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Teresa Ellsworth. (Submitted photo) (Picasa 3.0)

LONDONDERRY -- Teresa Ellsworth, a Londonderry resident who mounted a Progressive Party run for state representative in the Aug. 26 primary, died Sunday.

The cause of Ellsworth's death was not clear, but Vermont State Police -- as is standard procedure -- investigated Ellsworth's death and found nothing suspicious.

Progressive Party leaders on Wednesday noted the loss of an enthusiastic candidate who had expressed an interest in furthering some of the organization's key ideals.

"We were all shocked and saddened to hear about Teresa's passing," said Kelly Mangan, elections director of the Vermont Progressive Party. "She was passionate about social justice, and she believed that we can make the world a better place."

State Rep. Chris Pearson, a Burlington lawmaker who is the House Progressive Caucus leader, expressed "my sadness and deep condolences for her family."

Ellsworth ran as a Progressive for the Windham-Bennington-Windsor state House District, which consists of the towns of Jamaica, Londonderry, Stratton, Weston and Winhall.

She was a former New York state resident who had relocated to Vermont with her husband. Ellsworth had run for tax collector in a New York town, but this was her first political campaign in Vermont.

In an interview with the Reformer before last month's primary, Ellsworth said she was "very interested in politics."

"I've spent some time in Montpelier with the Progressive Party," she said.

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Progressives note death of state House candidate

There is nothing progressive about red ink.

This year, progressives will run on strengthening the economic recovery, reducing inequality, improving college affordability, promoting broad-based wage growth and making sure the most vulnerable among us are well cared for. And if we want all these to happen, we also need to campaign on fixing the national debt not as budget scolds but as the wing of the party that connects how growing debt is incompatible with the American dream.

The national debt is currently higher than it has been at any time since World War II and is on pace to continue growing faster than the economy. Yet, when confronted with this reality, many in my party deny that this is a problem and point to the declining deficit. They ignore the Congressional Budget Offices projections that the deficit will begin to rise again and the fact that the short-term deficit and long-term debt are not interrelated. They also associate any discussion of the debt with calls for gutting welfare programs, slashing entitlements and imposing needless austerity.

As progressives, we should fight against these alleged solutions, but that does not give us the right to ignore the problem. A growing national debt can have real and profound effects on the lives of ordinary Americans. High debt levels can hobble economic growth by stifling job-generating investments and slowing wage growth. Meanwhile, debt can increase the cost of living on working families by driving up the interest rates on everything from mortgages to student loans to credit card debt. High debt levels can reduce the availability of affordable loans for first homes or small businesses.

The precise impact of higher debt levels is somewhat uncertain but far from abstract. According to the Congressional Budget Office, wages two decades from now would be more than 10 percent lower if debt is on an upward path relative to the economy, compared to a downward path. In todays dollars, thats a $330,000 per person wage cut for someone who works 40 years beginning today. Similarly, just a 0.3 point swing in the interest rate could lead a family with a $300,000 mortgage to pay an additional $20,000 in interest.

The very wealthy can bear these costs. But for ordinary Americans, that could be the difference between getting ahead and treading water or even falling further behind.

And if the direct impact of the debt werent enough, it is increasingly impairing the governments ability to be a positive force in peoples lives.

Each year, more and more of the federal budget is going toward interest payments, leaving less room for important investments in energy, education, infrastructure, low-income support and basic research. Between 2013 and 2024, interest payments will quadruple from $220 billion to nearly $880 billion. And only a few years later, 100 percent of the revenue the government collects will go toward interest payments and mandatory spending instead of spending to promote economic opportunity and improve prosperity for the next generation.

Sensible reforms that close unneeded tax breaks and better target our health and retirement programs could make room for these important public investments. Instead, our leaders have kicked the debt down the road through discretionary spending cuts and indiscriminant sequestrations, which just make a bad situation worse and represent exactly the kind of austerity we need to avoid. Progressives can protect and strengthen our most important programs only if we show the other side that were willing to make room for these priorities in the budget.

