NATIONAL ELECTION RETURNS : State-by-State Election Reports of Key Races and Issues : Vermont
MONTPELIER — Republican Rep. James Jeffords easily captured the seat of retiring Sen. Robert Stafford, Democratic Gov. Madeleine Kunin won a third term and socialist Bernard Sanders led the race for Jeffords’ old seat.
With 18% of the precincts reporting, Kunin had 57% of the vote.
In the presidential race for Vermont’s 3 electoral votes, George Bush had 51% to 49% for Michael S. Dukakis.
Jeffords was leading Democrat William Gray, a former U.S. attorney making his first run for statewide office, by a 71%-29% margin. Jeffords had been heavily favored.
Sanders, the socialist mayor of Burlington running as an independent, was making a strong showing in some of the state’s largest communities and was holding his own in some of the smallest. He had 40% of the vote. Republican Peter Smith, a former lieutenant governor, was second with 36%, and Democrat Paul Poirier was in third with 24%.
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