Mayoralty of Bernie Sanders

Mayoralty of Bernie Sanders April 6, 1981 – April 4, 1989
Mayor	Bernie Sanders
Party	Independent
Election	1981 1983 1985 1987
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Seal of Burlington, Vermont

This article is part of a series about Bernie Sanders
Political positions Electoral history Early life Early career University of Chicago sit-ins Mayor of Burlington Mayoral career U.S. Representative from Vermont's at-large district Representative career CPC Elections 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 U.S. Senator from Vermont Senate career Elections 2006 2012 2018 Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act 2010 Tax Relief Act filibuster Veterans Choice Act Stop BEZOS Act Yemen War Powers Resolution Workplace Democracy Act Presidential campaigns 2016 endorsements "America" primaries convention 2020 endorsements primaries Published works We Shall Overcome Outsider in the White House The Speech Our Revolution Bernie Sanders Guide to Political Revolution Where We Go from Here It's OK to Be Angry About Capitalism
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Bernie Sanders served as the 37th Mayor of Burlington, Vermont, from April 6, 1981, to April 4, 1989. Sanders' administration was the first socialist one in New England since the mayoralty of Jasper McLevy. He was regarded as a successful mayor that instituted multiple economic policies in Burlington, and was selected as one of the twenty best mayors in the United States by U.S. News & World Report in 1987. He was active in foreign affairs, primarily in Latin America in which he criticized the policy of the United States and visited Cuba, Nicaragua, and the Soviet Union, and was criticized for it by his opponents.

During his early tenure, Sanders feuded with the city council and other municipal leaders before forming a coalition of supporters in Burlington's government over the course of his tenure through local elections. During the 1982 elections, enough pro-Sanders candidates won seats in the city council to allow for vetoes made by Sanders to not be overridden by the city council. After the 1984 elections, Terry Bouricius, a progressive, became president of the city council. The pro-Sanders members of the city council lost a seat after the 1986 elections, but later regained a seat after the 1987 elections.

When Sanders left office in 1989, Bouricius, a member of the Burlington city council, stated that Sanders had "changed the entire nature of politics in Burlington and also in the state of Vermont".^[1] Future South Bend, Indiana mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg stated in his 2000 winning essay to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum that Sanders was a "successful and popular mayor".^[2]