Vermont Governor Wins Second Term

Democratic Gov. Madeleine M. Kunin was elected to a second term Thursday in a joint session of the Legislature, more than two months after Vermonters failed to award her a majority of their votes.

Kunin received 139 votes from the combined House and Senate, while Republican Peter Smith received 39 votes and Burlington Mayor Bernard Sanders, the only socialist to head a U.S. city, received one vote.

Kunin’s easy victory was expected and her staff had been preparing festivities surrounding her inauguration. She was inaugurated for her new two-year term three hours after the vote.

“There are no surprises here,” Kunin said after the vote. “I am pleased that this is resolved.”

Governors also were being inaugurated Thursday in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Nebraska, where Kay Orr becomes the state’s first woman chief executive and the nation’s first elected female Republican governor.

Vermont is one of three states in which the Legislature decides the outcome of some statewide races if no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote in the general election. It was the first time since 1912 that the Legislature decided the outcome of a governor’s race.

Got 47% of Vote

Kunin received 47% of the vote in the Nov. 4 governor’s race, while Smith got 38% and Sanders, who ran as an independent, won 15%.

Kunin said she will work to change the provision in the state constitution requiring a majority vote to win the offices of governor, lieutenant governor and treasurer. She said the office should go to the person winning the most votes.

That change must be passed by two consecutive legislatures and then passed by voters in a referendum. The earliest it could take effect is 1992.

Mississippi and Georgia are the only other states in the country in which the Legislature decides the outcome of some statewide offices if no one wins a majority of the popular vote, according to Paul Gillies, deputy secretary of state.