On his first day as mayor of the Queen City, Bernie Sanders shared a prediction with the alternative weekly Vanguard Press: “People will look back to Burlington, Vermont, 1981, and say: ‘It all started here.’”Sanders, who won the mayor’s seat by 10 votes, was likely envisioning some kind of populist revolution. Instead, what has turned out to be really popular is Bernie himself. Forty-three years and 18 elections after he first ran for US Senate on the Liberty Union ticket, Vermont’s outspoken independent is considering a run for president.
How did he get here from there? Seven Days lays it out on the “Bernie Beat,” a new digital guide to Sanders’ colorful political career through the eyes of the state’s independent media. Original articles and video from more than 30 years of Bernie-watching puts the iconic public servant in context. A multimedia timeline, combined with ongoing coverage of Vermont’s junior senator in D.C. and on the campaign trail, tells the real story of the outsider who would be president. Find it at berniebeat.com.
“This was a huge archiving project,” says publisher and co-editor Paula Routly. “We went back to the first Vanguard articles about Bernie — in 1978 — and digitized them so you can see the original stories as they appeared in print but also search for key words.” Bylines from the time include Peter Freyne, Greg Guma, Kevin J. Kelley, John Dillon, Mark Johnson, Jeff Good, Debbie Bookchin and Hamilton Davis — to name a few. “In the photos, Sanderistas John Franco, Jim Rader and Zoe Breiner look like they’re about 12,” Routly says.
Nat Winthrop, former owner of the Vanguard and its successor paper, Vermont Times, gave permission to publish the historic materials. CCTV Center for Media & Democracy and Channel 17/ Town Meeting Television contributed original video footage.
Content from the first five years of Seven Days also had to be digitized — the late Peter Freyne gave “Ol’ Bernardo” plenty of ink over the years in his “Inside Track” column. His successors — Shay Totten, Andy Bromage and Paul Heintz — haven’t let up. To report this week’s cover story, Heintz followed Bernie around Wisconsin and Iowa last weekend to see how Midwesterners receive his progressive message. “This is the alternative media’s take on a man who, if he runs, would certainly qualify as the alternative candidate,” Routly says.
Bernie Beat also features campaign memorabilia and audio from a long-forgotten 1987 album produced by Todd Lockwood, We Shall Overcome, featuring Bernie “singing” tunes including “This Land Is Your Land.”
Da Capo Publishing Inc., dba Seven Days, was founded by Pamela Polston and Paula Routly in 1995. In addition to its five free publications, the company produces two annual events: Vermont Restaurant Week and the Vermont Tech Jam, a job fair and tech expo.
In 2000, the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce selected then-5-year-old Seven Days as Business of the Year. Eight years later, the Burlington Business Association did the same, citing the company’s exemplary business practices, contributions to the community and promotion of a positive image for Burlington, as well as business success. In 2013, Editor & Publisher selected Seven Days for inclusion in its annual feature “10 Newspapers That Do It Right.”
Bernie Sanders illustration by Marc Nadel. VERY TOP PHOTO, 2014 courtesy of Sanders' office. Bernie t-shirt (2014) and Mayor Bernie (circa 1984) photos by Vermont Business Magazine. Jeff Danziger cartoon for VBM (circa 1990).