 You and I are live for the next 30 minutes. Thank you so much for listening to the monthly Burlington Democratic Show. Again, my name is Andrew Champagne. I'm a member of the State Democratic Committee. I'm also Justice of Peace in Burlington and Inspector of Elections and a long time registrar of voters. I register a lot of voters at events all over Chittenden County. I love to do rock and roll and voter regs. That's fantastic. We have a special show tonight. This is live, coming to you absolutely live as the doors used to say from our beautiful studios in the historic Old North End in downtown Burlington, Vermont. I'm here with my great production crew, Kevin behind the board and always my number one cameraman, Daniel. You'll see behind us, we're gonna see some new graphics tonight. We're gonna thank you so much, Kevin, for putting that together. I think we're gonna see some historical figures, great Democrats, great Americans. So the reason I can't do 45 minutes tonight is I'm doing a concert at the Flynn Theater tonight. I'm volunteering and I'm registering voters for Miss Diana Crawl, who's a jazz and pop pianist and singer superstar, really. She's also known. She is also married to Elvis Costello and another fantastic performer who's rocked the Flynn and is coming back to the Flynn. So I am gonna be registering some voters there tonight. I'd like to thank all my friends at the Flynn Theater for their kindness and setting that up. You are listening to Town Meeting TV, Live, Channel 17. Town Meeting TV, the only station called that in the United States. I also have, okay, I'd be remiss if I didn't thank my producer, Jordan, thank you, Megan, Erica, Ms. Davidian. Anyone else I'm missing? I really appreciate all the Town Meeting television family. We have, you know, you'd say, geez, we're months away from a primary. We're months and months away from the midterms. What's going on? How are you gonna speak for 30 minutes? Tell me, there's no dead air tonight. I'll tell you, from March 1st to April 12th, where I'm doing this show, it's been an incredible month. First of all, obviously the war is terrible in the Ukraine and we fully support the Ukrainian people and government. A very good friend of mine, Adam Roof, and friends are headed to Poland by the Ukraine border to do some humanitarian work. They raised quite a bit of money in Burlington and they're headed out, I believe, flying out tonight. So, Adam, God bless you, man, be careful. It's, I'm so impressed that Americans wanna come to, you know, a border of a country in turmoil and wanna help. It just shows the unbelievable innate kindness of Americans and I guess we're all world citizens, I guess. So, Adam, and to all the pals, my friend Colin also, I wish you the best and we're gonna bring that American spirit and democracy and a rule of law. It does not look like the war is going well for Mr. Putin. The Russian army, I think, might have been a little bit outdated and maybe we thought they were a little bit in ship shape than they were. Maybe got a little complacent. The big bear of Russia, I think, thought that this war would be over now and the fighting spirit, you know, for example, in our Revolutionary War, where we fought on our home turf for, you know, our own country. It really goes a long way. We, I was at a rally, I would say, I think it was four weekends ago or three weekends ago at the state capitol in Montpelier, supporting Ukraine rally and that was supported by the Ukrainian community, also Congressman Welch. We had all sorts of wonderful people, all great congressional candidates, former Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman, great speech from Congressman Welch, Mrs. Margaret Cheney, former state rep from Norwich, all sorts of cool people and some very impassioned speeches. We see that the economy is really used as a military weapon and the Russians are obviously feeling the pinch of the sanctions and Mr. Biden, President Biden, my dear President Biden has stated that we will defend every inch of NATO territory and as much as I am so grateful that we are out of Afghanistan and I know the ending was tough, no one can say it wasn't and thank God we are out of Iraq. No one is promoting a ground war. Hopefully this thing's like a trial. It doesn't even go to court. Hopefully they back off. I think Putin is very weakened and I also give President Biden a lot of credit. Now they say it wasn't scripted but sometimes in life, things just come out and he said, good God, this guy's gotta go. So I'm in full agreement with him on that. Putin's a dictator, he's human rights, he's in violations of human rights, he's a murderer, he's doing things like ethnic cleansing, he's a thoroughly bad character and we have