By Russell Flannery

Rutland voters on Town Meeting Day rose above widely described “chaos” following the shock resignation of former Mayor Mike Doenges in a letter on Jan. 27 that led to the race for his successor being decided by write-in ballots. As noted in an election summary by the Fair Haven GOP, Rutland aldermanic and mayoral candidates don’t run as Democrats or Republicans, but in reality, there is a progressive-democrat coalition (“Rutland Forward”) and a center-right coalition. Newly elected mayor Tom Donahue leads the latter;  the former picked up a Board of Alderman seat though lost the mayor’s seat after Doenges’ abrupt exit. 

 The results of the write-in race yesterday delivered numerous individual winners – including the participation of large number of fresh faces to the city’s political scene — as Rutland moves forward to tackle daunting growth and tax problems in the near future.  Among the main winners: 

*Tom Donahue:  The Board of Alderman member and convincingly won the election by more than 300 votes, according to unofficial results. Donahue, following a long career in public life in Rutland, notably gained an endorsement from Governor Phil Scott.

*Phil Scott:  The nation’s most popular governor had a winning night in Rutland after the candidate he endorsed – Donahue – won the mayoral election.

*Dave Allaire:  The former mayor and current Board of Alderman member came in second in write-in votes to Donahue.  Allaire nonetheless will keep his board seat. He posted a generous concession message on Facebook afterward, saying: “I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Tom Donahue on his election as Mayor of Rutland. My pledge is to work tirelessly with Tom and the Board to move Rutland City forward.”

*Michael Talbott: The current Board of Alderman member and member of a “Rutland Forward” leader topped vote-getters in the race for board seats with 1,526 votes. Talbott is a faculty member at Vermont State University. 

*Sharon Davis:  Long-time city alderman and Donahue ally finished only slightly behind Talbott with 1,519 votes. 

*Anna Tadio: Prominent “Rutland Forward” figure is an attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation; she came in third and won re-election in the aldermanic race.

*Peter Franzoni:  The fifth generation Rutlander came in fourth in the Board of Alderman race and captured a center-right seat. He has his own business for five years now as an independent title investigator specializing in commercial land development, with 33 years previous experience performing land surveying and civil-engineering technician work, according to a Rutland Forward post. 

*Alex Adams: The Castleton University alum, Donahue ally and technician at Green Mountain Power won the fifth seat up for grabs in the Board of Alderman race. 

*Gayle Donahue:  The new mayor’s wife was a high-profile figure in his campaign and its finance manager.  What’s next?

It wasn’t such as great night for Matt Whitcomb, who lost his Board of Alderman seat.  Also, mayoral write-in candidate Henry Heck had only an unofficial 267 votes, a big decline from more than 1,500 in his race against Doenges in March 2025.