Rose Kennedy narrowly defeated incumbent Marc Brierre in the race for Rutland state’s attorney. The final, unofficial results showed Kennedy with 51.3 percent of the vote compared to 48.6 percent for Brierre.
Kennedy spent seven years as a prosecutor in Chittenden County where she specialized in severe child abuse and sexual assault cases.
She moved to Rutland in 2006 and took several years off to raise her children. The 44-year-old spent much of last year working as a prosecutor the Rutland state’s attorney’s office. She says shortcomings in the way Brierre ran the office and what she described as poor communication with local law enforcement pushed her to run for her boss’s job.
Kennedy said she expected a tough race and is happy with the outcome. “It feels really good to have the knowledge that voters cared enough about the position and got to the polls and voted.” But, she added, “the campaign is over and this is when the hard work begins.”
Part of that hard work will be stepping in and taking over an office where Brierre has worked for more than 30 years. Kennedy admits it’ll be a difficult.
“But it’s such an important position and it’s such an important office. People who want to be prosecutors have to love being prosecutors and people who want to work for that office need to know that they’re doing it because they care about the community and want what’s best for the people of this community,” she said. “I’m hoping with strong leadership and strong direction, people will fall behind that message.”
