We’ve Got Multiple Prosecutors Driving Drunk, and Somehow the Problem is Sarah Fair George

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It’s another sad chapter in our ongoing saga of misdeeds by county-level officials in Vermont. This time it’s Grand Isle State’s Attorney Doug DiSabito, busted for drunk driving inside the Franklin County courthouse.

DiSabito, for those unfamiliar, is one of Vermont’s loudest voices for law-n-order. Except maybe when it applies to himself.

News of his arrest came just a few days after Addison County State’s Attorney Eva Vekos had her law license suspended by the state Supreme Court following her own drunk driving conviction.

Addison to the south… Grand Isle to the north… and right there in between is Chittenden County, where the unacceptably progressive Sarah Fair George is once again under attack from within her own party. I guess it’s okay to rack up the DUIs as long as you do your best to keep poor folks behind bars. Priorities.

In the case of Vekos, it’s almost certainly a matter of months before she’s turfed out. She hasn’t ruled out a run for re-election, but at least one challenger has already entered the fray. If she doesn’t get her license back, it’ll be quite a stretch for her to seek another four years on a job she is currently unable to perform*, although stranger things have certainly happened with county-level elected officials.

*I know, she can continue to do paperwork and stuff, but she can’t do a damn thing in court.

DiSabito, on the other hand, has been in office since 2014 and has not faced significant opposition since his first primary. In 2022 he ran on the Democratic and Republican tickets, and he has announced his plan to do the same this year.

Will anyone pull a Bram Kranichfeld and give this guy a run for his money? Somehow, I doubt it. And even if they did, no one has ever gone broke underestimating the intelligence of voters in county elections.

I must stipulate that DiSabito has merely been arrested. (Inside a courthouse!) He deserves the presumption of innocence until his case is heard. But it’s hard to take him seriously as a force for law-n-order if he’s engaging in behavior that not only breaks the law, but actively endangers everyone who shares the public roadways with him.

Allegedly.

Put Not Your Trust in Whackjob Rich Dudes

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The new cover story in Seven Days is an absolute classic in what that newspaper does best: Deep dives on Vermont issues, entertainingly written and festooned with telling anecdotes.

The subject is Raj Bhakta, wealthy founder of theif-you-have-to-ask-you-can’t-afford-it WhistlePig Whiskey brand and archconservative Catholic. The story, compellingly told by Brian Nearing, covers Bhakta’s string of broken promises regarding the former campus of Green Mountain College in Poultney. (Funny how these Jesus Dudes have no problem going back on their word.) Six years ago he was seen as a, pardon the expression, savior for the campus and the area’s economy; now he’s cutting ties with the project in a way that promises to thoroughly screw the town and its taxpayers.

You should read the story for yourself. I’ll just mention a few of the low points of the Bhakta oeuvre, as documented by Nearing:

  • He first came to public notice as a contestant on Donald Trump’s reality show The Apprentice.
  • During a 2006 run for Congress in Pennsylvania, he “he rode an elephant into the Rio Grande accompanied by a six-man mariachi band” to draw attention to border security issues. (He lost by a two-to-one margin.)
  • After buying the GMC campus in 2020 with grand promises of redevelopment, he immediately started “rubb[ing] people the wrong way” in Poultney by dressing “like an aristocrat,” …”park[ing] his collection of luxury cars on the glossy floor of the former college gym,” and joining a public Zoom meeting “brandishing a cigar in front of a painting that appeared to depict him as Napoleon,” among other things.
  • Bhakta has “sparred frequently with state and local officials, even as the town sought to grease the skids for his project.”
  • During his ownership, the campus has fallen into disrepair and would, at minimum, require substantial investments just to restore any shred of usefulness.
  • The status of GMC’s extensive and valuable library seems to be a mystery.

And worst of all for Poultney, his current plan is to donate the entire shebang to some kind of nonprofit enterprise whose goal is shoring up Western civilization and instigating the “spiritual revival of our Christian faith,” which hey, if it was true to the Gospel I’d be in favor, but Bhakta’s Revised Version sounds like white nationalism. If he finds a sucker taker for the campus, the town would lose a major source of property tax revenue — and still be on the hook for providing water and sewer services, which would be a huge burden.

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Bring Me the Head of Sarah Fair George

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Well, they’re at it again. They’re going after Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah Fair George, who will face a contested Democratic primary for the second straight campaign.

Or should I say, in the words of the Vermont Daily Chronicle, “controversial, George Soros-backed incumbent” Sarah Fair George? So Guy, can you cite any specific support from Soros, or could you simply not resist tootling one of your favorite dog whistles?

