By Jade Csizmesia
Staff Writer

Tim Ashe is not the typical Vermont State Senate candidate. If elected, the 31-year-old Burlington resident and University of Vermont alumnus would be one of the youngest members in the Senate. On Nov. 4, his name will appear on the ballot as a Democrat/Progressive, something that has never happened before in Vermont.

Carving a new path

Although Ashe ran as a Democrat in the primaries, his name was written in by enough Progressives that he also won their nomination. The Progressive party believes in reform and social equity, Ashe says.

“I was going to do something to try and carve a new path for people so that the best elements of Democrats and Progressives could come together around a new option on the ballot,” he says.

Ashe will be running against 14 candidates fighting for six senate seats. If Ashe is elected he will focus on energy and agriculture, he says. 

 The state should invest in the infrastructure needed to generate local, clean and renewable energy, Ashe says.

Rather than investing in Vermont Yankee, a nuclear plant, Vermont should invest in a company like the McNeil wood burning plant, which produces clean energy and saves considerable amounts of money, Ashe says.

Ashe is a Project Manager at Cathedral Square senior housing in Burlington. (Photo by Cailey McDermott)

Ashe also supports local agriculture and Vermont’s strong dairy tradition. The New Ag Agenda is a diversified production that provides locally produced meat, vegetables and dairy, which is then dispersed to neighboring markets, he says.

“Until last year a chicken farmer could not sell a chicken to his neighbor across his street in Vermont because apparently that was a huge health threat,” Ashe says. “Meanwhile we’re getting peppers from Mexico.”

The key to keeping local agriculture alive is to rework the Department of Agriculture’s thinking about the future, including support for Intervale farming and composting facilities, both critical issues to this area, he says.

Fixing the struggles

Originally from Massachusetts, Ashe attended the University of Vermont where he studied English and history.  He was attracted to the outdoors and liked that Burlington was defined by its student population, he says.

Approximately four days before his graduation in 1999, Ashe received a call from Sen. Bernie Sanders’ office director, asking him to be there in 30 minutes for a job interview. With a beard and no appropriate interview clothing, Ashe got the job anyway, he says.

“Everyday Ashe would really hear the struggles that people have, and I think that was really important in Tim’s development of understanding what’s going on for the working people,” says Phil Fiermonte, outreach director for the U.S. Senate and Ashe’s supervisor while he worked at Sanders' front desk.

Ashe later became Sanders’ scheduler, which quickly transitioned into field representative. He met with various organizations that dealt with child hunger, health care and domestic violence. Afterwards, he would bring citizen troubles to Sanders where solutions would be debated, Ashe says.

After leaving Sanders’ office, Ashe worked for United Academics, a faculty organization at UVM. From 2002-2004 he attended Harvard Kennedy School of Government where he studied domestic social policy.

Ashe then began working on the Burlington City Council, and is most proud of his work on two housing ordinances, he says.

Ashe lives on Ward Street, in the northern section of the old North End. It was an unstable neighborhood of tough streets and extremely low incomes, he says.

In the last two years, the neighborhood has transformed as a result of young homeowners buying homes with the help of these ordinances, Ashe says.

“Instead of seeing dirt caked on the front yard, there are grass and flowers, and people taking care of their property,” Ashe says. “You see people walking on the streets, whereas before it was like you didn’t walk there unless you were an idiot politician like me.”

UVM religion professor Richard Sugarman is one of Ashe’s former teachers. Ashe was one of the brightest students Sugarman taught in his more than 35 years of teaching at UVM, Sugarman says.

“Ashe has a kind of pragmatism about him that gets things done,” Sugarman says. “He’s not interested so much as in winning a debate as he is in advancing the well being of students, teachers, workers, and farmers, people who make up the population that he wants to represent.”

Fleeing graduates

Ashe is also concerned with young college graduates fleeing Vermont, he says.

Vermont needs younger workers to replace the aging workforce, especially in health care and education. Young people bring energy to Burlington and are constantly transforming it, Ashe says.

“Young people make the place worth living in,” he says, “and every time somebody complains about students in Burlington, I say, ‘imagine Burlington without them.’”

Ashe says he relates to young people with issues such as student debt. (Photo by Cailey McDermott)

Ashe relates to young Vermonters because he has similar experiences, such as massive student debt, he says.

He will look at putting economic incentives in place for the types of jobs that college graduates want to be doing, he says.

He will work with colleges and universities to think about the types of professions that could forgive loans in exchange for some period of service in Vermont, Ashe says.

There is also the possibility of assistance with first-time home ownership. Students could receive slightly lower interest rates or down-payment assistance, Ashe says.

“I think it is about time that some youthful energy invigorates state policy discussions,” Ashe says. “There needs to be a voice for all the people those decisions affect and I am very much looking forward to being a part of that vehicle for younger people.”