By PATRICK McARDLE
Rutland Herald
RUTLAND and WINDHAM counties, Vt. — Voters, especially those in Rutland and Windham counties, will have a new opportunity to learn about where candidates stand on issues of racial justice and equality.
The Vermont NAACP sent a survey to candidates for statewide and federal office and asked them to submit their answers in writing.
The survey was offered to candidates in Rutland and Windham counties, where the Vermont branches of the NAACP are located.
Among the eight questions were:
— “Vermont is at the top of the list when it comes to states that incarcerate a disproportionately high number of people of color. What steps would you take to reverse this trend?”
— “Would you support legislation implementing validated testing on racial attitudes for faculty, students and staff in all Vermont public schools?”
— “Would you support legislation protecting sanctuary cities?”
Tabitha Pohl-Moore, president of the Rutland area branch of the NAACP, said the candidate inquiry, which is the Vermont NAACP’s first, is nonpartisan and does not endorse any candidate.
“One of the things that I say in just about every interview I do now is that politically speaking, if you look at the experience of groups of color, we haven’t fared particularly well under any party, so to draw it along party lines rather than keeping it the human issue that it is, that, to me, does a disservice,” she said Friday.
The Rutland and Windham branches are recent additions and Pohl-Moore said this was their first election cycle, but members hope to make the inquiry a regular part of Vermont elections.
“Our plan is to have this sort of candidate inquiry report with every election so folks have a sense of where candidates stand on issues relevant to racial equity and racial justice,” she said.
Having read the responses, Pohl-Moore said Vermont candidates were “right about where I expected Vermont candidates to be.”
“There were certainly some answers that stood out, that were really exciting to hear and then there were some that were very scary. But, by and large, Vermont candidates came in kind of in the middle,” she said.
She added she hopes the 2018 candidate inquiry will serve as a baseline to determine whether Vermont makes progress or regresses in matters of racial justice and equality.
The questions candidates were asked were all generated by local NAACP members. Pohl-Moore and Steffen Gillom, president of the Windham branch, worked with leaders of political action committees to research issues, develop and refine questions, after sharing the proposed questions with chapter members.
“These were the final eight questions that seemed to capture the majority of what people in Vermont were really interested in knowing about racial justice issues,” Pohl-Moore said.
The surveys were distributed by email and letters. Pohl-Moore said NAACP staff learned while sending the surveys that there were two candidates who don’t have email addresses.
She estimated the response rate was a little less than 50 percent.
A few candidates responded stating they don’t return any surveys, regardless of the source or the questions on the survey, Pohl-Moore said.
“One in particular said they don’t answer surveys because then if legislation comes up they don’t agree with, they can be held to that,” she said.
Pohl-Moore said she respected those candidates for not ignoring the request but said the NAACP’s position is that voters should know a candidate’s position.
“Our only mission was to make sure that voters were educated about where the candidates stand,” she said.
The Rutland and Windham branches of the NAACP hosted a candidate forum in Rutland recently for candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general.
The full survey results are posted online at naacprutland.org/2018/10/18/candidate-survey.
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