As of last week, Deborah Richter M.D. was preparing her announcement event at the State House.
As of last week, the person who has done more to change the direction of the broken approach to the State of Vermont's most pressing, most crushing and most economically taxing problem on Vermont families, Vermont workers and Vermont business, was about to step into electoral politics.
As of a few days ago, Dr. Richter was prepared to give a bigger voice to the cause of health care reform via a statewide campaign and put herself in a position to be a more effective agent of change.
As of just a few days ago, Vermont's most passionate and articulate advocate — for healing the wounds caused by Vermont's self-inflicted health care policy malpractice — was ready to take the fight to the next level. She was preparing to campaign for the office of Lt. Governor. She was going to begin a campaing to force Vermont government, our media and our political conversation to focus on the one issue that literally means life and death, financial security or bankruptcy, or having a job or not having a job to thousands of us.
So what happened to Deb Richter? The process behind the story below the fold.
According to two reliable sources close to the unfolding events and close to the Progressive Party, Deb Richter was sandbagged and betrayed by the politics of seemingly friendly fire.
Not the politics of the insurance companies, the hospital associations, the Vermont Medical Society and all the other interest groups that cash checks on the backs of sick Vermonters and at the expense of access to health care. No, she was thrown under the bus by fellow travelers of the health care reform movement people who might otherwise tell you that they support progressive health care reform. Over the past few days, Progressive Party Apparatchiks pressured Dr. Richter out of the race.
The Pollina crowd talks a pretty health care reform game. However, when the person who knows more about how to achieve access to health care decides to run as a Democrat (and support the Democratic ticket including Gaye Symington), then all of a sudden priorities shift. The shift is dramatic. When the Pollina Progressives learned that Deb Richter intended to run as a Democrat and to support the Democratic nominee for Governor, here is what happened over at the Moose Farm. Sick kids found out they can wait. Businesses overburdened from a system that penalizes responsible employers and gives irresponsible ones a competitive advantage are no longer a pressing concern. What about the best opportunity and most qualified person to move the Overton window closer to the rational single payer approach to solving the health care mess? The Progs answer with a question: “What have you done for us lately Dr?”
Deb Richter has worked tirelessly and selflessly through multiple legislative sessions and with many State leaders of the Democratic, Progressive and Republican parties. She has contributed weeks and months of her life to help achieve better access to health care for all Vermonters. She has necessarily had to work with politicians, bureaucrats, wonks and activists of all stripes.
Given her passionate work for health care reform, it is not surprisingly, in fact it is well known and expected, that she shares a significant ideological propinquity with the progressive policy goals of like minded liberal Democrats and Progressives alike. Many on the Moose Farm wanted her to run as a Progressive. Who can blame them. Many Democrats such as myself were overjoyed at the thought that she was ready to make a prominent, articulate and solid challenge to Brian “I only need 40% + help from Pollina” Dubie. Having Dr. Richter on the stump preaching the health care sermon that the State desperately needs to hear is exactly what this campaign season needs.
Deb Richter has been a champion voice and continually spot-on when it comes to the most important issue facing Vermont. She had a chance to become the most effective advocate in State government for a single-payer, full access system. There was one thing that Dr. Richter either did not foresee or she did not foresee the level of nastiness that would come her way. Just because you agree with someone, just because you work with them, just because they say that they also want Vermont government to pursue the same policies and reforms that you have spent a good part of your professional life advocating DOES NOT necessarily mean these same people will support you when you run for office to accomplish those goals. In fact, if it means – in Deb Richter's case – that you will support your own party's nominee for Governor while you are running for Lt. Governor, then your erstwhile friends and colleagues turn out to be the same people who want to keep you from running. That's the thanks one recieves for offering to make extremely serious personal, financial, time and other professional sacrifices to run for office.
If Vermont needs anything in this election year, it needs an election cycle that focuses on the solutions to the health care crises. Vermont voters need a statewide candidate through whom they can express their desire to see a complete revamping of our broken health care system. Running on a health care reform platform and defeating an incumbent in the process would create a ripple effect and create cover for the incoming legislature and governor to giveVermont the reforms it needs and not just the ones that are safe and and politically painless. Having a statewide office holder who espouses the gospel of single payer health care reform only gets us closer to the goal of fixing a problem and repairing a process that is growing intractably worse.
To be clear, a source with first-hand knowledge has stated that the pivotal reason for Richter's unexpected departure was a coordinated effort by friends of hers active in the Progressive Party to cast her decision to run as a Dem and to endorse Symington as a personal attack for the purpose of hounding her out of the race. This was further confirmed by another source close to the Pollina campaign. What we have not learned, or have not confirmed, is the extent to which Hillary Anthony Pollina sanctioned, supported and/or helped derail Deb Richter's planned run for Lt. Governor. While word slowly rises to the surface and we learn more about Anthony Pollina's involvement, here is what I suspect we will NOT learn.
- We will NOT learn that Anthony Pollina, after the Progs had turned their backs on Vermont's permier health care reform advocate, called Deb Richter last weekend to encourage her to stay in the race.
- We will NOT learn that Anthony Pollina told Deb Richter “health care comes before politics. I'd rather see you as Lt. Governor even if you do not endorse me.”
- We will NOT learn that Anthony Pollina, in the face of his Progressive Party supporters chasing Deb Richter out of the race, stood up and said, “I'd rather see Deb Richter as Lt. Governor instead of Brian Dubie for the good of Vermont even if it means that she campaigns with Gaye Symington.”
- We will NOT learn that Anthony Pollina instructed his Progressive Party associates to cease obstructing Deb Richter's run as a Democrat.
Let's face it, many Progressives (not all for certain and in fact I know some Progressives are not too happy about this turn of events) believe it will be to their party's advantage if Anthony Pollina can attack Democrats generally, and Symington specifically, on health care as opposed to supporting a Democrat such as Deb Richter who is ready to prescribe a better health care policy regimen for all of us.
In 2002, Anthony Pollina single-handedly handed the keys to the Lt. Governor's office to Brian Dubie. Looks like this year, his team just insured Brian Dubie's reelection too.
