Tag Archives: Seven Days

We Might Look Back on This as the Beginning of the End of Mike Pieciak’s Political Career

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First, a necessary caveat. Treasurer Mike Pieciak remains the betting favorite to become governor whenever Phil Scott decides to ride off into the sunset in his #14 race car. Pieciak is popular and well-connected in Democratic circles and is a proven fundraiser. He’d also be a fine choice, given his financial and managerial expertise; the next governor is going to inherit many challenges from our risk-averse incumbent. It’ll be kind of a “12 labors of Hercules” situation, and Pieciak has the necessary administrative muscle.

But you know, if we find ourselves in the year 2032 and Charity Clark or Molly Gray or Kesha Ram Hinsdale or Tanya Vyhovsky (or, if you prefer, John Rodgers or Scott Beck) is governor and Pieciak is nowhere to be seen, having pulled a TJ Donovan and abandoned politics in favor of a cushy corporate job, you might look back on today — Wednesday, February 11, 2026 — as the first step down that long sad trail.

I refer to the new issue of Seven Days, featuring Kevin McCallum’s fine writeup of the Democrats’ failure, so far, to identify even a single candidate for governor. It raises the single biggest question in Democratic politics: “Why isn’t Mike Pieciak running?” and provides some unflattering answers.

In politics, you can go from “The Next Big Thing” to “Who Dat?” in the blink of an eye. And while it’s way too early to be writing political obituaries, you’re starting to see a few brown spots on the Pieciak banana.

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Them Bennington Boys Are At It Again

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Well, the confirmation vote on Michael Drescher came out as I expected — with barely enough support from Democrats to drag his nomination across the finish line. Congrats, Vermont! One of Trump’s willing instruments now has a lifetime appointment on your state Supreme Court.

The vote was 15-15, with two Democrats joining all 13 Republicans in support and Lt. Gov. John Rodgers breaking the tie in Drescher’s favor. It could have been different if David Zuckerman still wielded the gavel, but you know what they say about spilled milk.

It also would have been different if Bennington County didn’t have such a rich tradition of electing centrist Democrats with renegade tendencies. Because the two votes that enabled Drescher’s elevation came from Bennington’s two senators, Seth Bongartz and Rob Plunkett. Ahh, reminds me of the bad old days when the scent of Campho-Phenique hung heavy over the Senate’s chambers and the county was represented by Bob Hartwell and Dick Sears.

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We Have an Early Contender for the Least Surprising Political Development of 2026

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The inevitable has occurred, to the surprise of no one paying the slightest attention. Former Senate pro tem Tim Ashe, pictured here alongside some guy, has declared his candidacy for State Auditor*. This has been inevitable since current Auditor Doug Hoffer hired Ashe as his chief deputy back in 2021. It became extra-double inevitable when Hoffer made it clear he would not run for re-election in 2026.

*Credit where credit’s due: Political blogger Matthew Vigneau spotted Ashe’s candidacy filing on December 22, a full ten days before Ashe officially announced. He deserves credit for getting the story first, not that any mainstream media outlet ever gives proper credit to bloggers.

Both men wear the same political label as Democrat/Progressives. Both hail from Burlington. Both have ties to Bernie Sanders. Both are the kind of policy/financial nerds who would make good small-a auditors. All indications are they have worked well together in the capital-A Auditor’s office.

So yeah, of course Ashe is running for Auditor. And assuming the Vermont Republican Party can’t do any better than nominating the likes of H. Brooke Paige, he’s almost certainly going to win.

But the most politically impactful thing about this announcement has nothing to do with the man. It’s all about that D/P thang.

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Oops, Never Mind.

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This announcement, dated December 1, is still posted on Emerge Vermont’s website. But those “training opportunities” will not happen, at least not in their present format or timetable. Because, per Seven Days, Emerge America just decided to shut down Emerge Vermont in a nationwide move to eliminate state chapters in favor of a regionalized structure.

A few years ago, I wrote a post entitled “It’s Hard to Overestimate the Impact of Emerge Vermont.” Right now, I feel like it’s equally hard to overestimate the impact of Emerge Vermont’s imminent dissolution.

Emerge Vermont has been a highly effective pipeline for Democratic women who want to enter politics. It has trained hundreds of Vermonters, many of whom are now top elected officials — like U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, Attorney General Charity Clark, Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas, and I don’t know how many state reps, senators, and local officeholders.

Emerge Vermont can be credited for nearly erasing the gender gap in the Legislature. (It would have completely erased it by now except that Republican caucuses are almost entirely male.) Emerge Vermont has also been an invaluable asset for the Vermont Democratic Party, which has benefited from a steady supply of Emerge-trained women ready to run for office. (Vermont Republicans don’t have a counterpart and, as I’ve said before, they would be well advised to get their donors together and create one.)

In short, this is a sad day for gender equality in Vermont, and for Vermont Democrats.

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You Know, Maybe We’re Better Off Without Larry Hart

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Seven Days’ legislative reporter Hannah Bassett is out with a short piece about Larry Hart’s resignation as state senator from the Orange district, not named in honor of Donald Trump’s skin tone. Surprise, surprise, Hart couldn’t take “the frustrations of Statehouse politics,” which generally sideline the concerns and ideas of the minority party.

Yeah, how about that, elections have consequences.

And then we get to paragraph five, which is just an absolute stunner.

Hart also said he grew frustrated by measures advanced by the Democratic majority. He said many of the policies he objected to appeared to be driven by Democratic members who were not born in Vermont. Hart said he anticipates that Republican legislators will introduce a bill in January that would bar anyone not born in the state from running for public office.

[record scratch]

WHAAAAAAAAAAAT???!?!??!!

