The establishment called Sanders's election "a fluke." Two years later Republicans and Democrats joined forces to knock him off. For his second election Sanders ran an efficient, professional campaign and seemed poised to win reelection. The Republicans freaked. "WARNING," their full-page advertisement in the Free Press began, followed by a list of dire consequences of a second Sanders administration, like higher utility bills and increased unemployment. "Mayor Sanders is an avowed Socialist. Socialist principles have not worked anywhere in the world. They won't work in Burlington, either."
Sanders won a clear majority of 52 percent in a three-way race.
In 1990 Sanders challenged incumbent Republican Peter Smith for Vermont's lone House seat. Since 1853, Vermont had elected a Democrat only once; it was considered a safe Republican seat. But running as an Independent, Sanders was poised to topple Smith. Two weeks before the election, Smith ran a starkly negative ad. It portrayed Sanders saying he was "physically nauseated" by JFK's "Ask not" Inaugural address, and it insinuated he supported Fidel Castro against Democrats in Congress. "Those are not Vermont values, Bernie," the ad concluded. "Keep Vermont proud. Keep Peter Smith In Congress."
Vermont reporters proceeded to pick apart the ad and show it distorted Sanders's positions. Newspaper editorials demanded Smith take down the ads. Sanders beat him by 16 percentage points.
When Sanders ran for reelection for the third time in 1996, Republicans had had enough of the semi--socialist in the House. The national GOP threw in hundreds of thousands in campaign cash to knock him off. "We're going to pull out all the stops [to bring down] that god-awful Bernie Sanders," said then-Rep. Bill Paxon, head of the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee. Still, Sanders stood strong in the polls. The GOP sicced a private investigator on the case. She phoned Sanders's first wife to try and mine some mud. As I learned reporting the biography, his ex-wife put off the P.I. and phoned Sanders, who called the press, who called out Republicans for violating Vermont standards. Sanders prevailed.
When Sanders declared for the U.S. Senate in 2005 to replace retiring Jim Jeffords, the Republicans fielded Richard Tarrant. Tall and white-haired, Tarrant was a candidate out of central casting. He was a self-made millionaire. He funded his own campaign to the tune of $7 million. When polls showed Sanders with a commanding lead, Tarrant turned nasty. "If Bernie Sanders is elected," Tarrant told one interviewer, not a single business will move to Vermont. Period. I know this firsthand."
Vermonters knew firsthand that was bunk, and they elected Sanders with a landslide victory of 70 -- 30.