hopes they scrutinize the Huntington selectboard’s budgeting track record since he’s been a member. He pointed to statistics showing year-to-year town budget increases of 4.5% in 2020, 1% in 2021, 4.3% in 2022, 4.9% in 2023 and 4.8% in 2024.
“We set a hard, annual (budget increase) ceiling of 5%,” Cochran said. “We know we have a varied population and can’t force people out of their homes with our own policies, so we try the best we can to maintain the same level of service year to year, with minimum impact to taxpayers.”
He acknowledged most Huntington residents have tended to vote blue, but he hopes the issue of affordability transcends party lines.
“People are very concerned about spending responsibly. And that’s exactly why I’m running for this seat. I think I can help find that level of responsibility that I think a lot of Vermonters find is missing right now,” Cochran said.
He noted Vermonters’ property tax bills are pegged to rise by an average of 13.8% during fiscal year 2025. This increase, Cochran believes, is largely a byproduct of H.887, a tax yield bill that became law after a legislative override of Gov. Phil Scott’s veto.
“Vermonters can’t afford this,” he said of the tax increase.
“The first thing we have to do is get property taxes and education spending under control; they’re really the same problem,” he said of what should be one of the Senate’s top priorities next biennium.
He believes a major contributor to recent property tax hikes has been how education property taxes are currently amassed and distributed. Basically, towns pass their school budgets in March, the state then calculates how much needs to be raised to fund the entire public education bill, and the money is then distributed accordingly.
“Essentially, we have a blank check funding model for schools, where the communities that actually foot the bill are not necessarily the communities that are passing the school budgets,” Cochran said.
His proposed remedy: Set school funding parameters before school budgets are passed. Cochran acknowledged local voters currently have local control on voting their district school budgets, but they don’t have control over other districts spending the money they’ve put into the public education till.
“The total amount the state is going to take for education funding and the equity distribution for those funds has to be set and distributed to our school districts before they base a budget around it. And then, anything they want in addition to their share as allocated by the pool, that needs to come directly from the voters in that district,” he said.
Cochran believes most Vermonters are not only dissatisfied with their school tax bills. They’re also unhappy with the quality of education they’re receiving for their financial outlay.
“Last year, Vermont was third highest in (per capita) education spending out of 50 states, while household income was 32nd. Vermonters are looking for more bang for their buck, before we’re looking for more spending,” he said.
Public schools have been enlisted to provide more services to meet children’s needs, according to Cochran. In addition to delivering education, schools are also being asked to deliver social services, healthcare, and other amenities for students in need.
“Healthcare is not education, and we provide some of those services through schools. I’m not against that idea; I’m against the idea of saying it’s a school budget issue. If we’re going to increase our health services in schools, we need to do that with healthcare dollars and not education dollars,” he said.
Communities deserve the ability to pay for non-education services through other means (than the property tax), Cochran submits.
“Education funding right now is empowered to take property taxes. As a state, we need to have the discretion… to provide social services through our general fund,” he said.
OTHER ISSUES
Cochran feels strongly about other issues, and offered a glimpse during his interview with the Independent and through his campaign website, landelvt.com:
- Affordable housing. He offers a three-pronged approach that includes building homes in urban centers, ensuring that current residents aren’t taxed out of their abodes, and softening the state’s land use rules to facilitate building in rural communities.
- Infrastructure and Municipal Support. “Vermont roads are simply underfunded,” he said. “Roads are not optional and many roads in the state are below a minimum acceptable condition. State grants for road and bridge projects are in short supply and have barely increased in amount in the past 20 years. Towns are handed increasingly high standards for road construction, but not much funding to implement them. It is this sort of single-sided policy that puts an additional burden on residents of small towns to foot the bill. Smart policy needs to include holistic solutions, towns don’t have many good options to keep up with rising costs.
- Overregulation and economic growth. “Vermont is not friendly to new business. Taxes are high, the labor market is overstretched, location is isolated and developing land is very difficult and time-consuming. Our rural communities need businesses and we have the space. We need to craft policies that remove barriers to business startup and growth, not policies that create barriers.
- “Retire the veto-proof supermajority.” Cochran noted Democrats hold veto-proof numbers in both the House and Senate. He believes such a makeup can undermine democratic principles.
“Gov. Scott is the voice of reason in Montpelier and he needs help,” he claimed. “If he doesn’t have support in the House and Senate, his veto decisions will continue to be steamrolled. Bring balance back to the Vermont General Assembly so both parties are forced to work together.
“If we don’t have checks and balances, we go unchecked and unbalanced,” Cochran added.
Reporter John Flowers is at [email protected].
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