a great deal of Russian folks that live in, not a lot, but in Burlington and they're the nicest and so are the Ukrainian people and no one wants war, except Mr. Putin for his economic crimes. So we are in support of Ukraine. I thank people like Adam for going to, you know, right outside of war zone, trying to help bring some humanitarian stuff, bringing some clothes, bringing some, you know, just things like socks and T-shirts and a warm hat, down jacket, anything like that. Boy, it's, you know, I have a feeling the weather is quite a bit like Vermont. It's gonna be 40 degrees tonight. You know, old time Vermonters might say nothing but imagine sleeping out like that and you know, it's terrible. So I'm sorry, I'm not trying to get too emotional or off topic, when you start talking about Ukraine, you have to start talking about the human rights things that are going on there. Okay, so let's briefly last show. Okay, it was kind of a crazy day. March 1st, it had been postponed because of COVID but March 1st, President Biden delivered the State of the Union and coincidentally, hey, there he is, thank you. Our excellent, outstanding, honest, great President Biden. And that was the same day that we had town meeting. So it was nuts. We elected three new counselors and they were sworn in on April 4th, very quickly. Gene Bergman from Ward 2, Ward I'm in right now, Old North End, Alley House, Ward 8. Primarily a student ward between UVM and downtown. She ran a very good campaign, congratulations, Alley. And then a guy, full disclosure, I worked on his campaign. My good friend, Ben Travers, he did very well in the South and he had some very high quality opponents and that race was, that race really was issues dominated and I think a lot of them were. So it's crazy, we're 6'6 on the council. Now I personally think with the 12 seat council, my personal feeling, and this would have to be after Mayor Weinberger was out of office, is that the mayor should get a tie breaking vote. But he's the only official on the council that's elected city wide. So we'll see what happens. So we have six progressives, we have six Democrats. I think Oli Zhang identifies maybe as a progressive but votes with the Democrats and I consider him a Democrat. Hey, there's my buddy Murrow Weinberger, let's go Murrow. He's a good man. Just celebrated his 10th year as mayor of Burlington. Mr. Mayor, excellent job. Boy, I think literally in the 10 years, the literally thousands of meetings you have attended and sometimes in Burlington not everyone is always happy and I wanna thank you for your outstanding work and your commitment, honor, your wonderful family, Leland, Ada, Stacey, your parents. It was great to see them at your state of the city. While I'm talking about the mayor, I didn't know he was coming up on the board there but it's fantastic. Kevin's reading my mind. We also, his state of the state was excellent. It was about, I'd say 25 minute speech in front of the council chambers and he talked about things like our, the incredible work we're doing Burlington Electric, what we are doing Parks and Rec, what we are doing code enforcement, the new projects that are being worked on, the new, for example, all the wonderful commissioners, they're all really excellent. I do some work for Burlington City Arts. Hello to Ms. Kraft, thank you for a lifetime of rock in the arts, Doreen and also my great, great friend, Mr. Bill Ward, former Burlington policeman now, now code enforcement and also Mr. Brian Pine, former city councilor and now head of CEDO working basically in the Murrow's cabinet or as Murrow's department head. So what we got, we got six six on the council. Hey, crazy, huh? I think it's a little unfortunate that the mayor does not get a tie breaking vote but what we do have, I do have to tell you is we have a new city council president. Max Tracy, who is my counselor for, was it eight or 10 years Max, I don't know. He and also a mayor, a mayoral candidate, a very strong mayoral candidate, lost by a, by just a tiny bit, 129 votes, really gave Mayor Weinberger quite a race. He decided he wanted to take a break and he's doing great work representing the UVM nurses. He's a very proud union man. We give him full support on that. New contracts are going on with COVID, new situations. So he's taken a step back. I wanna thank him. No counselor that I've ever worked with, maybe with the exception of Brian Pine, ever did constituent work. I mean, I could call Max about some stuff in the street and we'd come out and clean it up or he'd work on getting it fixed. So Max, I wish you the best. Now, Max is a progressive and I'm a very hardcore Democrat. He's as hardcore prog as you're gonna get. And we've been on both sides a few times