Former Marlboro President Wins State Senate Seat
Rod Gander, Marlboro College president from 1981 to 1996, handily won election to the Vermont state senate representing Windham County. Gander campaigned on issues of education, health care and environmental protection, appearing in more than a dozen candidate forums and debates in the weeks leading up to election day. College staff, faculty and alumni flocked to Gander's campaign, making phone calls, mailing brochures and attending campaign events for their candidate, who in addition to his Marlboro experience worked for 25 years at Newsweek magazine, including 15 years as chief of correspondents. The effort succeeded, not only in getting Gander elected but in helping boost voter turnout in some towns to nearly 70 percent of registered voters.
The college also saw 1978 graduate Sarah Edwards win a seat in Vermont's house of representatives. Edwards, a Progressive Party candidate from neighboring Brattleboro, received enough write-in votes in the primary to also run as a Democrat.