The Barons Seem Uninterested in Saving John Rodgers’ Bacon

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The second most notable results from the September 1 campaign finance disclosures were about the race for lieutenant governor, and they once again show that incumbent Republican John Rodgers is in some trouble. Maybe a lot of trouble.

Two years ago, his campaign was buoyed by a wave of four-figure checks from the folks I call the Barons of Burlington: the moguls, developers, landlords, and others capable of making large donations to favored candidates. From July 1 onward, Rodgers’ 2024 campaign finance reports were riddled with familiar names: Pomerleaus, Pizzagallis, Tarrants, Bruce Lisman, Ray Pecor, Doug Nedde, etc., all kicking in sizable donations. The flood of cash may or may not have been the deciding factor in Rodgers’ win over incumbent David Zuckerman, but it sure as hell didn’t hurt.

This year, however, something has changed. The Barons are almost entirely absent from Rodgers’ filings. He did receive $1,000 from Ernie Pomerleau in August, but otherwise his September 1 report was barren of Barons. As a result, Rodgers lags far behind Democratic nominee Molly Gray in total fundraising and cash on hand. (Gray has received $2,250 from former Rodgers backer Brian Boardman plus $2,000 from ski resort tycoon Win Smith, so the balance of Barons tips slightly in her direction.)

Gray’s lead in spendable cash is kind of stunning, since she had to weather a costly primary battle while Rodgers faced no Republican opposition. The bottom line: Gray has raised $412,000 for the campaign to date compared with Rodgers’ $143,000. Gray has spent $339,000, and reported cash on hand totaling $73,000. Rodgers has somehow managed to spend $118,000 despite the lack of a primary challenge, and has only $26,000 in the bank.

Standard caveat: Money isn’t the only factor in a campaign, and Rodgers does have the incumbent’s advantage. But pre-primary polls by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center showed weakness in Rodgers’ position. The disparities in fundraising prowess and cash position are more evidence that Rodgers is on the back foot. And the reticence of the Barons suggests they might just see him as a lost cause.

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A Potentially Seismic Development in the Vermont News Business (Postscript Added)

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We may have just seen the first in a series of moves that could transform journalism in Vermont — for better or worse, but more likely the former.

The five-newspaper Vermont Community News Group, a locally-owned for-profit enterprise, is being acquired by the National Trust for Local News. The Colorado-based nonprofit is young (achieved tax-exempt status in 2022) but growing rapidly (2024 revenue $53 million). Its mission: to protect and sustain local news operations. In its own words:

The National Trust for Local News is protecting these vital civic assets and transforming them into a resilient, uniquely scalable non-profit news organization. Our goal is to harness local newspapers to build a more equitable and vibrant future for local news, nationwide.

I don’t know anything about the National Trust, but it seems to be legit. Its leadership includes an impressive array of people with experience in journalism, nonprofit enterprise, and (somewhat worryingly) the corporate world. (McKinsey? Ew.) It forswears donations from those with political agendas, and promises a hands-off relationship with its outlets’ editorial policies and journalistic standards.

Here’s why this could be a seismic event for Vermont journalism. When the National Trust enters a new state, it takes no half measures. It has operations in three states (Colorado, Georgia, Maine) and owns a total of 65 outlets so CNG’s five weeklies seem like a beginning, not an end. Based on track record, I assume the National Trust has made a thorough study of our news ecosystem and has decided it’s a promising market. I wouldn’t be surprised if it snaps up a bunch of local news outlets and maybe some bigger ones. (Some of our daily papers? VTDigger? Seven Days?) It could soon be a dominant force in Vermont journalism.

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Vermont Democrats Offer Amanda Janoo a Hearty Backslap and… That’s About All

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The latest round of campaign finance reports is in, and it looks like Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amanda Janoo is suffering the same fate as the other challengers to Gov. Phil Scott. She’s getting the cold shoulder from her party’s top officials and elected leaders.

Janoo raised $112,000 in August, bringing her campaign total to $415,000. Even if she still had all that money in the bank, it wouldn’t be enough to seriously contend with the governor. But she spent most of it in a costly primary against Aly Richards, so she enters September with a measly $59,000 in cash on hand.

Scott, who has barely even tried to mount a campaign, has five times as much in his kitty. And we’re practically in the home stretch; a bit more than two months remain before Election Day.

I ran into fellow Vermont Political Observer Kevin Ellis in the food coop earlier this week. He asked me what Janoo needed to do to win. “Everything,” I said. For starters, I said she needed a strong September 1 finance report: a minimum of $200,000, and preferably something north of $500,000. I didn’t honestly expect her to crack a half mill, but she certainly needed to do better than one-fifth of that.

Caveat: Money isn’t everything. Grassroots enthusiasm helps. But you can’t run an effective statewide campaign without at least some cash. You’ve gotta get on TV in a substantial way, to try to eat into Scott’s huge advantage in familiarity. Janoo doesn’t have nearly enough, and her shortfall sends a loud signal to the monied class: Don’t waste your money.