but he used to live across street from me for 12 years. So, hey man, I'll see you again. And you know, Max has a very bright political future and really cares about Burlington. He and I agree on a lot of issues. A few we don't, but hey, Rome wasn't built in the day guys. So we have a new city council president. Hey, awesome, right? Okay, Miss Karen Paul, who is up in, okay, what word is that? Is that five or four? Okay, yes, I believe it is. She lives, she lives up off Shelburne Street, up in, I guess you'd call the Hill neighborhood. And she has been a counselor there, I think since 2010, 2008, and she received the votes. And I don't believe there was any, hey, there she is, council president, Karen Paul. Congratulations, what an awesome person. I'd like to say hello to her husband, who's a great guy, Mark. Her daughter, Caroline, who is working in the White House. Fantastic, I'm so proud of you. And her two sons, this is a good lady who cares about Burlington, has lived here her whole life, whose family has deep roots in Burlington, who cares about people. I think she's gonna be able, obviously you have six Democrats and you have six Pragues. We need each other. So I believe Miss Paul is gonna find some common ground and I really think she's gonna be great. And hopefully work with the mayor very well. I think the progressives sometimes forget that the mayor has been elected four times. You know, whole city wide, all eight words. And I'm always looking for more common ground. I think that's a complaint, perhaps the Pragues might say about the Dems. But that's how it is in politics sometimes. But anyway, Miss Paul is, she will be an excellent council president. Thank you for all your years on the council. Those long Monday meetings, sometimes routinely going past midnight, the hundreds of emails they sometimes receive, scores of phone calls, all for a big $5,000 a year. That's $100 a week. So, I'd also like to thank the departing counselors. Let's see, Representative Chip Mason, Max Tracy. Am I, I don't think I'm missing anyone else. Okay. So we have a council that is divided. We have progressives that feel the mayor is out of touch, maybe has been mayor too long, and we have some Democrats who feel the Pragues never seem to confine consensus and are always kind of a bit utopian. Somewhere in the middle is probably the right answer. Burlington, we're moving, I don't know sometimes if we're moving forward. You know, I've been walking around downtown on Church Street and a couple of times I've been very kind of frightened by some very rough people down there. And I'm really hoping this is a public play. I don't care if it's progressives or Republicans, Dems, whoever, we need more police. We need more social workers. I'm sorry, it's you here. We need more police. We need more social workers downtown. When you combine alcoholism, drug addiction, homelessness, being absolutely freezing cold, wet, hungry, no money, frustrations, tensions, no place to clean up, it's really rough. And the streets are no joke. Anywhere, even in Burlington, on a cold winter's night, I know a gentleman from the old North end, that old guy, he lived on the streets, he slept outside for 20 years. And I wish to God that no one goes through that. So that's what an issue we've got to work on. We've got to build some housing. It looks like some pods are going up. An issue that I and the Mayor's Chief of Staff talk about a lot, Jordan Riddell, like to say hello to her, is no homeless vets. And that's something that I know the Mayor is trying to work on too. And I want to thank Jordan for that and all their hard work at City Hall. You know, you think Burlington sometimes feels like a big city, but it's a very small city. They have it about 45,000, 44,000 population. I think they might be missing about 5%, so let's say 46, 47. The Mayor has like three full-time staff in his office. And if you look at any Mayor's schedule, and especially in Murrow for the last 10 years, every night of the week, there he is. That man is at a meeting, Board of Finance, City Council, Neighborhood Planning Association, you know, School Board, Concert Play. And the amount of work that all elected officials give back is, it's a lot, it's a lot. And it's time to get, let's talk some national politics. We see that President Trump's support is weakening day by day. It's like a helium balloon, a lot of hot air. We see how the January 6th Commission has noted, and even the Republicans have noted, there's definitely grounds for some charges to be filed. Now, I think there's some Republicans who wish we could move past this. I know, believe me, I know a lot of the Republicans are horrified, but the history must be written. And the actions of entering