United States House of Representatives election in Vermont, 2004

United States House of Representatives election in Vermont, At-large district, 2004

November 2, 2004

Nominee Bernie Sanders Greg Parke Larry Drown Party Independent Republican Democratic Popular vote 205,774 74,271 21,684 Percentage 67.46% 24.35% 7.11%

Representative At-large before election Bernie Sanders Independent Elected Representative At-large Bernie Sanders Independent

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The 2004 United States House of Representatives election in Vermont was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004 to elect the U.S. Representative from the state's at-large congressional district. The election coincided with the elections of other federal and state offices, including a quadrennial presidential election and an election to the U.S. Senate.

Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders (born September 8, 1941) is the junior United States Senator from Vermont. He previously represented Vermont's at-large district in the United States House of Representatives from 1991 to 2007.^[1] Sanders also served as mayor of Burlington, Vermont, winning his first election there in 1981 by 10 votes. Sanders went on to serve four consecutive two year terms as mayor of Burlington. Since 2007 Sanders has served in the U.S. Senate.^[2][3]

Sanders is a self-described democratic socialist,^[4][5] and has praised European social democracy (though he has also criticized its contemporary "Third Way" departure). He is the first person elected to the U.S. Senate to identify as a socialist.^[6] Sanders caucuses with the Democratic Party and is counted as a Democrat for the purposes of committee assignments, but because he does not belong to a formal political party, he appears as an independent on the ballot. He was also the only independent member of the House during much of his service there.

Gregory Tarl Parke

Gregory Tarl "Greg" Parke (born January 29, 1954 in Boston, Massachusetts) is a retired United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel who was a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Vermont. Parke ran in the 2002 Vermont Republican primary for Vermont's U.S. House seat, losing to William Meub; Parke later ran in the 2006 Vermont Republican primary for a Vermont U.S. Senate seat, losing to Richard Tarrant.^[7][8]

Greg Parke is married to Sharon Colton Parke and they have two children.

In 2004, he was the Republican nominee for Vermont's at-large U.S. House seat, running as a fiscal and social conservative who emphasized the need for a strong national defense. Parke was a firm defender of the Bush Administration's War on Terror, a strong supporter of the Bush tax cuts,^[9] and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He lost the general election to incumbent Representative Bernie Sanders (I-VT).^[10]

Controversy

On Friday, October 29, 2004, the Greg Parke campaign aired a radio ad which portrayed Rep. Sanders (I-Vt) as being on friendly terms with pornographers, pedophiles, illegal aliens and terrorists. The ad was pulled the same day that it first aired. Parke was criticized by both the state chairman of the Vermont Republican Party, James Barnett and Vermont Lieutenant Governor Brian Dubie, as well as by other Vermont Republicans.^[11]

Parke had earlier blamed Sanders for the September 11, 2001, World Trade Center attacks based on Sanders prior vote to cut the intelligence budget.^[9]

General election

References