On the one hand, it’s a nice dilemma for Democrats to be facing: choosing two Senate candidates from three terrific prospects, all respected, effective leaders. One does have to choose, though, so here’s what’s guiding my selection: data privacy.

I’m sick to death of being surveilled day and night by tech behemoths who rob us of much of our personal information and then commodify and sell that information, making themselves insanely rich in the process. They trample on democratic traditions and processes and aren’t content to constantly spy on adults: now they’re after our children. It’s gotten so bad that the Surgeon General of the U.S. thinks we need health warnings on social media sites for teenagers, and our own state Attorney General has filed suit against Meta (formerly Facebook) for its unwillingness to adequately shield our young people from its addictive offerings.

The good news? Our Brave Little State recently came up with a bill — H 121 — that would give citizens legal recourse to protect their privacy while providing safeguards for protecting underage youth. A group of forward-thinking legislators spent hundreds of hours crafting a bill with enough teeth to make the tech titans pay attention while offering concessions that would protect small businesses in Vermont from onerous lawsuits on the question.

H-121 sailed through three votes in the Vermont House (one of them 137-0!), with Representative Caleb Elder voting for the bill each time. Senator Ruth Hardy championed the bill and voted for it twice in Senate votes (and typically informed her constituents about what she was doing in exemplary fashion). Alas, Chris Bray lined up with the unprecedented hordes of tech lobbyists who swarmed the Capitol and twice voted against the bill, joining Governor Scott in his opposition to the legislation.

Our brave little bill would have been the second toughest bill in the nation on data privacy, very much in line with the Vermont tradition of protecting privacy. It just required a few more votes in the Senate. Many people expect the bill to reappear next year, and if we could only get a few more Senators to vote for it…

This is my thinking going into the ballot box. Thank you.

Denny May

New Haven