No, it didn’t come from Scott Milne’s campaign. Nor Hempily Peyton’s.
No, it came from a Democrat. And a Democrat with a strong track record who happens to represent my county.
Without further ado, here is the saddest political ad I’ve seen in maybe forever.
Ecccch.
The quality’s a bit degraded because it appeared in a local free newspaper. But still: this is the best Ann Cummings could do? Cheesy, slipshod graphics? A grim, dark, uninviting photo? Lots of wasted space?
This is bad, very bad.
I hope it’s not an indication of the Cummings effort. She’s one of three incumbent state Senators from Washington County — along with eternal Republican Bill “Survey Says” Doyle and Prog/Dem Anthony Pollina. She’s running for a fifth term, and was the district’s top vote-getter in each of the last three races. fourth term; she’s been a strong candidate in her first three races, finishing first once (2010) and second twice (to then-Sen. Phil Scott in2008 and to Doyle in 2012).
So maybe she thinks she doesn’t have to try. But the Republicans have themselves a solid candidate in Pat McDonald this time. She’s a former state representative and state GOP chair, and she held administrative positions under Governors Snelling, Dean, and Douglas. Republicans have high hopes that she can turn a second Washington County seat to the GOP.
If past results are anything to go by, McDonald is a bigger threat to Pollina than to Cummings. But this ad doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence.
The Vermont Political Observer. 
John, a small correction; I believe these were election results in 2012. I’m not sure Ann has ever been the top vote getter??
Ann Cummings: 16,557
Anthony Pollina: 14,730
Bernard Barnett: 8,913
William Doyle: 17,179
Dexter LeFavour: 6,156
Jeremy Hansen: 4,097
Eric: We’re each half right, half wrong. She did finish first in 2010 and second in both 2008 (to Phil Scott but ahead of Doyle) and 2012 (behind Doyle and ahead of Pollina). I think my point stands: she’s been a strong candidate. But I got the fact wrong, and I’ll correct it. Thank you for pointing it out. (Also, for the record, I also screwed up by giving Sen. Cummings a fourth term; I’ve corrected that as well. Shouldn’t try to do math after 10 pm.)
“..strong candidate..” Agreed!!
Ann has been serving Washington County very effectively for many years – since 1997!
http://vtdigger.org/data/legislator-result/?leg_id=VTL000008
Okay, it’s not the sexiest ad – but Ann is out there talking to voters and campaigning like crazy. She shows up!
Pat McDonald pulled from the 1980’s font-book so you might want to check out her ads…
Thanks for the correction. I was misled by Ballotpedia, which only had election results back to 2008. I should have checked more thoroughly.