By Kolby LaMarche

Burlington Progressives have nominated Bill Standen to be their nominee in this upcoming Town Meeting Day election, against incumbent Democrat Evan Litwin.

Standen, a 2020 graduate of Champlain College, launched his campaign recently, announcing last week on social media, urging voters to choose the “winning choice.” Standen recently spoke at the City Council meeting Monday, causing a stir among the council.

“The only people that still conflate Judaism with the apartheid are Zionists and Nazis,” Standen said, roughly halfway through his comments. Stopping him, Democrat President Ben Traverse took issue with the comment, alleging that Standen was implying some councilors were Nazis or Zionists.

Standen, clarifying his comments as people “outside of Burlington,” continued, saying in closing “all that we’re asking is to no longer be complicit in the Israeli genocide.”

Standen will face off against Evan Litwin, first elected in 2024, in the New North End’s Ward 7. That ward, and larger district, has had an interesting political history. Once the old political turf of Burlington Republicans, like former Councilor Kurt Wright, it has since seen some change.

Former independent Councilor Ali Dieng left the seat in 2024, after years of serving on the council and facing numerous election challengers. In that 2024 election, Litwin ran against Progressive candidate Lee Morrigan, winning by a wide margin in a race residents closely watched.

Litwin recently launched his re-election campaign, alongside other elected officials such as Chittenden Senator Martine Gulick. In a statement on the launch, Litwin committed to “local-level priorities around housing/affordability, public safety and the nexus with the substance use crisis, and good governance,” he said.

Standen, not originally on the Progressives’ nominated list, says he will preserve the City’s municipal recycling system, confront affordability, and fix roadways if elected to the 12-member council.

No mayoral race is on the ballot this year—Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak continues in office.

Instead, the focus falls on ward-level council races, like Ward 7, that could influence the balance between the dominant Progressive and Democratic parties on the 12-member council.

The city has released its official candidate list for the ballot. Progressives are fielding strong slates in several wards: Carter Neubieser in Ward 1, incumbent Gene Bergman in Ward 2, and newcomer Laura Sánchez-Parkinson in Ward 3. Sánchez-Parkinson, a political newcomer, won her party’s nomination after defeating challenger Vikas Mangipudi in a December caucus.

Democrats are running incumbents in key spots: Sarah Carpenter in Ward 4 and Ben Traverse, the current City Council President, in Ward 5.

Both are seeking reelection without listed opponents so far.

Voters will also decide on a charter change to formally establish the Office of Racial Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (REIB) in the city charter—a measure unanimously approved by the council in late 2025 to institutionalize the office’s role in city government.