theVPO Media Crossover Event!

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Hey, WDEV’s Mark Johnson is on his annual summer vacation, and I’ll be sitting in for Mark during some of those days. This week, Tuesday the 16th and Wednesday the 17th. I’ll also be in the big chair the 25th, 26th, and 29th. (Please note: When I’m hosting the show, I set my politics aside as much as possible, and give my guests the chance to share their views and ideas. Don’t expect any polemics. That’s not my role on WDEV.)

Guests for the next two days:

9:00 am Tuesday: State Rep. Tom Stevens, D-Waterbury. He recently became president of Downstreet Housing ahd Community Development. We’ll talk about his new gig, the housing issues facing Vermont, and probably touch on some other issues as well.

10:00 am Tuesday: Erica Heilman, creator/host of Rumble Strip Vermont, a podcast that tells Vermonters’ real life stories and explores aspects of Vermont life.

9:00 am Wednesday: Doug Racine, former Lieutenant Governor, State Senator, and Human Services Secretary. He’ll talk about his service in the Shumlin administration, his views on the political scene, and his own thoughts about running for Governor.

10:00 am Wednesday: Ben T. Matchstick and Pete Talbot of the Cardboard Teck Instantute (sic). They’ve invented a working pinball machine made out of cardboard; they hope to develop a gaming platform from their simple base. They just got back from Washington, D.C., where they showcased their invention at a national Maker Faire.

WDEV broadcasts out of Waterbury and can be heard in most of northern and central Vermont on 96.1 FM and 550 AM. The show can be livestreamed online at wdevradio.com. Hope you can join me!

Two little bread crumbs on the campaign trail

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File these under “I’m Sure They Don’t Mean Anything”… Welch claims his online turf, and a departure from the Good Ship Sorrell.

1. Seven Days reports that a staffer for Rep. Peter Welch has reserved the domain name “welchforgovernor.com.” But Bob Rogan, chief of staff for Vermont’s Youngest Congresscritter, says we shouldn’t read anything into that.

“As you know, there is a cottage industry of people who buy up political domain names to make money by selling them back to the politician,” Rogan said Monday. “Unequivocally, you should not read into this that a decision has been made or is even close to being made. This is just prudent scenario planning by campaign staff. Nothing more.”

Well, as long as they’re being prudent, they should go back and snag “welchforgovernor.org,” which is unclaimed as of this writing. After all, that’s precisely the “scenario planning” failure that’s been causing headaches for presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina.

2. One possible “tell” about the political plans of Eternal General Bill Sorrell is the activity of his longtime staffers. If they start heading for the exits, that’d be a strong indication that the show is about to close. Well hey, whad’ya know:

Elliot Burg, who has served as an assistant attorney general since 1987, has decided to retire from the Vermont Attorney General’s Office.

Burg added that he looks forward to “being with my family more, and to pursuing my longstanding interests in photography, music, and international volunteer work.”

Okay, one departure means nothing. Coincidence, natural attrition, whatever. But if this is the first in a series, we’ll know something is up. Stay tuned!

Our sclerotic Senate

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In my most recent rant about the State Senate, our most dysfunctional and ego-driven deliberative body, I tossed out a back-of-the-envelope figgerin’ of the Senate’s electoral stasis:

A quick overview of our 30 senators shows at least 26 who are virtual locks for re-election as long as they want to run. And one of the other four is Norm McAllister, who would have been number 27 if only he could have kept it in his pants.

That, I should note, is a generous calculation. You could just as easily argue that if all the sitting Senators ran for re-election in 2016, McAllister is the only one who’d be seriously vulnerable. Almost all the districts lean heavily to the left or to the right. That’s a bad thing, and helps create a Senate that’s full of overinflated egos and smothered in a sense of entitlement.

In case you think I’m overstating the political reality of the Senate, I thought I’d run down the list. In alphabetical order by county:

Addison. Democrats Claire Ayer and Chris Bray romped to re-election in 2014, with no Republicans even bothering to try.

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Once again, Darcie Johnston has her finger on the pulse of the electorate

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As of this writing, the manhunt continues for Richard Matt and David Sweat, the two escaped murderers in upstate New York and Vermont. Cops on the lookout, distributing flyers all over the place; warnings to campers; constant updates in the local media, a sudden and very real outbreak of fears that Vermonters like to think they’re immune from.

And right on cue, here comes conservative political consultant Darcie Johnston, who hasn’t been on a winning campaign since she left the Jim Jeffords operation more than a decade ago, with the real question that’s on everybody’s mind. Not.

Yeah, really. Those goddamn featherbedding cops, traipsing through the fields and forests at all hours. It’s like a vacation when you think about it. The New York Times:

Those who know the terrain have made jokes that, if the men are in these woods, they are surprised the pair have not turned themselves over to the authorities by now, beaten up by nature and begging for a break. The rain has fallen regularly and hard. The woods are filled with skunks, porcupines and black bears. Then there are the bugs that swarm the forest this time of year: black flies, ticks and deer flies.

Usually, you can count on conservatives to support law enforcement and security as a true core function of government, and express gratitude to those who risk their own safety to preserve ours. But not Darcie, I guess.

I’d like to know her alternative. Call off the search and let the free market sort it out? Contract it to the private sector and hire the lowest bidder?

Hey, I know: send in the drones and bomb ’em out. Might be some collateral damage, but I bet we’d save some precious taxpayer dollars.

The curious incident of the Prog in the night-time — UPDATED

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UPDATE: The Senator in question has spoken to WCAX. Details below, after the jump.

So here’s a heartening piece of party unity: the elective officeholders of the Progressive Party got together this week and enthusiastically endorsed Bernie Sanders for President.

