 Good evening. We're live and it's 525 here at Channel 17 Town Meeting Television where we have been focusing on the 2018 general elections. In fact, we've been focusing on them not only throughout the month of October where we hosted 31 debates and 100 candidates, but also throughout the primary. So tonight is a big night as we look forward to election day and that is tomorrow the 6th of November and we hope that you have had the opportunity or will have the opportunity to vote because of course that is a great privilege that we all share and it's very important even though You may feel like it doesn't matter It does and there's some really important races So I'm going to recap some of those races that we're watching here at Channel 17 and tomorrow night at 7 30 We will go live with our election results program. This is an election results program We've been doing since 1990 when we started Channel 17. So that's about 28 years ago And we were in a smaller studio with a smaller staff, but it was equally exciting So we're glad you're here to join us If you have any comments or questions or anything you want to raise here on the program for the next few minutes Feel free to call us at 8 6 2 3 9 6 6 We're always glad to hear from our old friends and new here at Channel 17 Town Meeting Television So tomorrow night Diane Meyerhoff and Shay Totten will be here to talk about the election results And we will be bringing live footage live streaming interviews from the campaign parties That is the Republicans and the Democrats will be meeting here in Burlington to review the results and celebrate the outcomes and the progressives will also be in Burlington I believe it fully knows To be looking at the results and celebrating the outcomes So for governor, we're looking at a race with governor Phil Scott the incumbent And he's being challenged by Christine Halquist a Democrat and also a slate of other independent and third-party candidates Many of whom have been very vocal about being included or not included in the in the debates that were sponsored by various media organizations of course here at Channel 17 we invite everyone and so we had some very Interesting forums with the candidates for governor and all the statewide and local races So the statewide races include the governor's race lieutenant governor. We have David Zuckerman who is our incumbent being challenged by Don Turner who is the Senate is the house Minority leader and also the town manager of Milton He's been running a fairly spirited campaign bringing his family on the campaign trail and they they are the top two folks that we are going to be watching and then we go down to some of the other statewide races which include Secretary of State Jim condos is running and let's uh, let's just have a look at who he's running against You know the language of elections is an interesting one Peter Diamondstone the late great Peter Diamondstone Liberty Union candidate perennial candidate who passed over this past year Always said we aren't running races and we're not running for election so the words sometimes are hard to find as alternatives and I tend to agree with with that but we're going to be using the verbs running and competing against so as I mentioned Secretary of State Jim condos is Being challenged by Mary Alice Hebert who is again a long-standing Liberty Union party member We have the state treasurer Beth Pierce who is a Democrat and she is running against Richard Morton a Republican I don't think he was able to make it to one of our debates And of course you can watch if you want to get educated fast take a crash course tonight or tomorrow You can of course come to our website or YouTube channel and channel 17 and channel 17 TV CH 17 TV and watch all of these forums Because as I said we've had them all on All right, so the Attorney General TJ Donovan the incumbent Democrat is being challenged by Rosemary Jekowski a Liberty Union and Janssen will wait from a Republican Now the races that we really are concerned about and look at here, of course the statewide races. There's no question But there are the county-wide races and let me just mention I did forget that there is a US Senate election and a Congressional election and Peter Welch is our incoming congressman a Democrat and he is being challenged by Chris Erickson an Independent who is also running for governor Laura Potter Liberty Union candidate and Anya Tainio Tineo a Republican sorry about that and then of course senator Bernie Sanders is running for a six-year term for re-election He's running as an independent although. I imagine he will be at the Democratic Party tomorrow night And he is being challenged by a series of people full of Saudi Adelaula an independent Russell Bestie an independent Bruce Boussa independent at Gilbert independent Reed Kane Liberty Union Brad Peacock independent John Svitowski Independent and Lawrence Zupan a Republican so they were all here channel 17 So you can watch them if you'd like so as I was saying the state Senate the state level The county level races are the ones that we are particularly concerned with here in the Burlington area the Chittin County region And there are six state Senate positions open They're currently occupied by Democrats and they're being challenged by seven additional combination of Republicans and independence and so when you