To the editor: Vote for Balint for Congress

Vermont Democrats have a decision to make on Primary Day, Tuesday, Aug. 9: Who among the four current candidates should be the party’s choice to replace U.S. Rep. Peter Welch in the General Election in November?

Let me tell you why I am supporting Becca Balint of Brattleboro. For one thing, I am impressed by the fact that she was elected unanimously as President Pro Tem of the Vermont Senate by her fellow state senators, Democratic, Republican, Independent, and Progressive alike. Peter Welch also led the Senate, incidentally, before representing us in Congress. Like Welch, Balint puts people before party.

Did you pick up on the news that the Vermont Senate has drafted legislation to solve, at long last, the teachers’ pension fund problem? Becca Balint brought all the parties to the table and did not leave until she had wrung a compromise from them. The Senate approved the resulting legislation 28-0. I would like to send to Washington the leader who brought that off.

I like the fact that Balint first came to Vermont in 1994 as a rock-climbing instructor. And that she’s had a career as a Vermont middle school social studies teacher. She evidently likes challenges. She is the mother of two children who have attended Vermont public schools. She has seen – and experienced – firsthand the challenges that ordinary Vermont families face with health care, housing, energy, and affordability, and she has dedicated herself to finding solutions to these problems through public service.

Balint is warm, sharp, forthright, and hard-working. Look her up at beccabalint.com to learn about her background and where she stands on the issues.

Lt. Gov. Molly Gray has never in her life created, sponsored or voted on a piece of legislation, and she did not vote in Vermont or any other state in four straight critical federal elections (2010 to 2016). She claimed to have voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. The record shows otherwise (no vote at all). You can look it up: VTDigger, 9/29/2020. It is not “vote-shaming” (her words) to point this out, especially when she is asking for your vote and my vote. Her failure to come clean about her voting record when it was brought to her attention does not speak well for her.

State Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale has served in the Vermont House and Senate, but never in a position of leadership. Sianay Chase Clifford has never held elective office. Their time has not yet come.

I urge my fellow Vermonters to support Becca Balint in the August primary – and again in November.

Phil Holland
Pownal