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A Band-Aid on a Broken Arm

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Welp, Gov. Phil Scott has unveiled his 14-point “short-term action plan” (his words, underlining the lack of sustained commitment) to improve public safety in Burlington. And, unsurprisingly, it’s a combo platter of disappointing, punitive, and cheap. It’s more political than policy, aimed at demonizing Vermont’s biggest and most important city and avoiding his administration’s culpability for the problems that beset all of our communities.

Kudos to Seven Days’ Courtney Lamdin for spotlighting, near the beginning of her story, the most crucial shortcoming in Scott’s plan:

Conspicuously missing from the plan is an expansion of homeless shelter capacity in Burlington or elsewhere in Chittenden County, despite the dire need for it. The plan also ignores specific asks that Burlington city councilors made of Scott in a resolution they passed in August.

Yeah, ignoring dire needs is kind of Phil Scott’s jam. Remember in June, when I headlined a post about his veto of H.91 “Phil Scott Doesn’t Give a Fuck About the Homeless”? His Burlington “action” plan validates my point. He is, quite literally, the Levite averting his eyes as he walks by a wounded traveler. His plan is heavy on the punitive and light on the humanity. The goal is to remove the unfortunate from his view shed, not to actually help them. The best outcome for Scott’s plan is some short-term cosmetic improvement while the underlying economic and social causes of our problems continue to exact their toll.

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News You Should View, That’s What College Papers Are For Edition

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Over the summer, I kinda got out of the habit of checking in with the three campus newspapers in our catchment because they don’t regularly publish anything when the students are away. But hey, it’s fall, and one college paper has stepped up to the plate to give full coverage to a big story that’s landed on its doorstep. Also in this space: Another potential deportation that makes no sense, another town facing a water shortage, a telling indicator of the soft market for office space, and one story that deserve dishonorable mention. If you’re here for the snark, skip down near the end.

Trump administration trying to bribe Dartmouth. Our authoritarian-minded chief executive has taken a new tack in his war on academia. He’s offering financial incentives to select institutions that adopt his ideological agenda. Which would be the death knell of academic freedom, but hey, if you want an omelet you gotta break some eggheads.

One of the nine bribery targets is Dartmouth College, which has already flown its Trump-friendly colors in a few unsettling ways. And there’s The Dartmouth, its student newspaper, with broad coverage of how the Ivy League’s party school might respond.

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John Rodgers is STILL a Campaign Finance Scofflaw

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Hey, remember December 17, when I broke the news that Lt. Gov. John Rodgers’ campaign had reported spending 31.5% more money than it had received? (His final filing for 2024 reported receiving $216,468 and spending $288,588.01.) Curious thing for a tough-minded fiscal conservative, right?

Now, remember when someone in The Respectable Media finally deigned to report on Rodgers’ faulty filings?

One and a half months later?

Yeah, watchdogs, hahaha. (VTDigger, which couldn’t wait to breathlessly inform us that U.S. Rep. Becca Balint’s leadership PAC received small quantities of corporate cash, which is absolutely legal, has yet to publish a goddamn word about Rodgers’ violations of the law. Vermont Public, also silent.)

That single published report about Rodgers’ faulty filings, by Seven Days’ Kevin McCallum, quoted campaign manager Rep. Casey Toof as attributing the gross discrepancy to a pair of whopper-sized bookkeeping errors. McCallum also quoted Rodgers as whining about how hard it is to comply with campaign finance law.

Oh, boo hoo hoo, Johnny, everybody else manages to do it. Why not you, or your experienced politician of a campaign manager?

But enough about the past. Let’s bring things up to date.

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The Governor’s Mass Unsheltering Policy Has Had Its Predictable Impact

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I knew it was going to happen. There was no reason to expect any other outcome.

The annual “point-in-time” count of people experiencing homelessness showed a slight decline in total homelessness in Vermont — but a massive increase in unsheltered homelessness. And the results almost certainly underestimate the true scope of the problem.

Why? Three reasons, as explained by Carly Berlin, the housing reporter shared by VTDigger and Vermont Public. First, the PIT count happened on a very cold night in January, when the city of Burlington was operating an overnight warming shelter that gave dozens of people a very temporary place to stay. Second, the PIT count should always be considered an undercount because, well, homeless folk can be hard to find. And third, this is especially true of the unsheltered; they might be anywhere, and the state makes no effort at all to keep track of where they are or how they’re doing. No matter how diligent the counters are, they’re not going to find everyone.

Also, it must be said that if the PIT count were conducted now, the number of unsheltered would doubtless be even higher because of cuts in the General Assistance Emergency Housing program, a.k.a. the motel voucher system, imposed in the last couple of months.

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Phil Scott Bends the Knee

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It’s been obvious since January (if not before) that Gov. Phil Scott has adopted a very different tone when it comes to That Man in the White House. It used to be that Scott felt no qualms about openly criticizing Trump. Lately, his approach has been decidedly more circumspect. I used to chalk this up to a new realpolitik in which the November election gave him many more Republican allies in the Legislature, most of whom are avid Trumpers. In response, Scott had to be more careful.

Now? I think Phil Scott is bending the knee, taking the coward’s way out, keeping his head down, sacrificing principle in favor of expediency. He doesn’t want to join the likes of Harvard, UPenn, immigrants, transgender folk, Stephen Colbert, the Washington Commanders, and Rosie O’Donnell in Trump’s crosshairs.

Two points. First, Scott’s transportation secretary refusing to cooperate with Attorney General Charity Clark’s lawsuit over cutbacks in federal funding for electric vehicle infrastructure. Second, his staunch defense of state cooperation with Trump’s immigration regime despite the fact that his own Department of Corrections is having a hard time dealing with the feds’ extraconstitutional thuggery.

Also this: A carefully worded statement from Clark that hints at a broader Trump-avoidant stance by the Scott administration.

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