the Capitol or encouraging someone to do that are frankly traitorous. And boy, that's a tough word to say. We learn that the President, someone said a smoking, not smoking pistol, smoking rifle, that his son, Donald Trump Jr., wanted to talk about stalling the election, not certifying it, keeping Trump in power, perhaps having the military around the White House. My friend, we've had, we've had, okay, let's see, I think 47, 48 presidents, something like that. And no one has ever been like that. And a man who conducted his personal business at the White House, scandalous, and his coziness with Putin, especially with this war, I do not like to call people traders or potential traders, but that is what the evidence shows. And my friend in the Republican Party, the Republican Party has had many years of outstanding candidates. Okay, even President Reagan, President Ford, maybe they were conservative gentlemen, but they were honorable people. And you are taking your party down a terrible hole and it's a threat to the two-party system. And a one-party system doesn't work. And, hey, you know, I always say I wish there were three or four parties, okay? And I do agree sometimes with the squad, AOC, and some of the newly elected representative of Presley in Boston and that maybe there should be a party that is to the left of the mainstream. And maybe there's a party on the Republican side that's a moderate. And then maybe there's a libertarian and then I don't know, these will all evolve. And I see some truth to that. That way you'd kind of have coalitions working together. I do not think that is a terrible idea. We see sometimes in progressive elections in Burlington to be very frank. And you know what? If I'm not speaking frankly to you, I'm not doing my job. The progressives have been very forward on the racial, the terrible racism in America. The climate control, the fact, you know, our party is an older party, primarily white party. Our president is just about to turn 80. And I think for a lot of students and young people, that just doesn't seem appealing, that okay, boomer. You can call me that, I guess, I'm 58 years old. And so maybe with the help of Vice President Harris who has really been strong lately, she's good on foreign policy that we can get some excitement going again here. Now let's see where we are. Okay, wow, I've got nine minutes but I've got to spend at least a couple. Thanking, making history. Justice, Supreme Court justice. Current judge. Hey, thank you. Hey, isn't that great? Look at her, she's wonderful. Judge Katanji Brown Jackson, Supreme Court nominee confirmed. I'd like to thank those three Republican senators. Mitt Romney, who I always thought was all right. Lisa Morowski, Senator from Alaska. And I'm tough on her sometimes but I've got to give her credit. Susan Collins of Maine. She's a pragmatical Yankee manor and she knew this woman was qualified. The horrible things that were said about her. The aspersions. I don't even want to mention some of the terrible things because kids are watching this show. Thank God she was confirmed. Thank you for all 50 Democrats for confirming her. Thanking you, thanking VP Kamala being there if we needed that tie vote, which we've seen we've needed. Judge Jackson, okay, let's talk about some things. I'll give you some stats. It's taken 233 years, my Lord, for us to get an African-American female justice. It's been 155 Supreme Court picks until Vice President Biden made history, okay? So we are moving forward. Our justices are starting to look like our country. This is a wonderful woman, a great family woman. You saw her parents or husband or children there. You know, Ted Cruz says, she's a great person. I've known her for 30 years. She's brilliant but tries to put her in with a Q-Nong, guys. That's a good lady there. She was confirmed 53 to 47 for a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court. And this has shown a great month for Vice President Biden, March and early April, a fantastic State of the Union, some serious leadership on Ukraine. Tough decisions, tough decisions. America is not ready to go in a ground war yet. There he is, Uncle Joe, I love him. I was proud to be a delegate for him. And I think he's great. And also, and maybe you can put up there, Dr. Jill Biden, I love her too. Amazing First Lady, still teaching community college while she lives at the White House and takes on the enormous duties of the First Lady. Awesome, awesome person keeps Mr. Biden's spirits up, keeps his health strong. We see how the COVID was right around the president that Speaker Pelosi got it. The Commerce Secretary got it. I don't know if we can put Jill up there. Dr. Jill Biden, thank you. Okay, so I must do, I have seven minutes, I