In 1981, at the suggestion of his close friend Richard Sugarman, a professor of religion at the University of Vermont, Sanders ran for mayor of Burlington and defeated six-term Democratic incumbent Gordon Paquette by 10 votes in a four-way contest. Sanders won three additional terms, defeating both Democratic and Republican candidates in successive elections. In his final run for mayor in 1987, Sanders defeated Paul Lafayette, a Democrat endorsed by both major parties. During Sanders's first term, his supporters, including the first Citizens Party City Councilor Terry Bouricius, formed the Progressive Coalition, the forerunner of the Vermont Progressive Party. The Progressives never held more than six seats on the 13-member city council but had enough votes to keep the council from overriding Sanders's vetoes. Under Sanders, Burlington became the first city in the country to fund community-trust housing. During the 1980s, Sanders was a staunch critic of U.S. foreign policy in Latin America. In 1985, Burlington City Hall hosted a foreign policy speech by Noam Chomsky. In his introduction, Sanders praised Chomsky as "a very vocal and important voice in the wilderness of intellectual life in America" and said he was "delighted to welcome a person who I think we're all very proud of." Sanders's administration balanced the city budget, and drew a minor league baseball team, the Vermont Reds, to Burlington. Under Sanders's leadership Burlington sued the local television cable franchise, winning reduced rates for customers. As mayor, Sanders undertook extensive downtown revitalization projects; one of his signature achievements was the improvement of Burlington's Lake Champlain waterfront. In 1981, Sanders campaigned against the unpopular plans by Tony Pomerleau, a Burlington developer, to convert the then-industrial waterfront property owned by the Central Vermont Railway into expensive condominiums, hotels, and offices. Sanders ran under the slogan "Burlington is not for sale" and successfully supported a plan that redeveloped the waterfront area into a mixed-use district featuring housing, parks, and public space. Today the waterfront area includes many parks and miles of public beach and bike paths, a boathouse and science center, and Burlington is reported to be one of the most livable cities in the nation. In 2015, Sanders announced his candidacy for president at Waterfront Park. After serving four terms, Sanders chose not to seek reelection in 1989. He briefly taught political science at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government that year and at Hamilton College in 1991. In 1988, incumbent Republican Congressman Jim Jeffords decided to run for the U.S. Senate, vacating Vermont's at-large congressional district. Republican Lieutenant Governor Peter P. Smith won the House election with a plurality, securing 41% of the vote. Sanders, who ran as an independent, placed second with 38% of the vote, while Democratic State Representative Paul N. Poirier placed third with 19% of the vote. Two years later Sanders ran for the seat again, and defeated the incumbent Smith by a margin of 56% to 40%. Sanders was the first independent elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 40 years, the last having been Frazier Reams of Ohio. He won reelection thereafter by high margins, except during the 1994 Republican Revolution, when he won by 3.3% with 49.8% of the vote. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Sanders

• published: 02 Oct 2015
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