BRATTLEBORO — By a narrow margin, citizens voted March 4 to instruct the town attorney to, among other things, “draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution.”
According to Town Clerk Annette Cappy's preliminary totals, 3,807 voters weighing in on the town meeting ballot question, 2,012, or 53 percent, approved the measure and 1,795, or 47 percent, turned it down.
The town election drew 4,249 voters who cast a ballot in the Vermont presidential primary, delivering victories for Democrat Barack Obama, who earned 2,254 votes to Hillary Clinton's 1,309, and Republican John McCain, whom voters preferred to Mike Huckabee 446–80. Republican candidate Ron Paul received 22 votes.
Voters also ousted Audrey Garfield from the Selectboard, replacing her with Martha O'Connor, who served on that board in the 1990s. Garfield received 1,827 votes to O'Connor's 1997 for the three-year term.
According to her biography on iBrattleboro.com, O'Connor, chair of the Vermont State Lottery Commission and a member of the Vermont State College Board of Trustees, is "a lifelong Brattleboro resident with a history of public service to both Brattleboro and the state of Vermont." She has been a teacher in both Brattleboro and Putney and in recent years has assisted her husband, Timothy O'Connor, in his law office in town.
O'Connor serves on the traffic safety committee and the police/fire facilities committee and has been a longtime town meeting representative. She has served on the boards of Brattleboro Union High School, Brooks Memorial Library, board of listers, youth service, United Way, Brattleboro Housing Authority, and the Brattleboro Chamber of Commerce.
For the one-year Selectboard term, John Allen, a self-employed general contractor, and Jesse Corum, an attorney with Gale, Corum, Mabie, Cook & Prodan, trumped opponents Spoon Agave, Kiah A. Coble, and Ian Kiehle. O'Connor, Allen, and Corum campaigned together as a ticket.
Symbolic gesture?
Organizers of the indictment question cite the Bush administration's illegal wiretaps, the violations of international law that occurred “based on 935 instances of false statements” surrounding the circumstances of engaging the Iraq war, and disregarding laws through “signing statements” as examples of the “crimes against our Constitution” listed in the question's text.
Other requirements of the nonbinding or advisory ballot question, which its supporters have named the Brattleboro Initiative, include publishing the indictment “for consideration by other municipalities.” The text also charges the town police with arresting and detaining Bush and Cheney in Brattleboro “if they are not duly impeached, and extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them."
The question, written by resident Kurt Daims, was included on the ballot by citizen petition in accordance with Brattleboro town charter. Organizers successfully collected signatures of at least five percent of the town's voters. The inclusion of the article on the ballot generated a surge of 8,000 e-mails to town offices (story, page 11).
While Daims and other proponents of the ballot question originally believed that the measure would be a symbolic rebuke, they say they have learned otherwise.
“Constitutional lawyers have assured us that, under a legal provision known as 'Common Law Application,' municipalities have indisputable legal standing to apply laws against any alleged criminal who violates federal law - which encompasses violating treaties, being party to war crimes, or engaging in any other criminal activities,” organizers wrote in a letter to Brattleboro residents. “Put another way, any town has the right to pass laws to address war crimes, or any other federal crimes, and to indict the people alleged to have committed them.”
"The advisory nature of the resolution means that after is it passed by the electorate, the Selectboard can then explore a wide range of legal options in order to convey the intent of the voters to the appropriate authorities," organizers wrote on iBrattleboro's election site.
“I voted for it because I think it's appropriate,” voter Joanna Rueter said. “[President Bush] won't come, and nothing will happen, but at least it's a statement that this man has done more harm to the country than anybody else.”
One voter who declined to identify herself called the question “a waste of time.”
“What's it going to prove?” she said. “Are they going to come to Vermont? [Bush] never did and he never will. I've thought about it and I've read the stuff in The Commons and it's like, you know what? There are more important issues than getting those a----s out of office.”
Voter Ed Lawida differed.
“I think it's great,” he said. “I think if it was any other country [Bush would] be charged for crimes against humanity. There's nothing that can legally be done, but people are fed up.”
As a Vietnam Veteran, Lawida said he is “disgusted with him getting out of the Vietnam War, because he was a person of privilege. Look at the chicken hawks you have around him: Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz. Did Bush send his daughters over to Iraq and Afghanistan? They're always the ones to send other people to war.”
“We can't even take care of our veterans who are over there now,” Lawida added. “If you were to stop the war today, it would cost the taxpayers and the VA over $600 billion. It's a trillion-dollar war. So I think, yes, Bush and his administration should be held accountable, and I wish other towns would do the same.”