C o n g r e s s io n a l
Stan
C h e c k
W
ith all the discussion lately about the ethnic diversity oCtheBurlington school system's faculty, or rather the lack thereof yours truly decided to check in on the distinguished con:gressional delegation ofthe so-called 'whiteststate in the union" toascertain how much ethnic diversity there is on the personal staffsof Bernie. Jim and Pat.Senator Jbn Jeffords has a personal staff of 33 people. Thatincludes
the
Washington and Vermont offices. According toJelIords'spokesman, Howard Colfrln, one member of Jimbo's staff is anAfrican-American. That's S percent of the staff. Next, we checked in with Senator PatrickJ. Leahy. Vermont'ssenior senator has a staff comprised of SI individuals and of thatnumber three are black -
9.6
percent.And finally. we checked in with the office of Vermont's lone
congressman, Bern.ie Sanders. As
you
know, 01' Bernardo is
Vermont's champion of poor people. working people and the eld-erly. He is neither a Democrat nor a Republican, but rather aProgressive, which he would have you believe is a word reserved for visionary leaders and right-thinking people.Burlington Progressives recently called on the teacher's union toforgo their hard-won right to permanent contracts in order to keepsome spots open down the line for teachers of color. Councilor
Donna
Bailey wentso far as to say all city departments should havean ethnic mix that reflects the cultural diversity of the city's population.Unfortunately. Congressman Sanders, Vermont's
number-one
Progressive, does not have even one person of color on
his
congres-sional staff of 17 hard-working. dedicated individuals. Not one.That's 0 percent
if
you're keeping score.speaking of Sanders' staff,there have been some changes oflate.First of all,Press Secretary DebbleBookchin is cuttingback on her workload as she prepares for motherhood. So Bernie recently hired on a second press person -
Tina
Wlsell. Tina's been a radioreporter at WMOO in Derby. Her dad. Bill Wlsell, is the stalerepresentative from Bristol.It's been five months since Sanders' Vennont Director
Jim
Schumacher departed in the midst of a tempest over his romanticattachment to his soon-to-be-wife. Ms. Bookchin, and
his
postremains unfilled. Picking up some of the slack, though,
has
been 01'Bernardo's wife Jane Sande ..... who's taken on the duties of chief of staff. Jane's not getting paid because it's against the law for
congressmen to hire their spouses. Jane's been Bernie's
number.
one fan since he was elected mayorofBurlington in
1981.
He put her to work back then. too, as director of the Mayor's Youth Office.
Separated at Birth?
Were the mayor of Burlington and the governor of Vennontseparated at birth?Maybe.
Turns
out Howard
Dean
and Peter Brownell entered the world at the same New York City hospital
within
hours of each other.Howard was born November
17, 1948
at Doctors Hospital on theEastSide. Shortly thereafter, on November
18, 1948,
Peter made hisgrand entrance.
It
was Peter's mom who uncovered the coincidence and lastweek Brownell confronted the governor about
It.
Ho-Ho didn'trecall which hospital he was born at and, unable to reach his momon the phone, reached for
his
wallet and pulled out
his
birthcertl.licate. Bingo!TI,e two little tykes shared the hospital nursery for a few
days
and, according to Brownell, decided
way
back then that Howard would be governor of the state and Peter would go for the mayor's job in Vermont's largest city.
"Howard was older." notes Brownell.
But what's he doing carrying his birth certllicate around in
his
wallet? Let's hope he still doesn't get carded Anchors
Aweigh
Channel S's City Hall reporter,
ChrlBtlna
McKellJUl, departed last weekend for her new City Hall beat in Richmond, Virginia. Nosurprise. Everyone knew Chris was going places the day shearrived.Before departing, though, she did draw yours truly's attention ~othe absence of women anchors at WCAX-TV.MarsellsParsons
IS
a fixture at 6 p.m. and
Will
Mlc""".
has
been doing the honors at11p.m. Now Will's being replaced by RollOr
Ganity.
WP'fZ has Erin Clark and until recently, WVNY's had JudySbnpson anchoring the nightly news. But ChannelS - 'Vermont's News Station" - has been strictly Boys Town.Peter
MartIn,
the man in charge at WCAX.was quick to remind Inside Track of Alexandra Marks, who used lo anchor the latenews. But Alexandra departed long, long ago.Martin says nobody has the title "anchor" at ChannelS, and thattheir policy has always been to have the news director read thenews at 6 and then have the night editor read. it at,
1I:
When avacancy comes up, says Martin. they look to see who s ready as of this moment." So it looks like the station's talented women report-ers just aren't ready.Meanwhile, WVNY's news director and 6 p.m, anchor JudySimpson has departed to become afull-time mother. Judy and her husband adopted their first child a couple weeks ago. Word
Is
thesports guy, John
Cavazos,
Is
the "acting" news director and
Mark
Economou will be holding down
the
anchor desk on both nightlynewscasts. •
