vermont was pretty solidly republican until the '90s. blame all the transplants from new jersey, connecticut, etc., that moved here in the '70s and '80s for the initial shift to the left, followed by a whole influx of leftists after civil unions got rammed through the legislature under howard dean (who had initially been considered a moderate) and the chittenden county progressives in 2000. after that, the whole state got branded as some kind of left-wing utopia, even though up to that point it had really only been burlington that was like that. even when we first sent bernie sanders to congress in 1990, he was been as an anomaly. he only got elected in the first place because peter smith was an unpopular incumbent who, like bernie, was not a native vermonter (he grew up in burlington, but was born in massachusetts). he was also seen as weak on the issue of gun rights, while bernie committed himself to voting against the brady bill. we used to joke that we'd sent bernie to washington because that was where he could do the least damage (he'd been burlington mayor and had run unsuccessfully for governor three times, never getting more than 15% of the vote).
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