BLM opponent wins Vt. House seat even without Facebook

RUTLAND | On Election Day 2020, Art Peterson of Clarendon proved that a determined challenger can defeat an established Democratic incumbent – without any help from Facebook. Seven days ago Peterson was a first-time Republican candidate for the Democrat/Progressive controlled Vermont Legislature. The outspoken conservative activist was trying to unseat a longtime, entrenched Democrat. Making that tough job harder was a mysterious, unexplained Oct. 16 blackout of his Facebook account. Nevertheless, he won. He and leading Rutland-2 district vote-getter incumbent Republican Tom Burditt unseated Democrat Dave Potter, who had served since 2005. Peterson is among the net-gain of four Republican votes that ended the Democrat/Progressive supermajority. This coming year, the Dem/Progs will need absolute, first-vote fealty and at least one independent to override a veto by Gov. Phil Scott. Potter, a soft-spoken, retired Rutland schoolteacher, co-sponsored controversial legislation like the Global Warming Solutions Act, changes to Act 250, and the plastic bag ban. Still, it would not be fair to label Potter as a legislator of all-things-liberal – for example, he joined the mostly-Republican vote against S54, the retail marijuana law. Yet on June 19, he voted for HR 21, which rebuked both President Trump and Vermont for racial injustice at the height of the nationwide George Floyd-BLM protests. For whatever reason, West Rutland, Clarendon, Wallingford, and Proctor voters gave the Vermont Legislature seat to Peterson. It may not be coincidental that Clarendon and West Rutland were among the eight Rutland County towns to vote for President Donald Trump. Peterson has been in the thick of things on the local level. In October 2019, the town of Clarendon became the second Vermont town to ban the retail sale of marijuana. It was a pre-emptive move in the event the Legislature approved retail pot (which it did this spring). Months earlier, as a citizen activist, Peterson researched anti-retail pot legislation for the select board. This July, Peterson helped secure 500 citizen signatures on a petition opposing Mill River Unified Union School District support for flying the Black Lives Matter flag. He was quoted thus in the Rutland Herald: "The Black Lives Matter flag is a symbol of an organization with Marxist roots, it's a symbol of an organization that's continually involved with violence, and when we put that flag on that flag pole we are telling the world we agree with them….And I don't think the majority of the taxpayers of this community agree with it any more than they would agree with a Nazi flag hanging on that flag pole, it's about the same thing to me. We don't need to politicize and sexualize our children's education, and I feel very strongly that's what we're doing here." Peterson received plenty of local, state, and national attention for the BLM flag petition, both pro, and con. He recently emailed to Vermont Daily: My opposition to any flags on school flag poles came about because I feel it is absolutely wrong to politicize the education of our children. My opposition to legalizing marijuana is because I see it as a health and safety issue which will have long term negative societal consequences, the position taken by both medical and law enforcement experts. Whether or not it helped me or hurt me at the polls I have no feel for; I will call them as I see them. At the very least the voters know exactly how I feel." Without warning, Peterson's Facebook page was dropped on Oct. 16... "...Tuesday morning my account was disabled, no reason was given, no message, no email. Nothing. I didn't know if any other conservative voices in the state had experienced the same thing," according to Peterson. On Nov. 5 he wrote, "As far as I know my Facebook account is still disabled. I have received no communication from Facebook as to why it was disabled or any time frame for when it will be reactivated. Congressman Peter Welch's office has been in contact with me about it with no resolution to date." With or without Facebook, Art Peterson seems to have a knack for making his views known. Vermont State House, here he comes. Reprinted with permission from Vermont Daily, an online Vermont newspaper published by Guy Page of Berlin. See www.vermontdailychronicle.com.

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BLM opponent wins Vt. House seat even without Facebook

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