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2018→ ←2014

Vermont Auditor Election

Primary Date: August 9, 2016

General Election Date: November 8, 2016

November Election Winner: Doug Hoffer (D)

Incumbent Prior to Election: Doug Hoffer (D)

State Executive ElectionsTop Ballot Governor •Lt. Governor Attorney General •Secretary of State Treasurer Down Ballot Auditor

Vermontheld an election forauditor of accounts onNovember 8, 2016, with primary elections held onAugust 9. IncumbentDoug Hoffer (D) was re-elected, defeatingDan Feliciano (R) andLiberty Union Party candidateMarina Brown in the general election.

Overview

The Vermont auditor of accounts acts as a watchdog over other state agencies, performing internal audits and investigating fraud.

Going into the 2016 elections, Vermont was underDemocratictrifecta control: Democrats have held the governorship and majorities in both chambers of thestate legislature sinceRepublican GovernorJim Douglas left office in 2011. The office of state auditor in Vermont has alternated party control over the past five decades, and incumbent Democrats have tended to win re-election by comfortable margins.

Republican and self-employed strategic policy analystDoug Hoffer (R) was unopposed in the Republican primary election and will challenge incumbentDoug Hoffer (D), also unopposed in his party's primary, in the general election.Liberty Union Party candidateMarina Brown also filed to run for the seat. As of the end of the second quarter, Hoffer had reported about $2,000 in fundraising; he was the only candidate to report any fundraising activity.

Democrats were expected to retain control of the office of auditor of accounts in 2016. Hoffer won the general election on November 8, 2016.

Candidates

Results

General election

IncumbentDoug Hoffer defeatedDan Feliciano andMarina Brown in the Vermont auditor election.

Vermont Auditor, 2016
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Doug HofferIncumbent	55.44%	159,695
Dan Feliciano	39.31%	113,231
Marina Brown	5.24%	15,099
Total Votes		288,025
Source:Vermont Secretary of State

Primary election results

Democratic primary election

IncumbentDoug Hoffer ran unopposed in the Democratic primary for auditor.

Democratic primary for auditor, 2016
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Doug HofferIncumbent (unopposed)	78.09%	57,135
Write-in votes	21.91%	16,027
Total Votes (275 of 275 Precincts Reporting)		73,162
Source: Vermont Secretary of State

Republican primary election

Dan Feliciano ran unopposed in the Republican primary for auditor.

Republican primary for auditor, 2016
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Dan Feliciano (unopposed)	64.13%	29,753
Write-in votes	35.87%	16,641
Total Votes (275 of 275 Precincts Reporting)		46,394
Source: Vermont Secretary of State

Context of the 2016 election

Primary elections

Aprimary election is an election in which voters select the candidate they believe should represent a political party in a general election. Primaries usually take place several months before a general election. Vermont utilizes anopen primary system, in which registered voters do not have to be members of a party to vote in that party's primary. Vermont state law is unique in that it allows candidates to run in multiple primary elections at the same time, whether for multiple offices or for the same office under multiple parties. However, a candidate may only appear once on the general election ballot.^[1][2][3]

Vermont's primary elections took place onAugust 9, 2016.

IncumbentDoug Hoffer (D)

Hoffer was first elected in 2010 against Republican Vince Illuzi by a margin of about six percent, also winning the endorsement of theVermont Progressive Party. He had previously run for election in 2008 against incumbentThomas M. Salmon (R), but lost by seven percentage points. In 2014, Hoffer ran unopposed for re-election in both the Democratic primary and general elections. He ran for a third two-year term in 2016.

Prior to his tenure as state auditor, Hoffer worked as a self-employed policy analyst.^[4]

Party control in Vermont

Vermont is underDemocratictrifecta control: Democrats have held the governorship and majorities in both chambers of thestate legislature sinceRepublican GovernorJim Douglas left office in 2011. The state's electoral votes have gone to the Democratic presidential candidate since 1992, though Vermont went to Republicans for the six presidential elections prior.^[5] The state has been represented in theU.S. Senate by DemocratPatrick Leahy since 1975, and byBernie Sanders since 2007, who won election as anindependent candidate, but changed party affiliation in 2015 toseek the Democratic nomination for president.

The office of auditor of accounts in Vermont has alternated party control over the past five decades, though prior to the election of Jay H. Gordon (D) in 1964, Republicans had held the seat since 1853. Since then, Democrats have only held office for 20 of the past 32 years.^[6]

However, Democratic challengers have still done well against incumbent Republican auditors in recent elections. In 2006, incumbent Randy Brock (R) won re-election against challengerThomas M. Salmon (D) by 137 votes, a margin of just 0.1 percentage points. Salmon ran as dual-party candidate in 2008 on both the Republican and Democratic tickets and won the seat.Doug Hoffer (D) won the Democratic nomination in 2010 and lost to Salmon by less than seven percent. Conversely, incumbent Democratic auditors have tended to win re-election by comfortable margins. Hoffer, who won 2012's open election by six percent, ran unopposed in 2014 in both the Democratic primary and general elections. Democrat Elizabeth Ready won both election and re-election to the office in 2000 and 2002 by 11 percent. Her predecessor, Edward Flanagan, won five terms by margins of at least ten percent each election.^[7]

Democrats were expected to retain control of the office of auditor of accounts in 2016.

Campaigns

Campaign finance

Note: If a candidate does not appear below, he or she did not meet or exceed minimum reporting requirements.Cash on hand figures were not available.

