Tag Archives: Vermont Daily Chronicle

Instant Statewide Ticket, Just Add Water

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Stop the presses! Big news from the world of Vermont politics! The state Republican Party just filled out its statewide ticket with three people who… uhhhh… you’ve never heard of. And who have roughly the same chance of winning as I do, and I won’t be on the ballot.

The few who voted in the Republican primary were greeted, over and over again, by the name of H. Brooke Paige, Vermont’s favorite novelty candidate. He was the only name on the Republican ballot for attorney general, auditor, secretary of state, and treasurer. His stated intent was to occupy those slots so no Democrat could slide to an easy write-in victory. (It happened in 2020 when Doug Hoffer captured the Democratic, Republican, and Progressive nominations and won the November election with 84% of the vote.) After the primary, Paige withdrew from all races except secretary of state, allowing the state Republican committee to nominate replacement candidates.

And now they have. I don’t know if they picked names out of a hat or held a W.C. Fields lottery* or if some thought actually went into the exercise, but it really doesn’t matter. None of the “lucky” three nominees has a snowball’s chance of winning in November. Vermont Public ran a brief story about their nominations but didn’t put in the slightest effort at identifying them beyond their names and home towns.

*”First prize was a week in Philadelphia. Second prize was two weeks.”

So just for shits and giggles, let’s fire up the Internet Machine and see what we can learn about these three “major party” candidates.

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Fair Warning: The Cow Lady is Back

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I guess Andrea Murray wasn’t discouraged by a state Senate campaign that, in the Republican wave year of 2024, saw her finish a distant fourth in the deep-blue Windsor district — and blow a big hole in her family’s bank account because she lavishly self-funded her own campaign. Much of her money was spent on two different out-of-state consultancies that shamelessly ripped her off did her no favors at all. Her investment paid the tiniest of dividends; she finished less than two percentage points ahead of two Republicans who barely campaigned at all. (The above screenshot was taken from a two-minute campaign video lavishly produced by one of those consultancies.)

Also, she regularly and wildly flouted campaign finance reporting laws, a practice she has carried forward into 2026. As noted previously, she missed the March 15 and July 1 deadlines despite spending at least some money on Vermont Daily Chronicle ads, a wasteful practice since the vast majority of VDC readers live outside Windsor County. One could argue that the ads could connect her to the wider conservative donor class, except she has yet to attract more than a handful of donors outside her own pocket.

Well, folks, on July 26 she filed both of this year’s reports at once plus the report that was due on July 1 of last year. And there are only five days to go before the next deadline. Great. We’ll probably see her August 1 report sometime in October. Too bad there are no penalties for late filing, thanks to the Legislature’s self-dealing on campaign finance issues.

Anyway, a look at her latest reports shows that she’s not doing anything different from two years ago. Still running in a district that hasn’t elected a Republican to the state Senate since 1994, still pouring her own money into a certain-to-lose campaign, still attracting little money from the rest of the human race.

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Strap In, It’s Time for Another Touchdown on Planet Hank

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I hate to give this douchebag the slightest bit of publicity, because it’s what he thrives on. But “Planet Hank” Poitras is someone who needs to be taken seriously. He cannot be ignored. Because he could very well be a rising star in Republican circles. (Governor, any comment?)

Poitras is seen above in a video he posted online himself. Yep, this is his favored public presentation. The problem is, he apparently holds a position (or two) of responsibility in the Vermont Republican Party, and he’s been creating a bunch of AI-generated attack videos aimed at U.S. Rep. Becca Balint and Sen. Bernie Sanders — videos being eagerly shared by Republican Congressional candidate Mark Coester. Poitras is the kind of bare-knuckles antagonist who tends to float upwards in the turgid swamp of Donald Trump’s America.

And now he’s elevating himself to the status of Crime Victim Slash Martyr, a casualty of the widespread lawlessness he gleefully chronicles in his cheap-ass “Cops” knockoff videos.

In case you missed it, Poitras claims to have been the target of a home invasion and deadly attack. The alleged assailant is a young man who was the subject of one of Planet Hank’s breathless videos. The man has been arrested and is in custody. And so far, all we have is Poitras’ word for what happened.

If you think I’m exaggerating, remember that while the Brattleboro police officially cut off any cooperation with Poitras, he has many friends in the department — perhaps including the officer/officers who wrote up the incident. And then ponder this quote from the judge who oversaw the arraignment hearing:

There may be more to the story than is obvious from the affidavit.