As someone who has spent years focusing on policies to promote economic development and urban renewal across the income spectrum, especially during my time as mayor of Philadelphia and governor of Pennsylvania, I know first-hand how critically important these issues are to the well-being of families, communities and the broader economy. The United States should not accept the situation where incomes for middle-class Americans have grown far slower than the overall economy in recent decades. Economic mobility has always been central to the American dream.

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Column: Progressives Should Get Serious About Cutting Nations Debt

Bill Maher on Liberals, Republicans and Obama (Sept. 9, 2014) | Charlie Rose
Bill Maher, host of the HBO show "Real Time with Bill Maher," talks to Charlie about his own politics, the dreaded "L-word" and why Republicans hate Obama -- even when they agree with him....

By: The Charlie Rose Show

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Bill Maher on Liberals, Republicans and Obama (Sept. 9, 2014) | Charlie Rose - Video

The NDP is portraying the Liberals as lazy and entitled as it tries to reclaim its position as the strongest competition to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Emerging from a three-day caucus retreat in Edmonton, the NDP is attempting to seize the spotlight from Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau.

Fisheries and Oceans critic Robert Chisholm said the Liberals have failed to hold the Conservatives feet to the fire and are merely waiting to get elected.

When theyre in opposition, they dont work all that hard, said Chisholm, the NDP MP for Dartmouth-Cole Harbour.

They dont seem to raise too much of a fuss because they have this sense of confidence that, well, eventually people will want to fire these guys out and then well just take our turn.

The NDP needs to reverse the trends of the past two years to have a chance of winning the 2015 federal election.

The Liberals have led all parties in the polls since Trudeau was elected leader in 2012. In Nova Scotia, the Liberals swept an NDP majority government out of power. In British Columbia, an NDP party that looked like a shoo-in unexpectedly fell to the Liberal incumbents.

In Toronto, the Liberals seized the former NDP stronghold of Trinity-Spadina in a byelection when Olivia Chow vacated her seat to run for Toronto mayor. (Chow, after starting strong, now also lags behind in the polls.)

Most frustrating for the party is that it has fallen to third place in the polls, despite leader Tom Mulcairs widely praised performance as chief inquisitor in the House of Commons.

On Thursday, there was the unusual sight of Mulcair echoing Conservative attack points regarding Trudeaus relative inexperience.

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NDP planning to fight Liberals for opposition spotlight

The Cochrane Room at Government House was so packed with Liberals Thursday that they ran out of chairs.

Photo by James McLeod/The Telegram

Liberal MHA Scott Reid (right) is sworn in by Lt.-Gov Frank Fagan at Government House Thursday morning.

MHA Paul Lane offered to let a candidate sit on his knee, but workers brought in a few more chairs before it came to that.

The Liberal staffers and supporters, and Liberal politicians past, present and future, were all crowded into the little room to watch Scott Reid get sworn in as the MHA for St. Georges-Stephenville East.

Since the last general election, there have been four byelections, which has led to four swearing-in ceremonies for Liberal MHAs at Government House. The mood in the room was upbeat; the Liberals feel like they have the wind at their back these days, although theyre reticent to say so publicly.

Youd be silly to think that youre going to win every one, but you set out to do that. You just try to do the same thing and work as hard, and make it just as much of a priority as the last one, said Paul Antle, who ran for the party leadership last year, and plans to run for the Liberals in the 2015 general election.

This fall, there will likely be three more byelections then-finance minister Charlene Johnson resigned last week, Justice Minister Terry French announced that hes leaving next week and Premier Tom Marshall is expected to retire after the PCparty picks a new leader this weekend.

Familiar policies

Liberal Leader Dwight Ball said he has checked out bits and pieces of the Tory leadership race that has stretched out over the past summer. He said he watched the televised leadership debate on NTV over the weekend, but didnt follow it closely enough to be able to pick a winner.

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With Reid sworn in, Liberals feel the momentum