Politically Vermont is a little similar to the politics of Tasmania within the Australian national politics. Like Vermont, Tassie also elects loony Left into representatives, and it is also "clean, green, open", but slow in economic growth with no real meeningful economic prospects apart from tourism from other parts of the country.
BTW, in New Zealand even many non-leftists (chiefly libertarian types) think Howard Dean is "moderate". It gives you a pause to think how left NZ is.
I think you'll find Tasmania is pretty conservative compared with Vermont. Until a few years ago, homosexuality was a criminal offence in Tasmania. I know they elected Bob Brown to the Senate but for years they also returned the very conservative Senator Harradine. Brown has become irrelevant in Australian politics. The Democrats also represented the Australian left and they are now almost an extinct species.