Janoo did very well with small-to-medium donors, racking up page after page of gifts in the range of $50 to $500. She got very few large donations. Conspicuous by their absence from her donor list: Democratic Party bigwigs and elected officials. That’s a dirty goddamn shame, and a stain on the party’s soul. If it has one.

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The Republicans Choose a Candidate for Chittenden State’s Attorney Who Doesn’t Want the Job

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This is a much younger Jace Laquerre (age 17 at the time), seen here with his beau ideal during the 2016 Republican convention. As he said at the time, “I got involved in politics through Senator Rand Paul, who inspired me to get involved through his principles of liberty and limited government.” At the time, Laquerre boasted of his involvement in “Young Americans for Liberty, Students for Life and the NRA.”

Fast forward to 2026, and Laquerre, now in his late 20s and sporting a J.D. Vance-style close-cropped beard, has just been chosen by the Chittenden County Republicans to run against incumbent Democratic State’s Attorney Sarah Fair George. This, despite the fact that (1) he’s not an attorney, and (2) he doesn’t actually want the job. (He is, according to his LinkedIn page, a software engineer. Something something relevant skills and experience.)

See, the Republicans didn’t field a candidate for the position. George’s Democratic primary opponent Bram Kranichfeld won the Republican nomination thanks to write-in votes from Republican voters who failed to heed (or misunderstood) Gov. Phil Scott’s advice to vote for Kranichfeld in the Democratic primary in order to defeat George. Kranichfeld then declined the “honor” of the Republican nomination, which allowed the county Republican committee to name anyone else as a replacement.

Anyone, it would seem. Including someone who isn’t qualified and, need I repeat myself, doesn’t want the job.

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Dregs of the Ballot, Assemble!

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Now that the August primary is safely in the rear-view, the rest of the November ballot is rounding into shape. Actual winners earned their spots on August 11; now we’re seeing a parade of no-hopers, never-wases and cranks making their way onto the ballot through processes that have nothing to do with, you know, actual appeal to the electorate.

The usual suspects are being joined by a new crop of “candidates” who are not worth a moment of your time. Hopefully they don’t clutter up the debate stage, although I’m sure some of them will.

(And please don’t @ me about accessibility and openness and such. There is no constitutional right to a spot on the ballot or a lectern at candidate forums. Any debate that’s all-inclusive is a waste of everybody’s time. It only takes away from a viewer’s ability to learn pertinent information about people who might actually be elected because the fringies Must Get Their Share Of The Attention.)

Like, for instance, “Not That” Zachary Hampl, who weaseled his way to the Progressive nomination for treasurer despite the party’s refusal to endorse him. (He has a track record of conservative activism covering his entire and brief adulthood.) Credit for his “victory” goes to the Progs’ complete inattention to their own primary, since they didn’t bother to nominate an alternative and turnout was as dismal as usual; Hampl won with the distressing total of 289 votes.

In the entire state.

But it was enough, because only 474 people bothered to vote in the Progressive primary. In the entire state. Kinda makes you wonder if the Progs should be doing a bit more to earn their “major party” status.

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The Scott Administration’s Homelessness Policy has Jumped the Shark

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Our Political Betters have been wrangling with unsheltered homelessness for years now. The Legislature’s priority has been trying to get a roof over the head of every Vermonter, while the Scott administration has been laser-focused on cost control. Well, now they’ve hit a new low in terms of creative problem-solving and pretending to care.

See, apparently people with no access to shelter have been sleeping on the covered porch of the Pavilion Building, one of the Capitol District’s most historic structures. And the administration’s solution was not to find them accommodation elsewhere — it’s to scare them off with piped-in bird noise.

Yeah, we don’t care where you go, but we don’t want you here.

The noise devices were installed earlier this summer by the Department of Buildings and General Services, but were only reported last week after Vermont Public filed a public records request. No word on whether BGS made any attempt to get the Department of Children and Families involved to try to actually solve the problem.

It speaks of the administration’s policy bankruptcy when it comes to finding shelter for the unhoused. They don’t have any answers or any ideas. (Stay tuned for a post about what the administration is doing to Act 143, the Legislature’s well-intentioned reform of the emergency housing program. The governor signed it, seemingly not in good faith, because his minions are reportedly hacking and slashing away at it.)

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The Greatest Little Hellhole on Earth

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So, CNN just published a little exercise in clickbait under the try-hard title “We searched for America’s best towns to visit. Here are the top 10.”

And as is often the case, our very own Queen City made the list for, according to the subhead, “Lovely surroundings, farm-fresh food, community spirit.”

Not mentioned: Violence, insecurity, homelessness, substance use, vandalism. You know, the stuff that consumes the imagination and rhetoric of Gov. Phil Scott and his collaborators in the Burlington Democratic Party, not to mention the “if it bleeds, it leads” world of teevee news.

