March 7 Election Results

Or, as many as I can find.

Hi, I have been wanting to do a Substack for a while now, but I had no ideas. That is, until I looked at the local election results for March 7 and got a headache. I normally do these in TikToks, but there is just too much information to keep in my head, and besides, TikTok seems to get finicky when I try to green screen more than 3 different articles, I do not understand why.

So here I am.

Welcome to my Substack. My goal is to keep you informed on local elections, cause, I can’t find anyone else doing it. Most local publications across the country have given it up all together so there might be one source for multiple elections. And even that source will have out-of-date information.

So many people on my TikTok always complain about how voting doesn’t matter and that it’s too hard even if it does. And, well, they’re right. Especially for these local races. Not about it not mattering, but about it being too hard. Finding out anything about these local races takes time and energy. Time most people don’t have. But, well, I do, so I’m doing it so you don’t have to.

Every election matters and I do mean every election. As you’ll see later in this, I spend two full paragraphs on the Madison Maine selectman (though I still don’t totally understand why he was recalled, there was one source and it wasn’t very clear, you’ll learn that problem very quickly.) It doesn’t matter if it’s a neighborhood council or president, every election matters, and every vote counts. But, unlike most national races, these local races that I’ll be reporting on through 2023 really could be decided by one vote. The turnout is usually bad, so you can change the makeup of your elected officials relatively easily, but only if you vote.

You will see many hyperlinks in this piece. Please click on them. Each hyperlink is to a news source I used to write this. Sourcing my info is extremely important to me. There is so much misinformation these days, I want to make sure you know exactly where I got my numbers or thoughts from.

Finally, this is a huge undertaking for anyone but certainly for disabled me. I will do my best to stay on top of this, but, well, I can’t control my health, as much as I wish I could. So, please be patient (especially with the April 4 elections). But I will say, if you support my Substack, whether monetarily or by sharing it around, it will be a lot easier to find motivation even when I have flair-ups.

Now that the intro is out of the way, here’s what went down on March 7.

Last week there were 14 elections, but many districts had multiple measures and candidates.

So let’s begin:

Vermont had its annual “Town Meeting Day” which is more similar to how the senate votes for the speaker than any election day anywhere else, that said, they are considering moving to paper ballots in the future.

This means ALL elections across the state took place last Tuesday. Ballotpedia listed exactly two, Burlington and Montpelier.

I could not possibly cover all ballot measures and elected officials from “Town Meeting Day,” but here is the info I could find:

In Burlington, there were eight measures and candidates for five council positions on the ballot. Left-leaning politicians won all seats, as expected in Vermont. In fact, Vermont is so left that its two parties seem to be the Democrats and the Progressives. The Democrats are center left, while the Progressives are far left. I’m sure there are Republicans but they are certainly in the minority statewide. Democrats had a big night winning 4/5 council seats, but one Progressive, Melo Grant did win a seat.

Unfortunately, one of the ballot measures, which would have created a police oversite charter was voted down, a win for Democrats but a loss for Progressives.

Frankly, reading about Vermont feels like a science fiction novel. Everyone always says that Democrats are Republican-lite. Because we’re in a two-party system that just isn’t true across the board nationwide. But in Vermont, it really is. Here is what the Democratic mayor, Miro Weisenberg said to WCAX about the Democratic sweep in the election:

“This new consensus is going to allow us to accelerate our efforts to rebuild the police department, to restore the levels of public safety that Burlingtonians expect and deserve, to ensure that Burlington remains the vibrant, welcoming place for all that it has long been,”

Lovely, right?

The Burlington city council now has six Democrats, two Independents and four Progressives. For the first time in 40 years, a Democratic mayor has a Dem majority on the council. If you’re Progressive and you live in Burlington, I urge you to exercise your right to vote in every election, cause this is what happens when you don’t.

As for the rest of the state, unfortunately, I could only find highlights:

Michael Doenges has become the new mayor of Rutland. The population is around 15,000 and around 3,000 voted.

Newbury voters voted against turning a bed and breakfast into a juvenile detention center.

Barre Unified School District’s controversial school budget failed. It’s now back to the drawing board.

Jack McCullough was elected mayor of Montpelier.

“Just Cause” eviction proposals passed in Essex and Winooski but failed in Brattleboro.

In the Milton School Board race, two CRT opponents, who ran against a specific equity policy tried to win seats. They lost. However, not by a whole lot. Because, again, most people don’t vote. This is why your vote matters so much in local elections. I know I’m a broken record on that subject, but I’m not sorry. More people need to vote.

Winooski city council had a major first. It is certainly the first in Vermont and almost certainly the first in the country. All members elected on March 7 are LGBTQ+. Bryn Oakleaf is queer, and Charles Judge is trans. They will be on the council with Thomas Renner who is gay, and Aurora Hurd who is bi. Winooski mayor Kristine Lott is the only council member who doesn’t identify as LGBTQ+. This is huge and definitely not going to get the coverage it deserves.

Onto Oklahoma.

This one is quick. One ballot measure, legalizing marijuana. If you thought it won, you’d be wrong. 62% of voters voted against it, in fact. To go directly by the numbers, around 216,000 were for it, and around 350,000 were against. That might look like a lot of people turned out, until you remember that the population of Oklahoma is around the same as Los Angeles: 3 million.

St Louis, Missouri had its primary.

The big thing about this primary is it ends a decade long process to reduce the number of wards (districts for much of the rest of the country) and aldermen (what they call their city council members). The number of aldermen is being reduced by half. There are currently 28 Aldermen and with the general election, it will be cut down to 14.

