In 1961, he was elected mayor of Winooski for a day by his Boy Scout troop.[3] In 1972 he was appointed as Castleton's town manager and in 1976 was appointed as Winooski's city manager. During Bernie Sanders' tenure as mayor of Burlington, Clavelle served as Burlington's personnel director and later as director of the Community and Economic Development Office from 1983 to 1989.
Clavelle was elected mayor in 1989 as a Progressive.[1] During the 1993 mayoral election he raised almost twice as much money as his Republican opponent Peter C. Brownell although Brownell was able to take the Burlington police union's endorsement from Clavelle.[4][5] On March 3 Brownell unexpectedly defeated Clavelle with 5,410 votes to 4,686 votes. Clavelle stated that he lost due to the controversy over his proposal (which was passed) to have the city pay for healthcare benefits for domestic partners of city workers.[6]
Clavelle returned to the mayor's office two years later in 1995, after defeating Burlington's 39th Mayor Peter Brownell.
The Draft Clavelle for Governor Committee was formed on September 11, 1998, and attempted to gather 1,000 signatures to place Peter Clavelle on the ballot. However, Clavelle announced that he would not run on September 14.[7]
In 2004, Clavelle ran for Governor of Vermont as a Democrat against incumbent Governor Jim Douglas and four other candidates. In order to run in the Democratic Party primary, Clavelle had to change party affiliation, as required by state law.[8] He received the endorsement of five-term former Democratic Governor Howard Dean, but was defeated, 38% to 59%.[9] After Burlington's switch to instant-runoff voting in 2005, Clavelle decided not to run in the 2006 election.[10]
In 2012, Clavelle moved to Albania as a staff member on a USAID-funded local governance Non Governmental Organization called TetraTech. [1] He returned to Vermont in 2016.[10]
