ADDISON COUNTY — Local, statewide and national candidates are wrapping up their campaign pitches.

Now it’s up to the voters.

Residents in Addison County, Buel’s Gore, Huntington and Rochester will go to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 5, to cast ballots for candidates vying for a variety of positions, ranging from justice of the peace to president of the United States. And many locals have already cast ballots by mail or at drop-boxes.

Area town clerks are girding for a big turnout that’s typical for a presidential election. In 2020, 77.69% of Addison County’s registered voters cast ballots in the election that saw Joe Biden defeat Donald Trump at the top of the ticket. This year, Trump is seeking to reclaim his job, with his opponent Vice President Kamala Harris.

The Trump-Harris matchup is capturing voters’ attention, as are other races up and down the ballot.

Bristol Town Clerk Sharon Lucia on Tuesday said that she had thus far processed 767 general election ballots from residents who had decided to vote early. She was happy with the early interest in the election, but also voiced concern that 450 of the mail-in ballots the town had sent out to local addresses had been returned to the clerk’s office, marked as “undeliverable.”

Lucia said she’ll try to get in touch with those folks and hopes they — and all other eligible residents — exercise their right to vote. Bristol has around 3,000 registered voters on its checklist.

Meanwhile, Vergennes City Clerk Betsy Sullivan on Tuesday reported she’d received 633 absentee ballots from a checklist that numbers 2,204 registered voters, while Middlebury Town Clerk Karin Mott has received 2,240 from early voters.

What follows is a summary of Vermont House and Senate elections that Addison County voters will decide on Nov. 5. Also provided are the latest candidate fundraising totals (dating to Oct. 15). You can find campaign finance details at campaignfinance.vermont.gov, and check out the candidates’ responses to an Addison Independent questionnaire at tinyurl.com/ydvn2dcz.

VERMONT HOUSE

• Addison-1, a two-seat district that includes most of the town of Middlebury, except a portion that includes the west side of Route 7 to Main Street, Elm Street, Seymour Street, the MarbleWorks, the west side of Main Street and the north side of Weybridge Street. Incumbent Democratic Reps. Robin Scheu and Amy Sheldon are running unopposed.

Sheldon chairs the House Committee on Environment and Energy, and she is a consulting natural resource planner.

Scheu is vice chair of the House Appropriations Committee. Now retired, she was a bank executive for many years and during the latter stages of her career served as Executive Director of the Addison County Economic Development Corp.

• Addison-2, a single-seat district that includes Cornwall, Goshen, Leicester, Ripton and Salisbury, currently represented by Rep. Peter Conlon, D-Cornwall.

Conlon, who chairs the House Education Committee, is the former news editor of the Addison Independent who since 2014 has owned and operated Vermont Move Management and Home Inventory. He’s a local firefighter who previously chaired the Addison Central School District board.

Challenging Conlon is Christine Stone, a Leicester Republican who appears on the ballot thanks to a successful write-in campaign during the August primary. Her public service includes a more than five years as the publications/communications coordinator for Vermont Medicaid’s fiscal agent.

As of the Oct. 15 filing deadline, Stone had raised $2,870 and spent $4,738, according to the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office. Conlon had reported no fundraising activity.

• Addison-3, a two-seat district that encompasses Vergennes, Ferrisburgh, Addison, Panton and Waltham plus a slice of New Haven. Incumbent Democratic Reps. Matt Birong and Diane Lanpher are being challenged by Ferrisburgh Republicans Joe Baker and Rob North.

Baker doesn’t have a campaign website. He is a retired GE worker, U.S. Navy veteran and used to represent the Rutland District 1-2 in the Vermont House.

Birong is vice chair of the House Committee on General Operations & Military Affairs.  He has long worked in the food service industry, most recently as chef/owner of 3 Squares Café in Vergennes.

Lanpher, one of the longest serving members of the county’s legislative delegation, chairs the House Appropriations Committee. She served for many years as training coordinator for the Vermont Department of Health’s Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Programs.

North retired from Collins Aerospace in 2020 after holding senior leadership positions there. In retirement, he’s taught high school math, coached middle and high school soccer, served as a Ferrisburgh Justice of the Peace, and as Act 250 Commissioner for Addison County.

As of the Oct. 15, Baker had raised $1,865 and spent $2,240. Birong had raised $3,995 and spent $3,836. Lanpher reported a campaign war chest of $4,360, of which she had spent $1,825. North reported raising $6,140, or which he’d spent $4,013.

• Addison-4, a two-seat district including Bristol, Lincoln, Monkton and Starksboro. The district is currently represented by Democrat Reps. Mari Cordes of Bristol and Caleb Elder of Starksboro, who took a pass on re-election to run for state Senate. Cordes is back on the ballot, joined by Bristol Republican Chanin Hill, Monkton Republican Renee McGuinness, and Starksboro Democrat Herb Olson.