believe. I must do my COVID rap. Okay, full disclosure, I received my second booster shot this Saturday. I was traveling down to Orange County, Vermont, over in New Hampshire, and we stopped at the Berlin Mall. Thank you to all those kind people there. The nurse and the man who checked us in that was so nice, waited about one minute, got my second booster. Now, I'll tell you, I was a little tired that night. I feel great now. I'm so glad I got it. So I'm quadruple-boostered. Now I got some good friends out there, people on the left, people on the right, people, I don't know where they are, but who think the vaccine is bad. We've over 200 million Americans have gotten at least two vaccines. So that's 400 million shots and probably added another 150. That's maybe on the low score, 550 million shots. And no one has died from the shot. It's more dangerous to walk across Pearl Street when it's sunny out and the traffic stick around rush hour than it is to get that damn shot. Okay, they are doing shots in this building right below us. Okay, I am on the corner of North Manuski Avenue and Archibald Street in the old North End of Burlington. And I'd like to thank Mr. Hillsdale. I'm sorry, not Mr. Hillsdale. Mr. Jacob Hinsdale and his real team group, I believe they've leased that space out. You can get a shot there. You can call Community Health. My mantra, you can call 211. Maybe we could put that up on the back. Please call 211 for any COVID questions. Let's say money's tight. Let's say you haven't paid your rent. Let's say you're hitting bills in behind. You're worried about the electricity. Let's call 211, see if we can get you some aid. There's a lot of money out there to help people, to help people in the old North End, to help people in Chittenden County, to help people in Vermont. I have five minutes left. So, oh, here we go. 211, please, so easy. 211 for COVID questions. You also, let's say, hey, you're like, I don't want to talk to a stranger. Why don't you give me a call on my landline? Okay, easiest way for older people or anybody. I love it. 802, maybe we could put my phone number up too. 802-540-0717. That's 802-540-0717. And I can help you with just talking to you about the shots. And what the heck? I'll go with you to get it, okay? Why not? The first shot's 70% effective. You literally don't even feel the shot. There's no side effects. I advise a visor. That's just me, but we are here to help you. 211, if you can call. Thank you, I have three minutes left. I need to thank my crew again, my production crew. Daniel and Kevin, thanks for the stuff behind. I don't know if we could put up, we have three minutes left. The next, the primary is August 9th, Tuesday, August 9th. That's only a couple months away. I am gonna try to get some candidates on. There's so much to talk about. Let's talk about registering to vote. You can do it online. I prefer to do it in paper. You can go to city hall. You can give me a call. You can register yourself. We have same day registration. We have early voting. I have done a careful examination. I really have of all 50 states voting laws. And we're the best. The little state that could. Green Mountain State, Vermont is number one, I believe. A lot of states, you have to have an ID. We can register you with the last four digits of your social. I am gonna be doing voter reg all the summer at a lot of concerts at Silverham Museum at Champlain Valley Fair. Working with my great friends at higher ground, I'd like to thank them all. Please, I'm always glad to help. We will be on next month with another excellent show. Probably go 45 minutes then. Okay, let me just throw this out. Not this Sunday, but next Sunday, I will be marching with the Democrats in the St. Albans Maple Parade. Come on up. The parade is Sunday, April 24th at 11 a.m. If you wanna march with the Democrats, come at 10.15. And you can find us all. There's a side road where all the floats are. And you can find me or you'll see all the congressional candidates there. I'd like to thank all my friends who work on all these campaigns. Okay, thank you. Samantha Sheehan, Spencer Dole, Nat Silver, Ryan McLaren, Ben Sarl, Carolyn Dwyer, all these great people. We wanna say hi to Senator Leahy and our great Senator Bernie Sanders, the two of the best. Senator Leahy is still working so hard in Burlington. Oh, there he is. I'd also like to thank Mrs. Leahy. She's a fantastic lady. I look forward to seeing him in Vermont soon. We're down to one minute. So I am gonna thank you all. And we're getting ready to go off the air. I will see you next month, the second Tuesday at 5.25 for 45 minutes. Thank you to TownMeetingTV. I wanna wish everyone a great night. I wish you the best. Stay safe, get your shot.