Well, the Vermont Democrats fired the first shot of the election season today.

Sadly, it wasn’t the unveiling of a top-tier challenger for Gov. Phil Scott. No, it was a candidacy for the seat being vacated by disgraced Republican Sam Douglass. A candidate whose presentation is straight out of a Third Way fever dream. So I guess this is how the Dems are going to try to recapture seats they lost in 2024: By pretending to be moderate Republicans.

Meet Gaston Bathalon, checker of all the boxes. He’s a native of the Northeast Kingdom, a veteran of 30 years in the military, “a fighter for the… Kingdom” who’s dedicated to restoring “dignity and integrity” to a seat besmirched by Douglass’ online hangouts with toxic Young Republicans.

As I read through his announcement email, I honestly couldn’t tell whether he was a Democrat or Republican until I got down to the very bottom, where it says “Paid for by the Vermont Democratic Party – http://www.vtdemocrats.org. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.”

So he’s a Democrat, I guess. Not that you can tell from his announcement or his minimalistic campaign website, either. It’s more than a bit sad when Democrats see their identity and message as something that has to be slipped past the voters, like putting a dog’s medication inside a ball of hamburger meat.

There are four headings in Bathalon’s agenda: Make the NEK Affordable, Fight for Vermont’s Families & Students, Protect the Vermont Way of Life, and Stand Up for Veterans and Military Families. The first, third and fourth items sound more Republican than Democratic, and the other could mean anything from protecting public schools to censoring library books.

Although it happens that there’s a little Democratic daylight in that second item. Bathalon promises to “fight to protect local control and keep rural schools open,” which is more than can be said for Kingdom Kingpin Scott Beck. It would, in fact, put Bathalon to the left of Senate Democratic leadership, who enabled an “education reform” package championed by known supporters of private schools.

Seemingly it’s too much to expect a candidate who would offer a progressive agenda for the challenges faced by rural Vermont, who would stake a claim to the idea that government is a lifeline for rural areas abandoned by the pro-business, pro-plutocrat policies of the Republican Party. Who might even point out that Senate Minority Leader Beck is out there urging Kingdom schools to close down rather than fighting for the communities he serves. Oh wait, Beck doesn’t serve the communities in his district; his own campaign was bankrolled almost entirely by Burlington-area business elites. His priorities reflect that reality.

I suppose Bathalon would be a modest improvement over whatever Republican is chosen by the governor to succeed Douglass, but I long ago grew tired of holding my nose and voting for the lesser of two evils. Bathalon sounds like the kind of Democrat who keeps the caucus in suspense on key votes and can’t be counted on to support party priorities.

Then again, “dignity and integrity” alone would be a vast improvement on whatever it was that Sam Douglass brought to the job.

But to me, the biggest thing about the Bathalon candidacy is that it belies any idea that it’s too early to talk 2026. It’s clearly not. And we’re still waiting for the slightest indication that the Democrats are going to field a well-known and ‘funded candidate for governor next year. Because if they are, they’d damn well better be working on it right now.