So the judge smells something fishy? So do I.

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Russ Ingalls Is Launching… Something

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This Just In! From your friends at Vermont Daily Chronicle: State Sen. Russ Ingalls, a very conservative fellow from the Kingdom, is launching a… well, he calls it a party, but he insists it’s not a party at all. It’s just called a “party” to, you know, keep us all on our toes or summat.

This apparent contradiction forced the Republican-friendly Chronicle to post this quadruple backflip of clarification:


[Editor’s note: Previous VDC coverage, including an earlier edition of this new story, has included references to “a new party,” words Ingalls said he has not made in public or in private. He confirmed to VDC today that he is starting a platform, and that he never said he was starting a party. He did not say, when asked, if he plans for The Vermont Party to become a political party. As a result, for clarity’s sake, VDC has edited wording in this news story from ‘a new party’ to ‘The Vermont Party.’]

Gee, I dunno how the Chronicle learned of something called The Vermont Party and jumped to the conclusion that the venture was… a party. How presumptuous. How rude. How unfair to the good Senator.

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House Leadership Suffered an Embarrassing Defeat Last Week, Not That Our Media Took Much Notice

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A former House speaker once told me that they never brought a bill to a floor vote unless they were certain of the outcome. Otherwise they’d put it off while they nailed down the necessary votes.

Last Wednesday, Speaker Jill Krowinski fell afoul of that maxim. Or ignored it, or didn’t care.

The full House was considering Act 181 dismemberment reform, which turned out to be a lengthy floor debate with plenty of amendments. And something happened that only rarely happens: the minority Republicans won a couple of votes. They actually had an impact on the process.

“In all of my 18 years, I can’t remember that happening,” Republican Rep. Mark Higley told the Vermont Daily Chronicle — the only media outlet to report on Wednesday’s events as a noteworthy, standalone story. Which is a depressing statement on the health of our media ecosystem, but we’ll get to that later.

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At VTDigger, the Outward Signs Continue to be Not Great

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Disclaimers and caveats first. I’m a supporter of VTDigger. It’s an essential piece of our diminishing news ecosystem. I shudder to think where we’d be without it.

Also, I have no inside knowledge. This post, as with my other writing about Digger, is based entirely on what I can see from out here.

And what I can see is disturbing, sorry to say.

The latest shoe to drop is the sudden departure of editor-in-chief Geeta Anand. She moved across the country to take the Digger job last spring, and now she’s moving back after less than a year. It follows on the heels of CEO Sky Barsch’s pending departure, announced in late January.

I don’t know why Anand is leaving so soon, and I’m not going to speculate. But her interim replacement, veteran editor and journalist Susan Allen, will be Digger’s fourth editor-in-chief in 16 months, including two interims. (Credit to Guy Page at the Vermont Daily Chronicle for being the only reporter to point that out.)

That’s… well, that’s just bad, for a newsroom that seems adrift from its original focus.

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Musical Chairs

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Next month could bring leadership changes in both of Vermont’s major parties. On the Republican side, November’s election for party chair has produced a spirited contest. The incumbent faces a challenge from a prominent elected official and seems to be in some trouble with party brass.

More on that in a moment, but first, we’ve got breaking news from the Vermont Democratic Party. Jim Ramsey, who was chosen as interim chair last winter following the sudden departure of David Glidden, will not seek election to a full two-year term. When he succeeded Glidden in February, Ramsey delivered stirring remarks to the VDP state committee, castigating Gov. Phil Scott’s “harmful policies,” calling for the party to field “a competitive candidate” to run for governor in 2026, and concluding “Let’s go to work, and let’s win.”

Well, if any of that comes to pass, Ramsey won’t be around to see it. Here’s how he explained his decision in an email to this observer:

Over the course of the past few months, my work commitments outside of the VDP have been increasing, and much of it is occurring away from Vermont, particularly in Washington, DC.  This is expected to continue at least through 2026 and into 2027.  As a result, my wife and I will soon be moving there on a full-time basis, and my role as VDP Chair will end when my term expires next month.  

Not great news for the party, which has struggled for years to find good leaders and keep them in place. There’s been a lot of turnover in the unpaid position of party chair and the paid staff position of executive director. Now they’ll be breaking in a new chair with the 2026 campaign season just around the corner.

