Martha Rainville

Now part of the senior leadership team in Washington, former Adjutant General of the Vermont National Guard Martha Rainville visited Vermont Thursday. From her comments, she seems happy in her new role to help turn around the agency after its response to Katrina.  read more »

State Senate Republican Minority Leader William Doyle does not believe that Martha Rainville, the 2006 GOP nominee for U.S. Congress, will seek a rematch with Democratic U.S. Congressman Peter Welch.

“Rainville would have to announce by January or February – and I haven’t heard anything in that regard,” Doyle told PolitickerVT.com Friday.

When he won a statewide race on his third try -- he lost a House race in 1988 and a gubernatorial bid in 1990 -- Democratic Congressamn Peter Welch was already a seasoned political veteran who had spent a dozen years in the Vermont State Senate. His campaign for Bernie Sanders' open seat was simple: he was the marquis name among the Democratic aspirants, and in the general, he became the unabashed anti-Bush, anti-war candidate. His GOP rival, retired General Martha Rainville, didn't seem so adept at fighting back, and Welch rolled to a victory.