Sorry, digression is my jam. Last time around, in 2022, the “Get Sarah” forces did a faceplant, as George beat well-funded challenger ($62,000 for a county-level primary????) Ted Kenney by almost a two-to-one margin. This time, former Burlington city councilor Bram Kranichfeld is stepping into the hypothetical breach. He brings a softer edge to the tough-on-crime message that didn’t work for Kenney, but the fundamental thesis is the same: George’s progressive policies are to blame for the perception of rising lawlessness in the Queen City.

I fully expect Kranichfeld will receive generous support from the Barons of Burlington, and will benefit from every breathless bit of crime coverage between now and primary day. Will it make any difference? I expect not, to be honest.

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A Competitive Gubernatorial Primary? Hell, Yeah

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As expected, Aly Richards has declared her candidacy for governor, becoming the second person willing to take on S.S. Phil Scott, the Nimitz class aircraft carrier of #vtpoli. And I am all for it.

Richards is the former head of Let’s Grow Kids, the organization that led the charge for improved child care. She’s currently chair of the University of Vermont Medical Center board, which puts her in kind of an interesting (uncomfortable?) position when it comes to the hot-button health care affordability issue. I mean, considering that UVMMC is widely seen as The Big Bad of Vermont’s cost crisis.

The first to enter the race was Amanda Janoo, an economic policy expert with the Wellbeing Economy Alliance. Each brings a unique and intriguing skill set to the race. I’m not here to compare their resumés or agendas; I just want to cheer the simple fact that two very talented people actually want the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in the same year, a blessing we haven’t enjoyed since 2016.

Conventional wisdom would say a competitive Democratic primary is a resource drain, putting the winner at an even greater disadvantage against a popular incumbent who hasn’t been beaten in literally forever. He’s been in politics since 2000 — amazing for a self-professed non-politician, right? — and his next election defeat will be his first.

But I say, to hell with conventional wisdom. Bring on the primary!

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For Local News Day, I Dream of a Bottom-Up News Ecosystem

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Oh, looky here, we’ve got another billionaire with a plan to “save America’s newspapers.” Have we learned nothing from Jeff Bezos?

I mean, maybe Florida-based 73-year-old David Hoffmann is the real deal who will do what Bezos and Alden Capital and whatever Gannett brands its processed news-ish product these days have failed to deliver: A viable, profitable model for relevant journalism. But seriously, how many eggs am I willing to put in the billionaire savior basket? Especially since Hoffmann is a micromanager who daily pores over the 140 papers he’s invested in with a red felt-tip pen, thinks that the Associated Press leans “sometimes a little to the left,” and believes that ultra-local “boosterism” and “pivoting toward paywalls” are the keys to making money in the news business.

Oh, also, this is his “home.”

Just a regular guy. Puts on his pants one leg at a time. With the help of a valet, I’m sure.

But I digress, bigly. I’m here to spin a fantasy in honor of April 9, “Local News Day,” a “national day of action connecting communities with trusted local news.” (Maybe I’ll see you at the LND event at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library?)

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Come One, Come All to Dr. Gregory’s Patent Medicine Road Show

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The Poppin’ Fresh of Vermont’s far right, Gregory Thayer, is at it again. He’s hitting the road with a clown car’s worth of extremists ready to yammer about the conspiracy theory du jour.

For the record, the grammatically-challenged* (“Townhall” one word? Two “opportunity”?) twice-failed candidate for lieutenant governor is the mastermind who gave us a dismally under-attended series of pro-Trump rallies in 2025, He was also a featured speaker at a 2025 “Parent’s (sic) Rights in Education” (read: anti-trans and DEI) event in the Statehouse. And he spoke at a 2022 anti-critical race theory bitchfest in Montpelier.

*A southern Vermont correspondent points out that it’s the “Fullerton Inn,” not the “Fallerton.” Seriously, this guy is an accountant. Would you hire him to do your taxes?

Oh, and how could we forget the Klar Klan Kruiser, the Thayer-organized anti-critical race theory traveling circus of 2021? And of course, Thayer’s masterstroke: the CovidCruiser that took a busload of mask-free Trump defeat denialists to Washington, D.C. for the January 6 insurrection.

The guy gets around. And here he comes again, with a pair of “Townhalls” (sic) next week in Chester and Montpelier on the subject of ELECTION INTEGRITY, a.k.a. them damn Democrats are tryin’ to steal the vote!!! And just look at this Murderers’ Row of participants.

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A Couple More Tidbits from the Phil Scott Presser

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Last week’s edition of Gov. Phil Scott’s weekly bitchfest press conference centered on his opposition to the House’s FY2027 budget, which basically involved the governor defining “compromise” as “forsake your own position and do what I want,” and also featured him continuing to complain angrily about “bias” in a Vermont Labor Relations Board whose members are (1) appointed by himself and (2) bound by law to be “neutral” and “impartial.”

But there were a pair of passages that should not be allowed to fade into the impenetrable murk of Phil Pressers Past. So before we move on to new business (a competitive race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, hooray), let’s enter them into the public record.

