In a hotly contested Weathersfield Selectboard race, August Murray has the backing of the state’s lieutenant governor and the town’s sole House member, but what he doesn’t have — and his opponent does — is WOW power.

The Women of Weathersfield, or WOW for short, is going all out for deForest Bearse. “She is one of those people who is the backbone of our community,” said WOW member Alison Roth.

Bearse, who turned 70 last month, is a longtime Weathersfield resident. She served as the town’s zoning administrator. She helped start the town’s food shelf, which operates out of a once two-room school house that, as a leader in the local historical society, she fought to preserve.

In the early 2000s, Bearse was instrumental in establishing the town’s Veterans Memorial Committee, which she served on for 20 years before resigning earlier this month. (More on that in a bit.)

WOW would now like to see Bearse add a three-year term on the Selectboard to her community service resume.

They’re reaching out to voters on social media and making campaign signs. WOW members also take turns driving her around the town’s villages of Ascutney and Perkinsville to knock on voters’ doors.

On Sunday, about a dozen WOW members met to finalize plans for a phone bank and a “honk and wave” at the town’s park-and-ride lot this week ahead of next Tuesday’s Town Meeting balloting.

Bearse told me that she’s “absolutely humbled” by the commitment WOW has shown to her campaign. She wasn’t an original member of the group, but not surprisingly is now.

WOW got its start after Donald Trump regained the White House and Republicans won control of Congress in November. People were “so disheartened that we needed to do something positive,” said Patti Arrison, who is credited by other members for organizing the group.

In just a few months, WOW has grown to include more than 20 women of various ages. “We all agreed that we should support (Bearse’s) candidacy,” Arrison said.

In Weathersfield, which has about 2,850 residents, Selectboard elections seldom attract this much attention or create this amount of animosity.

But since moving to Weathersfield in 2020, Murray has become a political lightning rod in town — and a force in state Republican circles.

After growing up in southern Vermont and graduating from Norwich University, Murray spent 33 years in the Army. He served in three wars and worked at the Pentagon before retiring with the rank of colonel.

Murray and his wife, Andrea, now own a small farm in Perkinsville. Less than two years after moving to Weathersfield, he ran for the Selectboard, losing by only four votes. He was later appointed to fill a vacancy on the five-member board, but subsequently lost the seat, 356-238, to Rika Henderson in the 2024 Town Meeting election.

Murray, who is in his mid-50s, portrays himself as a moderate Republican, but his actions and choice of headwear say otherwise. (The first time I met Murray in December 2023 at a Windsor County GOP Committee meeting, he left wearing a red “Make America Great Again” baseball cap with Trump’s signature stitched into the bill.)

Although selectboard races in Vermont are considered nonpartisan, Murray has sought out endorsements from two elected Republicans — first-term state Rep. VL Coffin, whose district includes Weathersfield, and Lt. Gov. John Rodgers, who was elected in November.

Weathersfield “needs strong leadership that puts people first, and August will bring that to the Selectboard,” Coffin said in an advertisement that Murray paid for in the Vermont Journal & Shopper.

In the same ad, Rodgers called Murray a “leader who will stand up for the town’s future, and work hard for the people who call it home.”

On Tuesday, I talked with Rodgers, who served in the Legislature as a Democrat before running as a Republican for statewide office last year. Rodgers said he’s heard from a few voters who are unhappy with his endorsement of Murray, but he stands by his decision.

“August and Andrea helped me a lot on my campaign,” said Rodgers, who carried Weathersfield by 246 votes.

August Murray is “substantially more conservative than I am, but in my interactions, he’s only been professional,” Rodgers added.

Apparently, the lieutenant governor hasn’t seen the side of Murray that I’ve sometimes witnessed. Murray is a disruptor, a la Donald Trump.

In late November 2023, August and Andrea Murray led a charge to oust John MacGovern, the GOP chairman from Windsor County who had become a Trump critic after the Jan. 6, 2021 uprising in Washington.

The Murrays claimed MacGovern’s re-election as county chair was invalid (sound familiar?) for procedural reasons and demanded a do-over. MacGovern, who didn’t want to be associated with the Trump crowd, ended up stepping down, and August Murray has ascended.

In his bid for a Selectboard seat, Murray is employing similar tactics that he used against MacGovern. Mudslinging appears to be a Murray specialty.

In a Jan. 29 email to four town officials, Murray alleged, among other things, that the Veterans Memorial Committee, which Bearse served as chairwoman, had shown a “lack of accounting” regarding the use of town funds.

The veterans committee, which hosts a couple events a year, runs on a shoestring budget. However, it didn’t stop Murray from demanding “further scrutiny” of its spending, which averages about $1,000 annually.

In recent weeks, the town has spent roughly $5,000, including attorney’s fees, to investigate Murray’s complaints, but found nothing close to evidence of wrongdoing.

Along with seeking the open Selectboard seat, Murray has been angling for a spot on the veterans committee. Having no desire to work with Murray, Bearse recently resigned.

A board meeting this week on Monday night attracted more than 20 residents. Many in the audience came to show support for Bearse who they say — and I agree with them — has been unfairly maligned.

Roth, a WOW member, told me that going up against Murray — with his strong political connections — “feels like an uphill battle.”

Still I’d say it’s a battle well worth fighting.

Jim Kenyon can be reached at jkenyon@vnews.com.