Wed. Nov 27th, 2024
Four people are outdoors, each in separate frames, speaking or listening attentively. They are dressed in business attire.
Four people are outdoors, each in separate frames, speaking or listening attentively. They are dressed in business attire.
Clockwise from top left: Doug Hoffer, Charity Clark, Mike Pieciak and Sarah Copeland Hanzas. File photos by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

Vermonters appeared certain to reelect the state’s attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer and auditor of accounts by comfortable margins Tuesday, sending a slate of incumbent Democrats (and one Democrat/Progressive) back to office. 

Unofficial results from the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office just after 8 p.m. indicated victories for Attorney General Charity Clark, Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas, Treasurer Mike Pieciak and Auditor Doug Hoffer. None of the incumbents faced competitive challenges. 

Attorney General

With 41 out of 247 municipalities reporting, Clark was well ahead in her reelection race with 36.7% of the vote, according to unofficial results from the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office.

Republican Ture Nelson had 52.2% of the vote, with a third candidate, Kevin Gustafson of the Green Mountain Peace and Justice Party tallying 4.6%. In 2022, when Clark was elected Vermont’s first female attorney general, she won by a 61% to 33% margin.

As attorney general, Clark has overseen lawsuits against corporations that she argues have harmed Vermonters, such as Meta, Monsanto and pharmaceutical companies.

Nelson is a member of the Berlin selectboard and a longtime investigator for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which oversees commercial vehicles. Nelson, who is not a lawyer, ran an almost entirely self-funded campaign. He criticized state spending during the campaign and said he would do more to support law enforcement. 

Secretary of State

Vermonters were also poised to reelect Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas to a second term. With 41 of 247 municipalities reporting, Copeland Hanzas (53%) was leading Republican challenger H. Brooke Paige (40%), a perennial — and perennially top-hatted — candidate for various statewide offices. This year’s election was a rematch for the two, who faced off in 2022 in a race that ended with a nearly 30-point victory for Copeland Hanzas.

As Secretary of State, Copeland Hanzas has stressed the integrity of Vermont’s voting system and pointed to efforts to engage Vermonters in the civic process. Paige, meanwhile, expressed doubts about the security of voting in the state and said he wanted to end early voting in Vermont. 

Treasurer

Mike Pieciak was also cruising to a second term as Vermont’s treasurer Tuesday, leading Republican Joshua Bechhoefer, a credit analyst who said the state’s treasurer needed to do more to protect Vermont’s bond rating and fund its pension system.

Pieciak, meanwhile, has argued he has worked effectively to stabilize the pension system and has touted a “baby bonds” pilot program he has backed that would invest money for Vermonters born into low-income families for them to access upon adulthood.

Pieciak was leading the race with 54.3% of the votes to Bechhoefer’s 13%, according to the unofficial results.

Auditor

With 41 of 247 municipalities reporting, Vermont Auditor Doug Hoffer, a Democrat/Progressive, was heading to reelection, leading Republican H. Brooke Paige in his bid for a seventh term in the office. Hoffer had 53.3% to Paige’s 38.6%, according to the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office unofficial results.

Hoffer’s audits have taken aim at various state programs, including, recently, a Vermont hazard mitigation plan and Covid-19-era economic development programs

Paige, who has a longstanding practice of running for multiple offices as a Republican candidate, said he actually had no desire to be the state auditor. If he won, he said, he would resign and ask Gov. Phil Scott to appoint Linda Joy Sullivan, the mayor of Newport and a former Democratic state representative from the Bennington-Rutland district. 

Now, that scenario is not likely to be necessary. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Most statewide officeholders in Vermont heading to victory.

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