Peter Clavelle


Peter A. Clavelle is an American politician who served as the 38th and 40th Mayor of Burlington, Vermont and was the first member of a third party to hold the office since James Edmund Burke in 1935.

Life

On May 10, 1949 Peter A. Clavelle was born to Raymond and Eleanor Clavelle in Winooski, Vermont. In 1961 he was elected mayor of Winooski for a day by his Boy Scout troop. In 1972 he was appointed as Castleton's town manager and in 1976 was appointed as Winooski's city manager. During Bernie Sanders' tenure as mayor of Burlington, Clavelle served as Burlington's personnel director and later as director of the Community and Economic Development Office from 1983 to 1989.
Clavelle was elected mayor in 1989 as a Progressive. During the 1993 mayoral election he raised almost twice as much money as his Republican opponent Peter C. Brownell although Brownell was able to take the Burlington police union's endorsement from Clavell. On March 3 Brownell unexpectedly defeated Clavelle with 5,410 votes to 4,686 votes. Clavelle stated that he lost due to the controversy over his proposal to have the city pay for healthcare benefits for domestic partners of city workers which was passed. Clavelle returned to the mayor's office two years later in 1995 continuing to hold the position until 2006.
In 2004, Clavelle ran for Governor as a Democrat against incumbent Governor Jim Douglas and four other candidates. In order to run in the Democratic Party primary, Clavelle had to change party affiliation, as required by state law. He received the endorsement of five-term former Democratic Governor Howard Dean, but was defeated, 38% to 59%.
In 2006, Clavelle did not seek re-election to an eighth term as mayor.
In 2012, Clavelle moved to Albania as a staff member on a USAID-funded local governance project, returning to Vermont in 2016.