I know, you can’t put too much stock in these kinds of rankings. They aren’t exactly done with the most scrupulous of journalistic standards, and they do gloss over the faults and failings of the communities listed. (New Haven, which has public safety problems that make Burlington look like a daycare, ranked #2 on the list.)

Burlington does have problems, and I don’t mean to minimize them. But it’s also, as CNN put it, “a close-knit community, where civic engagement runs deep.” And there’s the waterfront and the lake and Church Street and Pine Street and the Old North End and the UVM campus and the nearby mountains, among many other positives about our biggest little city.

So maybe Our Political Betters could spend a bit more time actually helping Burlington with positive language and policies instead of trashing it for short-term political gain.

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Instant Statewide Ticket, Just Add Water

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Stop the presses! Big news from the world of Vermont politics! The state Republican Party just filled out its statewide ticket with three people who… uhhhh… you’ve never heard of. And who have roughly the same chance of winning as I do, and I won’t be on the ballot.

The few who voted in the Republican primary were greeted, over and over again, by the name of H. Brooke Paige, Vermont’s favorite novelty candidate. He was the only name on the Republican ballot for attorney general, auditor, secretary of state, and treasurer. His stated intent was to occupy those slots so no Democrat could slide to an easy write-in victory. (It happened in 2020 when Doug Hoffer captured the Democratic, Republican, and Progressive nominations and won the November election with 84% of the vote.) After the primary, Paige withdrew from all races except secretary of state, allowing the state Republican committee to nominate replacement candidates.

And now they have. I don’t know if they picked names out of a hat or held a W.C. Fields lottery* or if some thought actually went into the exercise, but it really doesn’t matter. None of the “lucky” three nominees has a snowball’s chance of winning in November. Vermont Public ran a brief story about their nominations but didn’t put in the slightest effort at identifying them beyond their names and home towns.

*”First prize was a week in Philadelphia. Second prize was two weeks.”

So just for shits and giggles, let’s fire up the Internet Machine and see what we can learn about these three “major party” candidates.

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Phil Scott Presses Thumb Firmly on the Partisan Scale

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Here’s a screenshot from a recent hostage video political message posted on Gov. Phil Scott’s non-governmental Facebook account. And if there was any doubt about whether Scott is first and foremost a political animal, this video should remove it entirely.

The video was posted on August 6, five days before the primary, and it’s a brazen invitation for Republicans to vote in the Democratic primary. Specifically, Scott wanted Republican voters to tip the scales in the primaries for Chittenden County State’s Attorney and Sheriff. He openly supported Bram Kranichfeld’s bid to unseat incumbent Sarah Fair George (and let’s not forget that she would never have been chief county prosecutor if not for the fact that Scott himself appointed her, pause for ironic laughter), and incumbent Sheriff Dan Gamelin over challenger Kevin Bloom.

This is beyond the pale. It’s blatant meddling in Democratic Party affairs. I can’t say I’m ever surprised anymore at what our media fails to cover because there’s so goddamn much they don’t cover, but this ought to have been a big story before primary day. It should still be a big story.

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Now, This Is a Fascinating Map of Vermont

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No, not THAT map. Although it’s fascinating in its own way; it seems that Vermont has been gay-friendly for a very long time. Ooh, strapping young men with powerful (ahem) tools!

But I digress, and right off the top too. I’m referring to a map prepared by VTDigger’s ace data reporter Erin Petenko which I dare not reproduce for copyright reasons. You’ll have to check it out in situ. Scroll down far enough in Digger’s recap of Amanda Janoo’s primary victory and you’ll see it.

The map shows how each Vermont city and town voted in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. You can see at a glance which candidate won where. (If you run your cursor over a town, the map shows you the winner’s name and their percentage of the vote. Also, for real nerds, the caption includes a link to the Secretary of State’s Excel spreadsheet containing all the results town-by-town.)

And the map is kind of a muddle with some really interesting features.

The first thing I noticed, because of my membership on the board of The Hardwick Gazette, is that Janoo did extremely well in The Gazette’s home turf. She took 72% of the vote in Greensboro, 68% in Hardwick, 67% in Stannard, 66% in Woodbury, 65% in Craftsbury, and 60% in Walden. She also did very well in nearby communities like Elmore, Barton, and Glover, hometown and legal nemesis of Lt. Gov. John Rodgers.

Indeed, Janoo scored well across a great swath of northern Vermont from Franklin County through Lamoille and Orleans and into the Northeast Kingdom. Just south of that you find a thinner band of Aly Richards strongpoints, from the Burlington suburbs through the Barre-Montpelier area and on to the upper Connecticut River Valley. And south of that is another Janoo band in Addison, Orange, and Windsor counties. Southern Vermont is a mixed bag, with Janoo scoring well in the southeast and south central, and getting a pocket of support along the New York border in places like Middletown Springs, Wells, and Pawlet. Richards dominated the rest of the southern tier below a line from Orwell to Norwich.

See what I mean? Make sense of that, will you?

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