First, we have Scott reiterating his commitment to nuclear energy, which he’s never actually proposed with any specifics because it’d be politically radioactive (see what I did there). And second, we have Scott claiming that any homeless people who are unsheltered in Vermont are doing so voluntarily. Because sleeping in a car is such an appealing lifestyle?

Let’s start with nukes. “I’ve long been a supporter of nuclear energy,” Scott said. “Even back in my days in the Senate, I voted in opposition to shutting down Vermont Yankee.”

Ah yes, Vermont Yankee, the trouble-prone, mismanaged power plant that left nuclear energy with a permanent black eye to most Vermonters. Yeah, that’s what we need: another Vermont Yankee!

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The Soft Megalomania of Phil Scott

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It’s been quite a while since I forced myself to endure one of Gov. Phil Scott’s weekly press conferences. I know, it ought to be appointment viewing for Your Political Observer, but I’m my own boss here and I feel free to follow my muse and limit the self-sacrifices. Every gubernatorial presser takes a couple nibbles out of my soul.

But after his angry, neo-Trumpian press release about this week’s Vermont Labor Relations Board decision, I felt like I had to see how he’d follow up in his weekly presser.

And boy, did he ever. It was a festival of self-pity and blamecasting. Nothing is his fault; every problem we face is because of the incompetent spendthrifts in the Democratic Legislature.

(After seeing this performance, I’ve upped the odds on whether he will seek another term; if the chances of him running were 95%, they’re now at 99. And it’s gonna be a nasty campaign, although swaddled in his famously avuncular style. He’s got such a collection of receipts to cash in, he’s gonna need at least one more election cycle to clear his cache. Hell, he might stick around out of sheer spite until we’re asked to re-elect Phil Scott’s Head in a Jar in the year 2050.)

It’s the governor as innocent bystander. Which is a real stretch, considering that he is by far the most powerful person in state government. He is the chief of an executive branch with thousands of employees. His appointees run every department and agency. The Legislature, by contrast, consists of everyday people who get paid a pittance and have little to no staff support.

Let’s count ’em, shall we? The leaders of the House and Senate have one full-time staffer apiece. Each chamber has a small central staff to handle operations and paperwork. Each committee has a single staffer. The entire Legislature has two small support operations: the Joint Fiscal Office and the Legislative Counsel. Compare that to the small army of administrators, bureaucrats and line workers at Scott’s beck and call.

He runs the joint. If he can’t find ways to work across the aisle, that’s on him. I realize it’s no fun to face Democratic majorities for nearly a decade. But it’s his job to find common ground with opposition lawmakers who, after all, have as much of a mandate as he does. He has failed to do so, and that’s why so many of our problems have gotten worse during his tenure.

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Signs of Strife in Democratic Circles

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I don’t know if there’s a fire, but there’s suddenly a hell of a lot of smoke around the Vermont Democratic Party. It’s not a great look at the beginning of a very important election season.

Within the last few days, some harsh criticism of party policies and leadership has come from four Democrats not known as troublemakers. Three are longtime Democrats who have held positions of responsibility in the party or in public office. The fourth is a respected figure in local politics whose bid for higher office had been strongly promoted by the party. The list in brief, followed by details:

  • One of the two leading Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor has accused the VDP of actively favoring the other top contender.
  • One of the Democrats’ best hopes for regaining a state Senate seat has cut short his campaign, citing “irreconcilable differences” with the party over fundraising and strategy.
  • A current Senate candidate has accused the party of violating the tradition of neutrality in primary contests and effectively selling its favor to chosen candidates.
  • A 2024 Senate hopeful says the VDP failed to deliver promised support to his candidacy through its much-touted “Coordinated Campaign.”

If one or two of these things had happened, you might chalk it off to sore losers or misunderstandings. But four, in a matter of days? That’s either a remarkable coincidence or a troubling pattern.

Now, let’s get to the particulars.

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See, The Problem with the Titanic Was Not Enough Captains

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Last week, the unions representing staff and faculty at Vermont State University kind of tossed a grenade in the punchbowl. Not that anybody noticed, even though they issued a press release about it.

On March 25, leaders of VSU bargaining units from the American Federation of Teachers and Vermont State Employees Association sent a letter (available online here) documenting a dramatic trend of administrative bloat at the financially challenged university.

I must emphasize, as I did when VTDigger’s union went public over the use of AI in the newsroom, that unions typically don’t like to do this. They don’t go public with labor/management issues unless they feel it’s the only course left to them. Unions would rather negotiate and reach agreements.

So when a union takes this step, you know things are serious. And if they’ve got their facts right, then Vermont State University has some big problems.

Well, some more big problems. Which they don’t need, as they’re already in a struggle to survive.

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