The Bristol Democratic Committee on Tuesday hosted a forum at which all four Addison-4 candidates spoke. Northeast Addison Television recorded the forum and said it would be posted online at neatbristol.com for those who wish to watch it.

Cordes is seeking her fourth two-year term representing Addison-4. A longtime Registered Nurse, she serves on the House Committee on Health Care.

Hill is one of the driving forces behind Bristol’s Four Hills Farm, one of the largest dairy operations in the Champlain Valley. She serves on the Bristol Planning Commission, as well as on the town’s hazard mitigation committee.

• McGuinness is a policy analyst with the Vermont Family Alliance, a non-profit advocacy organization that, among other things, tracks “current and proposed policies and laws that infringe on parental rights, and (exposes) the potential harms that could occur when such policies and laws are made,” according to its website.

• Olson, a retired attorney, spent 15 years (1987-2003) as a member of the Vermont Legislative Counsel, helping state lawmakers draft bills targeting healthcare, economic development, taxation and other policy issues. He served stints representing his community on the Mount Abraham Union High School board, and on the Starksboro Planning Commission.

As of the Oct. 15, Cordes had raised $5,435 and spent $2,909; Hill had raised $1,965 and spent $3,618; McGuinness had raised $5,805 and spent $4,628; and Olson had raised $11,984 ($7,583 from his own pocket) and spent $10,297.

• Addison-5, a single-seat district that encompasses Bridport and Weybridge, and most of New Haven. Incumbent Democratic Rep. Jubilee McGill of Bridport faces competition from Bridport Republican Del Thompson.

McGill serves on the House Committee on Human Services. She has served as property manager and coordinator of rental housing for Vergennes-based John Graham Housing & Services and was senior property manager and compliance chief for Addison County Community Trust, the county’s largest affordable housing provider.

Thompson is a former Randolph selectman who also served on the Two Rivers Planning Commission. He’s a U.S. Army veteran.

As of the Oct. 15, McGill had raised $1,785 and spent $2,364; Thompson reported campaign revenues of $3,750, while having spent $4,246.

• Addison-Rutland, a one-seat district that includes Orwell, Shoreham, Whiting, Hubbardton and Sudbury. Rep. Joe Andriano, D-Orwell, decided not to seek reelection. The lone candidate for that seat is Jim Casey, a Hubbardton Republican. Casey, who doesn’t have a campaign website and did not respond to a request for comment from the Independent, has been a Hubbardton selectboard member. He has signed a pledge to support term limits for Congressional representatives.

As of the Oct. 15, Casey reported raising $1,500, while spending $977.

STATE SENATE

Four candidates are in the mix for the two-seat senatorial district representing Addison County, Buel’s Gore, Huntington and Rochester. They include incumbent Dems Sen. Chris Bray of Bristol and Sen. Ruth Hardy of Middlebury, plus Republicans Landel James Cochran of Huntington and Bristol’s Steven Heffernan.

Leicester Republican Lesley J. Bienvenue was defeated in the August primary but is running as a write-in candidate.

Bray was originally elected to the Vermont House (Addison-5) in 2006, and then to the state Senate in 2013, where he chairs the Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee. He also serves on the Senate Finance Committee, Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules, and the Joint Carbon Reduction Committee.

• Cochran is a Huntington selectman 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.

• Hardy is rounding out her third term in the Senate. She chairs the Senate Committee on Government Operations, and serves on the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, the Canvassing Committee and the Judicial Retention Committee.

Her past civic service has included stints on the Mary Hogan Elementary School board, the UD-3 school board and the Addison Central School District board.

• Heffernan grew up on his family’s farm in Bristol, and has a hand in three family businesses: 802 Excavating, Heffernan Inspection and Repair, and GHR Metal Recycling.

He has served for 30 years in the Vermont Air National Guard as an explosive ordnance disposal tech, a tenure that’s included two tours in Afghanistan.

His past civic experience includes a stint on Bristol’s Zoning Board of Adjustment.

As of the Oct. 15, Bray had reported a campaign war chest of $40,083, while having spent $47,836; Hardy reported $21,294 in campaign revenues and expenditures totaling $20,084; Heffernan had harvested $43,969 in donations, of which he had spent $34,304; and Cochran had raised $14,105 and spent $17,269.

Other elections with local ties include:

• High bailiff, Addison County: Incumbent Dave Silberman, a Middlebury Democrat, is challenged by Ron Holmes, a Middlebury Republican.

• Governor: Esther Charlestin, a Middlebury Democrat, is challenging incumbent Republican Phil Scott.

• State Treasurer: Joshua Bechhoefer, a Cornwall Republican, is challenging incumbent Democrat Mike Pieciak.

A complete list of all the 2024 General Election races can be found at the Vermont Secretary of state’s website at tinyurl.com/58mpr9n8.

Reporter John Flowers is at [email protected].