The gang’s all there, from the four Progs on Burlington City Council, Robert Millar of Winooski City Council, the Party’s seven members of the House, State Auditor Doug Hoffer, and both of the Progs’ state senators.

Wait, what did I just say?

“…both of the Progs’ state senators.”

Hey, aren’t there three of ’em? I thought so.

Well, there’s Anthony Pollina… and David Zuckerman…

Hmm. Where’s Triangulatin’ Tim Ashe, the most nakedly ambitious of all the Progs?

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The House Clerk: Maybe this is okay, but it sure doesn’t look like it

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Earlier this week, VTDigger’s Morgan True broke the story that the newly-elected State House Clerk, William MaGill, was voluntarily disbarred less than a year before his elevation. Yes, he lost his license to practice law because of ethical breaches.

MaGill had served as Assistant Clerk; and during the last two Legislative sessions, True reports, he “served as the de-facto House Clerk as his predecessor Don Milne struggled with health problems.” By all accounts he has done a good job, and the House Clerk doesn’t need to be a lawyer.

But whether or not MaGill’s professional failings are germane to his current post, I think it’s safe to say that the process wasn’t handled at all well.

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Story Time, 2010 Primary Edition: in honor of Deb Markowitz

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Well, the briefest of gubernatorial trial balloons has settled to the floor, like the birthday balloon that got a half-shot of helium. Deb Markowitz, Agency of Natural Resources Secretary throughout the Shumlin administration, has taken her name out of the running. In an email to Seven Days’ Paul Heintz, she wrote:

“I will not be running for Governor this time around. I want to be able to continue to fully focus on the important work of the agency to address the important environmental, energy and economic issues facing Vermont.”

Fair enough. It kinda seemed like she was a token woman on everybody’s list rather than a real top tier contender. Which is a shame, because she could very easily have been Governor instead of Peter Shumlin. And the way his administration has turned out, we might have been better off with Markowitz.

We’ll never know, of course. But let’s take a stroll down Memory Lane, just to show how close we came to that particular alternate reality. And how a possible bit of trickeration (the Nixon folks called it ratf*cking) might have kept her out of the corner office.

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Rent-to-own abuses reined in

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On Monday, Governor Shumlin announced something or other. Everybody paid attention.

On Tuesday, he signed a bill that will help a lot of people. Pretty much nobody paid any attention.

S.73 is a consumer protection bill whose primary purpose is to prevent rent-to-own stores from preying on the working poor. When I was a guest on the Mark Johnson Show after the legislative session and he asked me which piece of legislation would have the most impact, I said that for some, it wouldn’t be education reform or RESET or the budget or Lake Champlain; it’d be S.73.

Rent-to-own stores, at their worst, are a lot like payday lenders: they allow the poor to acquire consumer goods like furniture, electronics, and appliances with little or no money up front. Instead, they charge monthly lease rates. In some cases, a consumer will pay far more over the life of a lease than they would have if they’d paid cash (or had a credit card) up front. Like 200% more.

It’s usury by another name.

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When you run for President, weird stuff happens

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Okay, so Bernie Sanders was a guest this morning on The Diane Rehm Show.

For those unfamiliar, Diane Rehm is a veteran public radio talk show host based on Washington, D.C. Her show is aired on many public radio stations across the country, including New Hampshire Public Radio but not VPR, which airs “On Point” in that time slot.

Anyway, Bernie was on to talk about his run for President. And about 25 minutes in, something weird happened. Rehm began a question by stating, as a fact, that Sanders has dual US/Israeli citizenship. Bernie cut her off and denied the assertion:

Well, no I do not have dual citizenship with Israel. I’m an American. I don’t know where that question came from. I am an American citizen, and I have visited Israel on a couple of occasions. No, I’m an American citizen, period.

Rehm responded that Sanders was on “a list we have gotten” of public officials with dual US/Israeli citizenship.

Sanders dismissed it as “the nonsense that goes on in the Internet.”

And in fact, Rehm was completely wrong. The “list” has been circulating among anti-Israel conspiracy theorists for years. It includes 12 Senators and 29 Congressmembers — basically anyone with a Jewish-sounding name. The list carries no attribution and offers no evidence. (It’s also about five years old, and includes several people who are no longer in Congress.)

The question then becomes, how in the blue Hell did this get on public radio?

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Not a single moment of grace

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I guess the Vermont Republicans really can’t wait for Peter Shumlin to leave. After his Monday announcement that he would not seek a fourth term, they issued a press release that was gleefully venomous from start to finish. The words came from Executive Director Jeff Bartley, who just couldn’t resist the opportunity to spew his toxic pablum of unconvincing partisanship.

This is one decision for which Governor Peter Shumlin deserves praise. In deciding not to seek reelection, Governor Shumlin has done what is best for Vermont.

Hahaha, BURN!

After that nice little fratboy opening, Bartley ticks off his litany of imagined Democratic failures, and then promises that Republicans “will continue our laser like focus on growing the economy.”

Yeah, laser-like focus on scoring cheap political points, more like.

Maybe, instead of recycling the same stale attacks, Bartley might have allowed Peter Shumlin a single moment of grace as he announced his exit from the stage. I know, I know; that’s expecting a lot from a guy whose apparent career goal is to become a conservative consultant a la Jim Barnett or Corry Bliss, the ex-Vermonters who get paid big bucks for consistently losing strategeries.

But if he’d wanted to express the least bit of humanity — and given himself a better chance to connect with undecided voters in the process — I would have suggested something more like this:

“We salute Governor Shumlin for his years of public service. While we disagree on many issues, we honor his earnest desire to make Vermont a better place to live and work. We look forward to a spirited campaign of ideas in 2016.”

You know, even if you think he’s a dunderhead, give him a little credit for his years in the public sphere.

But I suppose that’s too much to expect from Jeff Bartley.