go into the polling booth You're gonna see 13 names some of them you or be familiar with and others that may seem entirely new to you So that's the state Senate race and then of course probate judge an assistant judge, which are the two other competitive County races for probate judge the incumbent great Gregory Glennon He's a Democrat is being challenged by Bill Norful as a Republican and that means seem odd to you the bill Norful Who's a former Democratic? Mayor of Wynuski would be running as a Republican, but he did not win the primary And so he opted to run again as a Republican so that will be a race to watch Along with assistant judges similar thing happened We call them side judges or assistant judges These are folks that work a lot with family court and they help the judges work on a variety of processes and We have two incumbents currently Charlie Delaney and Connie Kane Ramsey and they Well what happened this is what happened is that Charlie Delaney and Connie Kane Ramsey ran with Suzanne against Suzanne Brown who's running as a Democrat in Zachary York who's running as I think a progressive and I should know that as signs are everywhere and Charlie Delaney and Zachary York got knocked out of the primary the Democratic primary and have opted to run Not as Democrats in this election, but Charlie Delaney is a progressive Republican and Zachary York as a progressive So they've both been endorsed by the progressives and so that will be an interesting race to watch and then of course we have Kevin McLaughlin who is running unopposed as sheriff and Daniel Gamlin who is running unopposed as high Bailiff and Sarah George who is running unopposed as State's attorney I'm not seeing. Oh, it must be at the bottom of this. These are long ballots. These are super long ballots now in Their house races all over the county and there are several contested ones and the ones that I can Speak to just off the top of my head include in in Williston we have the incumbents there Terry mckag and Jim McCullough who are being challenged by Kathleen Orion and Joy Lamoge And if you remember, maybe you do two years ago joy Lamoge came within just a few hundred votes of Unseating one of those two in Democratic incumbents joys running as a Republican So that will be an interesting race to watch in Winniski. It's not exactly a contested race, but it certainly will be One that takes a little time to get the results on because we have Deanna Gonzalez Who is a progressive Democrat and she was a seatmate with Clem Bissonette alongside Democrat from Former mayor, I believe of Winniski Who decided once his name was on the ballot for various reasons not to run and so Hal Colston is Stepping in as a writing candidate. How Colston also did this in the Winniski City Council and won that race last March and those That write-in of Hal Colston will be interesting to see if he gets more votes in Clem Bissonette Who's on the ballot and also just so everybody knows Because it's a write-in it will probably slow down the Burlington results as we gather them because part of that district is in Ward 1 of Burlington and part of it is in Winniski. So Those will take a little longer to count. I understand that many of the absentee ballots were counted today in Pulling places all across the state the early voting numbers have been quite high and that's very exciting That we have such high participation or let's hope that we have high participation And sometimes those absentee ballots are done on election day and they tend to slow down the results tallies after seven o'clock so in Essex, there are also a couple of Contested races that are important to pay attention to Linda Myers who has been in the seat For Essex, I think since 19. Oh 2001. I have my notes right here She's in a three-way race for two seats So there are two seats in district 8-1 in Essex Linda Myers is the incumbent and there are two new faces Mary Beth Redmond who's running as a fresh voice and Tanya Vya off ski. I'm sorry Vya off ski She's running as a progressive Democrat and she's an Essex native and a social worker And then in 8-2, there's a two Incumbents Jill Dylan GM Batista was a Democrat. He's a first-termer and Lori Houghton was a Democrat She's also a first-termer. They're being challenged by John Brennan who is he's run before he says But I couldn't find when so maybe somebody out there might remember that in Colchester There's also two contested races in Colchester 9-1 Jim Condon former Representative and good friend of ours who passed away this year very sadly his seat is open and Kurt Taylor who's the Democrat is running is faced by Seth Chase Democrat and two Republican challengers Desiree Moran and Clark Sweeney both Republicans and in district 9-2 Maureen Dakin is stepping down after many years of service. I think 21 years and Patrick Brennan is run running for re-election and there are three other candidates Pam LaRanger who won the nomination In the primary she had a right in vote and she beat the folks that were on the ballot But there was a there was a recount. It was very dramatic And then Herb Downing who's a longtime Colchester resident and Serita Austin. They're both running as Democrats And then in Milton That's a race that is not that familiar to me, but there's an incumbent Chris Mattos Who's a Republican and he is? There's two seats and John Palacic