(Host) At a debate Thursday night in Burlington, the three candidates running for their next job to be mayor of Vermont’s largest city talked about their first job and what they learned from it.
Democrat Miro Weinberger worked in Senator Patrick Leahy’s Washington, D.C., office as a mail clerk.
The real estate developer said that experience motivated him to seek public office one day.
(Weinberger) "Unlike many people who leave D.C. jaded, I left it feeling excited and inspired. And it stayed with me."
(Host) Meanwhile, Independent Wanda Hines recalled her first full-time job working at General Electric for five years.
(Hines) "And while I was there I was shop steward. And I really learned a lot of value and teamwork being a shop steward, and looking at process and discipline and what it takes to motivate a team."
(Host) And Republican Kurt Wright says, if you don’t count a gig picking apples, his first real job was working at the Basin Harbor Club in Vergennes.
(Wright) "Worked on the grounds crew. Worked in the dining room. Worked as a bell hop. What I learned was the value of hard work, working together, earning a paycheck."
(Host) Burlington voters will go to the polls on March 6th, Town Meeting Day in Vermont, to decide whether Weinberger, Hines or Wright will earn his or her next paycheck as Burlington’s mayor.
VPR participated in Thursday night’s debate, which was a co-presentation of Channel 17 and Seven Days.
Courtesy of Channel 17, watch video of the candidates answering questions from media panelists Andy Bromage (Seven Days), Kristin Carlson (WCAX) and Kirk Carapezza (VPR), as well as from the public.