Republican health care magnate Richard Tarrant has spent $6.1 million in an effort to win this open Senate seat, shattering just about every imaginable record for political spending in the state. Unfortunately, the most recent poll indicates that all that money has only earned Tarrant 33 percent of the vote.
Tarrant has been in the race since last year, but while he has improved his name identification, he hasn't made any inroads against his opponent Rep. Bernie Sanders. Sanders, who has represented the state's At-Large congressional district since 1990 as an independent, won the Democratic nomination in the September 12 primary. He then turned it down, preferring to run as an independent. There won't be a candidate on the Democratic line.
After 25 years in public office, the first nine as Mayor of Burlington, voters know Sanders pretty well. If his liberal voting record wouldn't play well in many states, it suits Vermont just fine. As such, voters here do not seem that open to Tarrant's criticisms of Sanders' record. They've heard it all before.
In some ways, Tarrant
Subscribe Today
Our subscribers have first access to individual race pages for each House, Senate and Governors race, which will include race ratings (each race is rated on a seven-point scale) and a narrative analysis pertaining to that race.