Bernie Sanders’ stepdaughter loses US mayoral election

Bernie Sanders’ stepdaughter loses US mayoral election

Carina Driscoll lost the mayoral election in Burlington to incumbent Miro Weinberger.

Carina Driscoll (first from left) intended to follow in her stepfather's footsteps by running for political office. (AFP pic)
Carina Driscoll (first from left) intended to follow in her stepfather’s footsteps by running for political office. (AFP pic)
NEW YORK:
The Bernie Sanders political dynasty returned to the drawing board on Tuesday. Son Levi may be running for Congress, but stepdaughter Carina was defeated in her bid to win his old job as mayor of Burlington.

Vermont’s largest city of 42,000 went to the polls to elect a mayor in a three-way race won by Democratic incumbent Miro Weinberger.

Independent Carina Driscoll ran on a progressive platform similar that of her stepfather, but only garnered 35% of the vote, and thus failed to stop Weinberger from winning a third term. Weinberger had 48% of all votes cast, early results showed.

Her mother is Jane O’Meara, who had three children from a previous relationship when she married the now independent senator from Vermont in 1988.

Driscoll grew up in Burlington, graduated from the University of Montana, and moved back to Burlington, where she and her husband set up the Vermont Woodworking School, which now has 40 full-time students.

She served previously in the Vermont state legislature, the Burlington city council, and as assistant to Mayor Weinberger. She also worked on Sanders’s Congress re-election campaign in 2000.

Sanders, who electrified populists and left-leaners in the 2016 US presidential race before losing the Democratic nomination to Hillary Clinton, got his political start as mayor of Burlington from 1981-89.

Son Levi Sanders announced last month that he was running for Congress in the state of New Hampshire, also pushing a platform similar to that of his father.

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