Photo: Matthew Vigneau
I’ve always been into maps. In the backseat pocket of any car I rode in as a kid, chances are there was a well-loved Vermont Atlas & Gazetteer, often complete with a bent cover and some crinkled pages. I loved following along on travels, discovering new towns, learning interesting road names, and geographical quirks.
Take that love of maps and wed it with my obvious passion for state and local politics and elections, and you’d understand why I’m a big fan of the Instagram account, @vtpoli_maps. The account, a brainchild of Matthew Vigneau, maps Vermont elections results with analysis and narrative. Maps show us where we are going – the lay of the land – and can also help us visually assess trends and figures, certainly helpful in charting a route forward.
Recently, Matthew started a blog called Sugaring Off, a companion piece that fills what he considers a very niche void in local written political analysis.
In this week’s episode of the Democracy Dispatch Podcast, I chat with Matthew, a VCV board member, South Burlington native, and American University student, about his passion for maps, his journey into politics, and how early activism in high school transformed to his current work and future aspirations.
Later in the episode, I take a moment to remember my friend and LGBTQ advocate, Brenda Churchill, who passed away earlier this month. Brenda was a state house liaison for the LGBTQIA Alliance of Vermont, a candidate for Vermont House in 2022, an elected Justice of the Peace and select board member in Bakersfield, and an appointed commissioner on the Vermont Commission on Women.
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