The Phil Scott campaign has posted a 10-minute hagiography video featuring a variety of Vermonters praising the governor’s “Experience. Integrity. Character.” (That’s the title of the video, which has amassed a non-robust 929 views in its three days on the YouTube machine.) There’s also plenty of Phil himself, standing manfully and speaking his brand of home truths — which mostly has to do with taxes being too high and regulations too strict and the plague of extreme partisanship he attributes equally to “both sides.”

And whoops, there at the 5:25 mark is “Democratic” Rep. Matt Birong, giving his public backing to the third Republican I know of this year. Birong, most recently seen as Lt. Gov. John Rodgers’ campaign chair, is given the task of running down Democratic candidate Amanda Janoo as an inexperienced candidate who might not be up to the job. You know, the same talking points we see in the Republican Governors Association’s oft-repeated attack ad.

No other speaker in the 10-minute video mentions Janoo.

This post wasn’t meant to focus on Birong, but on the above gent: Louie Manno, Republican candidate for state Senate in the deep blue Chittenden Central district.

Sad to say, Mr. Manno is not the best advertisement for Phil Scott as the reasonable force for bipartisanship. Because he has some inconvenient passages in his social media history. So inconvenient that it makes me wonder about the Scott campaign’s vetting process.

Well, actually, I stopped wondering long ago because our Governor Nice Guy is amassing quite the record of publicly supporting very fringey Republican candidates — and helping elect a bunch of them to the Legislature. Manno will not be joining their number; he himself has acknowledged that “I’m not gonna win.”

On balance that’s a good thing, because I’ve seen some of Manno’s social media posts and… let’s just say his appearance in a Phil Scott campaign video doesn’t add any luster to Scott’s reputation.

Let’s start with election denial. In one post, Manno writes “I don’t see how [Joe Biden] could have” won the 2020 election, but adds that the issue is unlikely to come up should he become a state senator, so no harm, no foul?

In other posts, Manno writes darkly of “the poison shot,” presumably meaning the Covid vaccine that saved millions of lives, professes to be “absolutely pro-life,” praises Donald Trump’s ICE enforcement regime and says the only due process “illegal aliens” deserve “is a free ride home.” Or possibly to some random country on another continent.

And then there’s my favorite of them all. In response to a post by U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Manno wrote, “She’s lucky to have access to our indoor plumbing.”

You know, because she must have come from a shithole country, right? What a knee-slapper.

(Mmm, actually, Tlaib was born in the good ol’ U.S.A. Oopsie.)

As a matter of practical politics, Scott has little choice but to wrap his avuncular arm around a variety of nutjob candidates because there aren’t enough “traditional Vermont conservatives” to populate a Republican ticket. In many cities, towns, and counties, the entire Republican hierarchy is dominated by Trumpers, election deniers, anti-vaxxers, and the like. And they drive out anyone who doesn’t hew to an extreme party line because who wants to be in a room with those people?

If Scott withheld his endorsement and connections from any candidate with fringey views, he’d have a very hard time preventing Democratic supermajorities. Better to have some extremists in positions of power than allow the Democrats to rule the roost, amirite?

One more thing from the closing moments of the video. Manno claims that Scott is “the most popular governor in the country,” and another speaker praises Scott for “the highest approval rating in the country.” Those things used to be true. But by every available measure, Scott’s popularity and job approval have taken a plunge in 2026.

Still, there ought to be plenty of “real Vermonters” out there who still drink the Kool-Aid and would happily appear in a Phil Scott campaign video. There was no reason to make room for Manno, an extremist candidate in a very liberal district who has no chance of winning. Maybe the Scott campaign didn’t think anyone would notice. Or maybe they just don’t care.