Vermont United States House of Representatives election, 2006

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The Vermont United States House of Representatives election, 2006 was held on November 7, 2006. The winner will represent the Vermont's at-large congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from January 3, 2007 to January 3, 2009.

Independent Representative Bernard "Bernie" Sanders, the only Independent in the U.S. House, left the House after 8 terms to seek one of Vermont's United States Senate seats, vacated by the retirement of Senator James "Jim" Jeffords (also an independent).

Democrat Peter Welch defeated Republican Martha Rainville 53%-44% in the general election.

Contents 1 Candidates 1.1 Democratic Party 1.2 Republican Party 1.2.1 Defeated in Primary 1.3 Liberty Union Party 1.4 Green Party 1.5 Independents 2 Campaign finance data 3 Election results 4 Polling 5 See also

[edit] Candidates

[edit] Democratic Party

• State Senator Peter Welch, Windsor.

[edit] Republican Party

• Maj. Gen. Martha Rainville, USANG (Retired), former Adjutant General of Vermont.

[edit] Defeated in Primary

• Mark Shepard - State Senator

[edit] Liberty Union Party

• Jane Newton, a retired nurse.

[edit] Green Party

• Bruce Marshall

[edit] Independents

• Chris Karr
• Dennis Morrisseau, former United States Army officer, and one of the founders of Vermont's Liberty Union Party.
• Keith Stern, small business owner, member of the Springfield zoning board
• Jerry Trudell

[edit] Campaign finance data

As of September 30, 2006, fundraising was as follows:

Candidate	Raised	Spent	Cash on Hand	Raised From PACs	Raised From Individuals	Candidate's Personal Funds	Other
Martha Rainville	$827,284	$588,709	$238,677	$242,350 (29%)	$460,056 (56%)	$4,000 (<1%)	$120,878 (15%)
Peter Welch	$1,604,085	$1,081,988	$522,087	$419,512 (26%)	$1,153,437 (72%)	$0 (0%)	$31,136 (2%)

Source: Opensecrets.org

[edit] Election results

Official results from the Vermont Secretary of State [1]:

2006 U.S. House election, Vermont
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Peter Welch	139,815	53.2	+46.1
	Republican	Martha Rainville	117,023	44.5	+20.1
	Independent	Dennis Morrisseau	1,390	0.5	n/a
	Independent	Jerry Trudell	1,013	0.3	n/a
	Green	Bruce Marshall	994	0.3	n/a
	Independent	Keith Stern	963	0.3	n/a
	Liberty Union	Jane Newton	721	0.2	-0.8
	Independent	Chris Karr	599	0.2	n/a
	Write-ins		208	0.0	0
Majority			22,792	8.7
Turnout			262,726
	Democratic gain from Independent		Swing

[edit] Polling

Source	Date	Welch (D)	Rainville (R)	Newton (LU)
Research 2000	October 23-24, 2006	51%	41%
Greenburg Quinlan	October 8-9, 2006	52%	41%
Research 2000	September 18-19, 2006	45%	39%
American Research Group	September 14, 2006	48%	45%	2%
American Research Group	July 27, 2006	41%	42%

[edit] See also

• United States House elections, 2006
• Vermont United States Senate election, 2006
• Vermont gubernatorial election, 2006

Preceded by 2004

U.S. House of Representatives elections (Vermont At-Large) 2006

Succeeded by 2008