Revisiting 2016 Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders' Pre-2000 Political Career--Part 1

In his 1991 book, The Socialist Mayor: Bernard Sanders In Burlington, Vermont, Steven Soifer indicated how 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was elected to be the mayor of Burlington, Vermont in November 1981:

"...Sanders formally announced his independent bid for mayor [of Burlington, Vermont] in Fall 1980....After a tense recount [in November 1981], Sanders was declared the official winner, but by an an even slimmer ten-vote margin...

'How do we explain the extraordinary upset of Bernard Sanders over Democratic mayor Gordon Paquette?....The lack of a Republican candidate and the presence of three independent candidates, including Sanders, also was critical to Paquette's defeat. One of these independent candidates, restaurateur Dick Bove, ran against the incumbent after losing in the Democratic Party city caucus. If Bove had not gotten the 1,000 voters he did, Paquette almost surely would have won the election....

"The endorsement of the Burlington Patrolman's Association in a week before the election was still another crucial factor. Paquette had alienated this group over the years and the socialist challenger actively courted their support. One Sanders administration official commented that the endorsement `probably took him [Sanders]...to a situation where he was now a real legitimate contender.' And one newspaper reporter confided that it `gave Bernie an endorsement from a very credible source that in and of itself negated all the possible...red-baiting that would have gone Bernie's way....I mean how can you be a communist if the police are for [you]?'.

"The news media also played an important role....By giving Sanders a lot of coverage, the news media helped turn him into a major contender in the election. Said one progressive: `I can't believe he [Sanders] would have won as mayor if he had not been on the news almost every night--and sympathetically so!'....

"....One campaign worker said Sanders's identification as a socialist was `never brought up by the media or Paquette, even though the campaign was ready for it.' Immediately after the election...a story appeared inThe Burlington Press on Sanders's socialist beliefs and philosophy, making it widely known for the first time...."