and Todd Buick are running also to get one of those two seats or all three of them two seats in Grand Isle Mitzi Johnson, who is the Head of the house There's a word for that. It's escaping me at the moment. She's the speaker of the house. She is being opposed by two cousins who are related to Don Turner in Milton and So Judge Ben Joseph who's a regular here on our show and Mitzi Johnson Those are the two incumbents and then there's two others who are Specifically trying to unseat Mitzi Johnson on I think Gun control legislation is one of their issues and that among other other topics in Heinsberg Bill Lippert who's the head of the House Judiciary Committee is being challenged also by a Sarah Toscana who is particularly concerned on gun rights issues and that's what inspired her to vote so we'll be watching that as well and Then let's just see what else we've got. Oh and Burlington, of course we have from We have we have six races, but only one is contested and that's in the new north end That's words four and word seven will be voting on that recurrent right the incumbent Republican just endorsed by the Democratic Mayor of Burlington is running with first term legislator Carol Odie Who's a Democrat and Bob Hooper who's a Democrat and there are two seats open there And then in South Burlington John Colackey former executive director of the Flynn theater and is Running with he as a Democrat and Frank Davis is running as a progressive for Helen heads seat Helen had had that seat. I think since 2003 and I mentioned Williston So I think that we have touched on all the major races that we are watching here And of course there are some ballot questions and the ballot questions are always interesting and certainly important and The most important ones really I well I am saying most important because they loom the largest as a Burlington taxpayer and the first is approval to issue bonds for the high school and I think that's a 66 percent 66 and two-thirds percent vote that's needed for the general obligation bond to Improve Burlington high school and then there are revenue bonds for improving the wastewater and Stormwater utility projects and that adds up to about a hundred million dollars So it'll be interesting to see how Burlington voters vote on those. They're fairly expensive legacy capital projects That will own unfold over many years in Winiskey. There's a simple ballot question that has to do with Giving some flexibility around the the time and the date of the school district's annual meeting So that would be a change and then in South Burlington There are several interrelated ballot questions that have to do with moving the municipal office to the new a new downtown location and city center and leasing that property to the school district and then the school district has Related ballot questions that allow them to take up the lease So there's sort of this land swap in South Burlington in Richmond There is a ballot question to adopt the town plan and I think there is one other one But let me just see if I have those here if I do Colchester to authorize Colchester school district can to convey land parcel to the town So those are really the ballot questions We will also be watching here in Chittenden County. So once again our election results program starts tomorrow night at 7 30 Here we'll be live with interviews from the Democratic and Republican parties in in Burlington and we will also have in studio be our Commentators on the state and national elections Brady Tenzing and Kevin Ellis who give a good counterbalance to what's happening nationally Which of course the mid-term elections are in many people's minds and what the outcomes of those are there are many governor's races and countless house and Senate races and we'll see what the composition of the Congress is as a result of the elections tomorrow night and Kevin and Brady will be talking about that and of course here in Studio a we will have Diane Meyerhoff who leads our results She'll be joined by Shay Totten and then Seth Leonard and some others over the course of the evening so we really hope that you will tune in and Watch the elections and you can go to ch 17 TV to look at our election results because we will be collecting those results as we report them We will be reporting those results as we collect them here With the help of clerks and poll watchers all across Chittenden County for with whom we could not do this program So we are very grateful to the probably two dozen people that helped make our results program a reality And I just like to give a very warm Thank you to the staff here at channel 17 towning meeting television who have provided such incredible and extensive coverage and To the candidates who have willingly come on the air and talked about what it is that is important to them it is it quite moving as a Moderator to be at a table with candidates some experienced and some not so experienced Who are willing to say what they think and stand behind it as a matter of? Political principle. It's very powerful to hear that and see that and we are Very appreciative that we can help keep the wheels of democracy turning We think of ourselves as the grease monkeys of democracy so thanks so much for watching and thanks Kevin for being in the booth and We'll see you tomorrow night at 7 30 here at channel 17 town meeting television