Weinberger won the Democratic nomination without opposition while Driscoll won the endorsement of the Progressives against Culcleasure. Driscoll attempted to unite her campaign with Culcleasure's due to the city's usage of first-past-the-post voting, but Culcleasure declined. Weinberger won against Driscoll and Culcleasure with a plurality of the vote.
After the 2017 city council election all three Democratic incumbents won reelection and the party gained one seat making the composition of the twelve-member city council six Democratic members, three Progressive members, two independent members, and one Republican member.[4]
Campaign
Candidates
Democratic
The Democratic Party gave its endorsement to Weinberger without opposition at its caucus on January 7, 2018.[5][6] Weinberger launched his mayoral campaign at the Democratic caucus. Jordan Redell served as Weinberger's campaign manager.[7]
Independents
Carina Driscoll, who had served in the Vermont House of Representatives and on the Burlington city council and was the step-daughter of former Mayor Bernie Sanders, announced that she was considering running a mayoral campaign in 2017.[8] Driscoll announced that she would run as an independent candidate for mayor on December 4, 2017.[9] Elise Greaves served as Driscoll's campaign manager.[10]
Infinite Culcleasure, a community organizer, announced that he would run as an independent candidate for mayor on December 1, 2017.[9]
At the Vermont Progressive Party's caucus Driscoll won the party's endorsement with 116 votes against Culcleasure's 84 votes after being nominated by Representative Selene Colburn.[11][12] Driscoll declined to seek the endorsement of the Democratic and Republican parties.[13]
General election
During the campaign Driscoll attempted to unite her and Culcleasure's campaigns stating that “I think there is a ton of overlap and shared common ground with who we want to represent and the work we want to do". She also attempted to unite the campaigns as due to Burlington's usage of first-past-the-post voting "the mayor can win on a plurality". However, Culcleasure refused to drop out of the election stating that "Being coerced to drop out of a campaign for public office has been one of the most anti-democratic adventures I have ever experienced".[10]
Weinberger won in the general election with 48.38% of the popular vote against Driscoll's 34.96% and Culcleasure's 16.07%.[14] During the campaign Weinberger raised over $107,000, Driscoll raised over $47,000, and Culcleasure raised over $10,000.[15]
The composition of the city council did not change as all incumbent won reelection and Sara Moore, the only incumbent to not run for reelection, was replaced by another member of the Progressive Party.[16][17]
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