Endorsements

Campaign media

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Democrats Doug Hoffer (D)

Republicans Dan Feliciano (R)

About the office

See also:Vermont State Auditor

TheVermont auditor of accounts leads a staff of professional auditors in conducting financial and performance reviews of the state government and its agencies. Auditors act as watchdogs over other state agencies, performing internal audits and investigating fraud.

Incumbent

The incumbent wasDoug Hoffer, aDemocrat. First elected to the position onNovember 6, 2012, he succeeded formerRepublican auditorThomas Salmon on January 10, 2013.

Authority

The Vermont state auditor's office is established in theVermont Constitution.Chapter 2, Section 43 describes the officers to be elected in biennially.

Chapter 2, Section 43:

Past elections

Thegovernor,lieutenant governor,attorney general,secretary of state,treasurer andauditor are elected every two years, on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November.

In Vermont, state executives are elected in even numbered years; 2016, 2018 and 2020 are all election years.

2016

See also:Vermont Auditor election, 2016

The general election for auditor was held onNovember 8, 2016.

IncumbentDoug Hoffer defeatedDan Feliciano andMarina Brown in the Vermont auditor election.

Vermont Auditor, 2016
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Doug HofferIncumbent	55.44%	159,695
Dan Feliciano	39.31%	113,231
Marina Brown	5.24%	15,099
Total Votes		288,025
Source:Vermont Secretary of State

Full history

2014

See also:Vermont down ballot state executive elections, 2014

Democratic incumbentDoug Hoffer won election without opposition on November 4, 2014.

To view the electoral history dating back to 2000 for the office of Vermont Auditor of Accounts, click [show] to expand the section.

2012 Vermont State Auditor General Election, 2012 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Democratic Doug Hoffer 51.3% 140,805      Republican Vince Illuzzi 45.1% 123,806      Liberty Union Jerry Levy 3.4% 9,381      Independent Write-in 0.1% 276 Total Votes 274,268 Election results viaVermont Secretary of State 2010 On November 2, 2010,Thomas M. Salmon won re-election to the office of Vermont Auditor of Accounts. He defeatedDoug Hoffer (D) and Jerry Levy (Liberty Union) in the general election. Vermont Auditor of Accounts, 2010 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Republican Thomas M. SalmonIncumbent 52% 120,237      Democratic Doug Hoffer 45.4% 105,081      Liberty Union Jerry Levy 2.5% 5,736      Write-In Various 0.1% 167 Total Votes 231,221 Election results viaVermont Secretary of State. 2008 On November 4, 2008,Thomas M. Salmon won re-election to the office of Vermont Auditor of Accounts. He defeated Martha Abbott (Progressive) and Jerry Levy (Liberty Union) in the general election. Vermont Auditor of Accounts, 2008 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Democratic/Republican Thomas M. SalmonIncumbent 83.8% 241,825      Progressive Martha Abbott 12.2% 35,232      Liberty Union Jerry Levy 3.7% 10,788      Write-In Various 0.3% 736 Total Votes 288,581 Election results viaVermont Secretary of State. 2006 On November 7, 2006,Thomas M. Salmon won election to the office of Vermont Auditor of Accounts. He defeated Randy Brock (R), Martha Abbott (Progressive) and Jerry Levy (Liberty Union) in the general election. Vermont Auditor of Accounts, 2006 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Democratic Thomas M. Salmon 44.5% 111,770      Republican Randy BrockIncumbent 44.5% 111,668      Progressive Martha Abbott 9.4% 23,490      Liberty Union Jerry Levy 1.6% 3,914      Write-In Various 0% 118 Total Votes 250,960 Election results viaVermont Secretary of State. 2004 On November 2, 2004, Randy Brock won election to the office of Vermont Auditor of Accounts. He defeated Elizabeth M. Ready (D) and Jerry Levy (Liberty Union) in the general election. Vermont Auditor of Accounts, 2004 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Republican Randy Brock 52.1% 152,848      Democratic Elizabeth M. ReadyIncumbent 41.7% 122,498      Liberty Union Jerry Levy 6% 17,685      Write-In Various 0.1% 390 Total Votes 293,421 Election results viaVermont Secretary of State. 2002 On November 5, 2002, Elizabeth M. Ready won re-election to the office of Vermont Auditor of Accounts. She defeated Bruce Hyde (R) and three third-party candidates in the general election. Vermont Auditor of Accounts, 2002 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Democratic Elizabeth M. ReadyIncumbent 51.3% 113,240      Republican Bruce Hyde 42.3% 93,342      Vermont Grassroots Lynn Appleby 3.7% 8,172      Libertarian Dennis Lane 1.7% 3,676      Liberty Union Murry Ngoima 0.9% 2,036      Write-In Various 0.1% 189 Total Votes 220,655 Election results viaVermont Secretary of State. 2000 On November 7, 2000, Elizabeth M. Ready won election to the office of Vermont Auditor of Accounts. She defeated John S. Hall (R), Peter Baker (L) and Robin C. McKnight (Liberty Union) in the general election. Vermont Auditor of Accounts, 2000 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Democratic Elizabeth M. Ready 53.8% 149,724      Republican John S. Hall 42% 116,994      Libertarian Peter Baker 2.6% 7,111      Liberty Union Robin C. McKnight 1.5% 4,166      Write-In Various 0.1% 317 Total Votes 278,312 Election results viaVermont Secretary of State.

Recent news

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See also

External links

Suggest a link

• Vermont Office of the State Auditor

Footnotes

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