The good people of Milton, whether they want it or not, are getting a third chance to snap back at the extremism of Allison Duquette, who seems intent on entering the fabled territory of such luminaries as H. Brooke Paige, Cris Ericson, and Emily Peyton — fringe candidates who simply won’t take “Hell, No” for an answer.

Duquette, last seen in early 2023 running for school board in MIlton, and before that in 2022 running for State House, has tossed her battered fedora into the ring once again, making her second consecutive bid for school board. She announced her third candidacy with one heck of a letter to the editor of the MIlton Independent in which she tried to paint herself as a down-the-middle, “listening to all sides” sort of person who just wants good schools at a reasonable cost. Nothing to see here, folks, keep moving along.

Too bad there are people like me to fill in the details.

Last time around, Duquette’s candidacy was based on opposition to critical race theory which, she warned, would lead to horrors like the school district hiring a dental hygienist (seriously, she said this during a radio interview) because, um, “it’s all part of equity.” Duquette ran on a ticket with Scott O’Brien, representing a group called Vermont Parents Against Critical Theory. Both went down to defeat against pro-equity, and presumably pro-dential hygiene, incumbents.

In her ill-fated run for the House, Duquette tried to frame herself as a common-sense fiscal conservative, but you just can’t hide the cray-cray. As I wrote last year:

Duquette managed to out-conservative her district [which had been solidly Republican] by, among other things, arguing that: The reproductive rights amendment, Article 22, would create a dystopia in which the state could decide a fetus should be aborted if it had significant health problems and we should do nothing about climate change because “Vermont has some of the cleanest air in the country.” She also refused to say who won the 2020 presidential election and floated conspiracy theories about What Really Happened On January 6.

It seems that she appeals to a core electorate and no one else, since she drew 941 votes in the House election and 949 in the school board race. Points for consistency, but the winner last November got 1,124 votes and the winner for the school board seat got 1,024, so Duquette has to convince a bunch of people outside of her base.

Not to mention that in 2022, Milton voters rejected a slate of three anti-CRT candidates including O’Brien. Hence her anodyne LTE, concealing her extremism behind claims that student achievement is “my top priority” and “I will listen to all sides” as a school trustee.

The best part of the letter is when she blamed her “narrow” defeat (1,024 to 949) on “vicious and untruthful attacks” and “the drama and vitriol perpetrated by those who opposed me.” Well, nothing untruthful here. Every quotation in my previous articles about Duquette was taken from her own public appearances. She is who she is. If I had to guess, she’ll probably pull in another 940-odd votes this time around — and she’ll probably lose. Again.