When Ramsey was chosen as interim chair, there was another hopeful in the running: former state senator turned podcaster Andy Julow. Would he be interested in another run? Magic 8-Ball says “Ask Again Later.”

Now, back to the Republicans.

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PANIC! At the Statehouse

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You know the funny thing about all those conservatives who carry pocket Constitutions everywhere they go, many of whom revere our founding document as divinely inspired?

The funny thing is, they have no idea what the First Amendment says or means. Are those pocket Constitutions ever actually read, or are they just fetish objects?

Latest example: The ongoing kerfuffle over a March 12 incident at the Statehouse, in which an event sponsored by the far-right Vermont Family Alliance was interrupted by a handful of dancing transgender folk. (To judge by available footage, it was the mildest, most unthreatening “disruption” I have ever seen in my life.) Eventually the meeting was shut down by the Sergeant at Arms. Conservatives instantly went into full tizzy mode over the trans folk’s alleged interference with VFA’s First Amendment rights.

I haven’t addressed this before because I thought it would go away (as it should), but the right-wing echo machine has cranked itself up to eleven. So I guess I have to explain this. Slowly.

The First Amendment guarantees your right of free speech. It does not guarantee your right to a particular platform. There is no Constitutional right to hold an event in Room 11 of the Statehouse, just as there is no Constitutional right to express your views in the pages of the New York Times or on a given social media platform or on a specific streetcorner or in a crowded theater.

The VFA folks could have gone out in the hall or out on the front lawn. Or anywhere. They didn’t have to be deterred by a few counter-protesters dancing around. Which, from available video evidence, is absolutely all they did.

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News You Should View: The Empire Strikes Back

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The response to this feature’s debut was overwhelmingly positive, so here we are again. For those just joining us, every week I’m scanning the news coverage of Vermont and pointing out a bunch of items that might have escaped your attention. These could be news stories, essays, blogposts, podcasts, videos, or what have you.

This week’s subtitle is a reference to the second installment in a series, but also to a story that might turn out to be dramatically impactful — but has barely been covered by our mainstream outlets. Probably a matter of time before our own domestic empire strikes back.

The Statehouse Transgender Kerfuffle. This story began in the Vermont Daily Chronicle, the extremely conservative outlet for right-wing opinion and news of questionable veracity. A recent VDC story has gained traction in the wider conservative media ecosystem, which could lead to significant implications for our relations with the Trump administration.

And here it is. On Wednesday, March 12, the Vermont Family Alliance, a conservative activist group, tried to hold an event in the Statehouse promoting “detransition,” the allegedly growing phenomenon of people who’ve had gender affirming care subsequently deciding to return to their birth gender. Transgender activists disrupted the event, leading Statehouse officials to call a halt to the proceedings. This story has been relentlessly followed up by the Chronicle and been amplified by Fox News and other outlets as an example of the oppressive left trampling the free speech views of conservatives.

It’s a stupid story but if it filters up to the Trump White House, we might find ourselves in the crosshairs just like Maine Gov. Janet Mills or the University of Pennsylvania. I may be writing a full post about this, but I did want to spotlight it in this forum.

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Tear Down the Big Soggy Schlong

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It’s not that I don’t keep an eye out for the Bennington Battle Monument when I find myself taking the 279 bypass. And yes, “the 306 foot commemorative shaft” has been a feature of the local landscape for 134 years, and we do love us a long-established structure no matter its innate attractiveness or real-world feasibility. And yes, it does commemorate Vermont’s Revolutionary War-adjacent moment of relevance… although I do have to wonder if the second most phallic public structure in the world* (unofficial status) isn’t just a little bit triggering for some passers-by.

*See below.

But the news that the Monument was made of the wrong kind of stone, leaving its signature tumescence in need of restoration to the tune of at least $40 million? (The story appeared on VTDigger over the weekend, more than a month after it was initially reported by the Vermont Daily Chronicle.) It makes me conclude that we shouldn’t bother saving this Gilded Age tribute to toxic masculinity. I say tear the bloody thing down. Find another way to memorialize the battle if you must. Don’t waste tens of millions of dollars on an edifice that manages to combine ugliness with impracticality.

What could be more impractical than a massive outdoor monument constructed of highly absorbent limestone? In a state known for its granite and marble quarries, no less? The result: the ponderous pecker is sodden with an estimated 66,000 gallons of water. Given that fact, I suppose it’s surprising that it hasn’t already drooped over like a “Before” image in a Cialis ad.

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