There's been little or no mention here of another March 7 election -- in Burlington, VT. Instant-Runoff Voting was used for the first time there to elect a mayor in a town with a strong -- heck, dominant! -- third party, the Progressives. Progressives have held the mayor's position ever since 1990, when Bernie Sanders pulled an upset to gain his first prominent elected position.
This use of IRV is been viewed as a test run for a system that might be tested state-wide a few years down the road. So, how did it turn out?
The contest attracted candidates from the three main parties, and two minor independents. The front-runner was definitely Democratic businesswoman Hinda Miller (an inventor of the Jogbra) who won an energetic primary fight that led most to assume she would win in the runoff after Republican city councilman Kevin Curley was eliminated. It seemed the year Democrats would win back the mayor's seat, as Progressive candidate Bob Kiss seemed to have very little buzz or money compared to Miller. He did, however, win some key labor endorsements and apparently had some real grassroots (eg, people walking door to door for him).
Well, here are the results.
First round--
Miller (D): 32% (3,107 votes)
Curley (R): 27% (2,611 votes)
Kiss (P): 39% (3,811 votes)
Ploof (I): 1% (58 votes)
Beaudin (I): 1% (99 votes)
Surprising that Kiss did so well out of the gate, but I did say it was a dominant third party. But you'd assume that a lot of Republicans would go for Miller as their second choice, going for the moderate business leader, right? Whoa, wrong:
Final Round--
Miller (D): 45.6% (3,986 votes)
Kiss (P): 54.4% (4,761 votes)
Two things jump right out here. Miller gained about 880 and Kiss about 950. Those add up to 1,830, only about 2/3 of the Republican/Independent vote total, so a lot of people in this election probably ignored the option of IRV to use a second-choice vote. Anyone know if this is typical attrition in real-life IRV?
Second, of course, is that Republicans split at least evenly in their second choice. Which is amazing. Either Miller did a poor job positioning herself in the middle, some of the ususal negative blitz against the front-runner stuck, or, as Philip Baruth suggests, "Being rich is a big-ass liability in Vermont." (He has a few other notes on how the election played out, go check him out.)
And please, feel free to share your thoughts and reactions.
[Notes: Vote tallies from Channel 17. This diary was posted earlier today on MyDD. And yes, I know Bernie won as a Socialist back in the day, but it is considered to have been part of the progressive coalition and the start of the Progressive rise in Burlington, and the state. Which, apparently, continues on as strong as ever.]