Only 12% of voters actually voted, and I do mean voters, not eligible, registered. That’s pitiful.

Since this was the primary in almost all cases St. Louis voters will have another chance to have their voices heard in the general election on April 4. If you are a St. Louis voter, the date to register for the election has already passed, and you need an absentee ballot, you have till Tuesday.

I will go into more detail about these 14 races closer to the general election.

Onto Madison, Maine.

Out of around 2500 residents, less than 400 voted in this recall election. It’s elections like this where every single vote really counts.

The election was twofold:

Should selectman Glen Mantor finish out his term, and if not, who should replace him.

Mantor was recalled by a margin of 209 to 154. From what I can tell, he accused the town manager of nepotism and using part of the budget to pay his second cousin without the approval of anyone else. No one else agreed with Mantor and insisted he had an agenda of his own that has nothing to do with the town’s needs. I have to be honest, this doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, but that hyperlink is the only source as to why he’s being recalled and that’s what I got from it.

Of those 365 voters, only 255 voted for who would replace Mantor. With 221 votes, the new selectman is Shawn Bean.

Selectman Bean previously ran for Maine senate district 3 in 2022 as a Democrat, and lost by a sizable amount to Republican Bradlee Farrin. It’s great to see Bean in any political office. Hopefully, he does a great job as Selectman and has a better shot in a statewide office next time around!

It’s time for everyone’s favorite state, Florida.

There were two places in Florida that had elections. Florida House District 24 had its Republican primary and Tampa had its city-wide general election.

The sad thing about the House District is that even though this was a primary, the general will still be two Republicans. Ryan Chamberlain won the primary, but not by anywhere near the majority. His opponent will be a Republican write-in named Robert Fox.

I wonder if that means if every Democrat in the district were to write in the same person, they could possibly win. Given that Republicans are split between these two candidates, it seems almost possible. The general election isn’t till May 16, so that might be something worth discussing for Dems in district 24.

From 2015-2020, Democrat Adam Morley was facing off against the Republican who was elected by a sizable margin every time, Paul M. Renner. When the district shrunk, thanks gerrymandering, Renner ran in the 19th district, won and is now speaker of the Florida house.

The Republicans are very split on who should replace him, maybe there is a chance for a Democrat to get written in and win on May 16.

Now for Tampa:

Jane Castor, the first openly gay person elected Tampa mayor will continue to be the first openly gay Tampa mayor. Mayor Castor’s main priorities are the housing crisis and sustainability.

As for council seats, six out of seven were up and four of those six are headed to a runoff on April 25. If you are not registered, you have till March 27 to do so, and you can vote early between April 17, and April 23.

In District 1, the race will be between Alan Clendelin (D) and Sonja Brookins (Progresive)

District 2: Guido Maniscalo (D) who was the District 6 council member, is running against progressive organizer Robin Lockett.

District 3 will be Janet Cruz (D) against Lynn Hurtak (D). Cruz’s daughter is Castor’s partner, so Hurtak thinks that makes Cruz too close to the mayor. Then at an NAACP political forum last month Cruz accused Hurtak of being anti-gay for making this accusation. Hurtak is endorsed by two LGBTQ+ caucuses, and I frankly, don’t know what to think.

Finally, in District 6, Charlie Miranda will face off against Hoyt Prindle. Miranda was just shy of the 50% threshold and Prindle only secured 22% of the vote. That said, things can change between now and the runoff.

The last state with elections this past Tuesday was California with 7 elections.:

Calistoga had one measure on the ballot. No candidates, just one measure, Measure E:

If they should purchase The Napa County Fairground. This had nothing to do yet with what they would do with the land, just if they should acquire it at all. Passing Measure E required a supermajority of 2/3rds of voters. And, though all votes will not be counted till March 22, it seems the voters have decided against the purchase.

In Novato Unified School District, the majority of voters seem to have renewed a parcel tax. I genuinely cannot find any more info than that.

In Mill Valley, Sashi Sabaratnam just retired from city council. She was the only woman on the Mill Valley city council. This was a special election to fill her seat.

Caroline Joachim beat Susan Gladwin for the seat by a sizable margin, though their platforms did not differ too much.

Orinda Unified School District voted on Measure Z, another parcel tax. This one passed as well, with 75% of the vote.

Measure CA5 in Redondo Beach is kind of a big one. They voted to move from primary and general elections to rank-choice voting. Since this isn’t implemented in the rest of the state or country, it would only be for local elections, but still. All votes have yet to be counted, but it seems very likely it will pass.

And Measure CA3 also passed. It is a measure for gender-neutral language throughout the charter. This is not the Redondo Beach I know and don’t love, but I’m very happy to see these changes.

Go Redondo Beach!

Garberville’s and Salmon Creek’s special elections were all about fire safety.

In Salmon Creek, the Measures were S and T. Both won by staggering margins.

Measure S will create a new Fire Protection District. Measure T will create a special tax for that district.

In Garberville, voters had Measure U, which would only be implemented if Measure T passed. Measure U would annex the Gerberville Fire Protection District. It seems to have passed as well.

Also since there’s a new district, there has to be a director of that district. Since all the votes have yet to be counted, and the numbers are fairly close, there is no new director yet.

And that is the end of the March 7 elections. I can guarantee you that there will be elections that I missed. Half of the websites I used for my research were behind paywalls, though I did get around them, but many were the only source for that election, so there are bound to be holes.

I do hope you keep up with this series and it helps you both want to vote, with voting itself and knowing your own districts better.

Happy registering, and happy voting!