This is a terrible idea.

Seven Days publisher Paula Routly used her latest column to trumpet a new journalistic venture. Or should I say “misadventure”?

The basic concept isn’t a bad one. The paper is hiring a reporter to conduct a series called “Ways and Means” examining how effectively the Vermont Legislature is doing its job. That’s a subject worthy of exploration, although it’s also true that legislative bodies are, by their very nature, clunky and inefficient. You want maximum effectiveness? Get yourself a king or a dictator. And the Vermont Legislature is part-time and has virtually no paid staff, so it lacks the resources to be as effective as it could be.

But that’s not the bad part. The bad part is how the project is being funded. Routly describes the money as coming from “two Vermont philanthropists” who are former politicians “from opposite sides of the aisle.”

Their names? Bruce Lisman and Paul Ralston. Close observers of Vermont politics may already be rolling their eyes.

Lisman is a former Wall Street tycoon and dyed-in-the-wool Republican who once ran against Phil Scott in the Republican primary. He is one of the top Republican donors in the state, a prominent member of the unofficial club I call The Barons of Burlington. He and his buddies did their level best to eliminate the Democratic supermajorities last year.

Ralston, founder and owner of the Vermont Coffee Company, did serve two terms in the House as a Democrat but (1) even during his tenure he was known as a renegade centrist who thought he was the smartest guy in the room and (2) he hasn’t identified with the party since he left the Statehouse in 2015. More recently he has been politically independent and deeply critical of the Democratic Legislature. Details will follow. But let’s get this on the record right now: What we have here is two wealthy men who oppose Democratic politicians and policies, buying a series of reports designed to highlight the Democratic Legislature’s flaws and failures. There will be no corresponding examination of the Republican Scott administration.

Lisman and Ralston won’t have editorial input. But they’ve established the playing field and the terms of engagement. They are buying coverage that will almost certainly favor their political beliefs. Routly’s whitewash doesn’t hide the fact that this deal is a gross violation of journalistic standards and a real shocker coming from what used to be Vermont’s alternative newspaper.

I do want to give Seven Days credit for making a smart hire. Hannah Bassett has experience in both politics and journalism and will likely do a fine job patrolling this tainted beat. They should have hired her to revive the late lamented “Fair Game” column, in fact. Give her free rein to examine the whole waterfront of state politics and policy, not just a select portion chosen by two wealthy men.

The situation is even worse because Seven Days has dramatically reduced coverage of state government and politics in recent years. When I worked there, I was one of three full-time reporters who were at the Statehouse during every day of legislative sessions. These days the capitol gets a portion of Kevin McCallum’s time plus the occasional contribution from issues specialists like Alison Novak, and that’s all.

The “Ways and Means” series, therefore, will comprise a large portion of Seven Days’ coverage of state government. And while that series delves into the workings of the Legislature or the lack thereof, it will not tackle the seemingly endless possibilities of the much, much larger executive branch. Here’s a few, off the top of my head.

• The Scott-created Agency of Digital Services was launched with great fanfare. Has it achieved its goal of rationalizing the government’s use of technology? Has it cut costs or made things more efficient? Who knows.
• The Agency of Education is said to be chronically understaffed. How well does it work?
• The Agency of Human Services is a huge, unwieldy mess. How well does it serve Vermont’s neediest people? How well does it manage its budget?
• How many members of the Vermont State Police have ties to militia groups or QAnon?
• The Department of Corrections has been undergoing “culture change” for several years now but still has an annual employee turnover rate north of 20% and an outsourced inmate health care system that’s kind of a disaster.
• Does the Agency of Commerce really pull its own weight, or is it a promotional entity handing out tax expenditures to businesses? Does it measurably add to our economy?
• Is the Department of Transportation still a roads-and-bridges thing, or has it embraced the new notion that “transportation” means getting the largest number of people where they need to go in the best way possible?
• How promptly and fully does the administration respond to public records requests?
• Why in the world does the Department of Motor Vehicles need its own police force?

Kidding-not-kidding on the last one. That’s just a sample. I’m sure a roomful of experienced reporters could come up with a lot more. But they wouldn’t be given the time or resources to do the job, and they won’t be getting any help from Lisman and Ralston.

Speaking of whom, here’s a rundown of the former Democrat’s post-legislative activity, which is far more representative of his political leanings than that old tattered party label. He and former Republican representative Heidi Scheuermann founded one of those fiscally-hawkish “centrist” organizations, Vision to Action Vermont. V2AVT promised to back candidates who…

…advocate for fiscal responsibility in state spending, and are committed to forming balanced, common-sense public policies that encourage economic prosperity, greater opportunities for Vermont families and businesses, and individual liberties and responsibility.

Quick now, which party does that sound like? Progressive? Democratic?

Yeah, Republican. Right out of the Phil Scott playbook.

V2AVT didn’t have any real impact and didn’t last very long. Two years later, Ralston declared his intent to run for some unspecified office. He created a website and radio show called “The Reluctant Politician,” apparently aimed at raising his profile and generating interest. Nothing much ever came of it all.

Not until 2018 anyway, when he and fellow Addison County resident Marie Audet launched a bid for state senate as an independent ticket — challenging Democrats Chris Bray and Ruth Hardy. At the time, Ralston described himself as “a fiscal conservative and supporter of Gov. Phil Scott.” All righty, then.

Ralston donated nearly $10,000 to his own campaign and raised four-figure donations from business entities that customarily favor Republicans including Casella Waste Systems, Champlain Valley Equipment, and the Campaign Research Center, a benign-sounding entity with ties to the Vermont Chamber of Commerce.

It didn’t do Ralston any good. He finished a distant fifth. Audet actually did much better than he, although neither came anywhere close to Bray and Hardy.

That was, as far as I can tell, Ralston’s last bid for public office and/or influence. But unless his views have radically changed since 2018, his Democratic days are long behind him. Routly is using his legislative service as a fig leaf.

It’s a pretty rotten deal all around. I can understand Seven Days’ desire to maximize resources and rekindle the glory days of a much larger Statehouse presence. But this ain’t the way to do it.