Chittenden Central’s only incumbent Philip Baruth looks to pass gun laws if re-elected
Philip Baruth — the only incumbent running in the Chittenden Central Senate election — plans to prioritize gun safety and education policy if he wins re-election. He said both have been the focus of his 12-year stint in Montpelier.
Baruth serves as clerk of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has chaired the chamber’s education committee, and has been the body's majority leader. He is also an English professor at the University of Vermont.
“When you're a teacher, the idea is to facilitate productive discussion,” Baruth said. “With politics, you are doing exactly that.”
Baruth, who is running as a Democrat and a Progressive, is one of five people angling for one of three available Senate seats in the new Chittenden Central District. The Progressive Party has endorsed him, Tanya Vhovsky and Erhard Mahnke.
Before redistricting formed the Chittenden Central District, Baruth had represented every community in Chittenden County except for Colchester. Now, he would represent about a third of that, he said.
Baruth, like fellow Democratic candidate Martine Gulick, supported the education funding bill, S.287, to allocate more money to support English language learners, who make up a significant number of Winooski students.
“Winooski and Burlington will see a lot more in way of resources for those new Americans,” Baruth said. “That's the biggest news, I would say, for Winooski out of the last session.”
State Senator Philip Baruth is running for re-election in Chittenden Central. Photo by Kathy FitzGerald.
Baruth’s political career began with a blog called the Vermont Daily Briefing. He first reported the story about trouble at the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant after a whistleblower sent him photos of water waste leaking at the plant.
From there, he ran for office focused on issues like gun control. Baruth described the topic as a hallmark of his career in Montpelier.
“It's really my passion in terms of lawmaking,” he said. “The amount of time and energy that I put into that issue maybe differentiates me from the field.”
Baruth helped pass legislation that included raising the age to buy a firearm to 21 and banning high-capacity magazines and bump stocks.
“Phil Scott signed that on the steps of the Statehouse,” Baruth said. “That was a historic moment.”
If re-elected, Baruth plans to help pass more requirements for gun ownership. He argues that gun owners should be mandated to lock up guns if children are in the house.
He compared safe storage to laws requiring pool owners to build fences around their pools because kids are drawn to pools and can drown. It’s the same thing with guns, he argued.
“There's nothing more attractive to young men in our society than guns,” Baruth said. “If a family has them lying around, and there's a kid with behavioral or mental health issues, that's a problem for everybody.”