From the Symington campaign:

Democratic candidate for Governor Gaye Symington raised $116,931.47 since the last filing report was submitted in September. The report also shows expenditures of $272,338.99 for the period, and cash on hand of $42,928.55

For the campaign to date, the total raised is $491,301.75 and total expenditures are  $448,373.20

There have been 2,082 total contributors, 89% of whom live in Vermont.

Not sure who saw the recent TV interview with Joe Biden but it was one of the worst of the 2008 election. Barbara West of WFTV in Orlando asked Biden questions that sounded like they came straight from FOX. Biden wasn’t having any of it.

Here’s the kicker, West is a former UVM professor and a former Miss Vermont. Here’s her bio.  

 Yellow clothes collection boxes

…Planet Aid, a charity that collects used clothing in 140 distinctive yellow boxes around the state, has received unfavorable ratings from at least two review organizations.Twenty of the nonprofit group’s clothing-collection boxes have appeared in Burlington and Chittenden County in the past year. There are now 140 boxes at gas stations and convenience stores across the state.A collection box at the Rotary Gulf station on Shelburne Road in Burlington explains why people should give to them: “Planet Aid sells your donated clothing to thrift stores and used clothing suppliers in the U.S. and worldwide. The net proceeds are used for development programs in Africa, Asia and Latin America.”

…The Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance said Planet Aid spends just 28 percent of its expenses on its charitable programs — considerably less than the 65 percent the alliance sets as a standard.The Better Business Bureau criticizes Planet Aid for characterizing its selling of old clothing as a recycling program. “The Alliance,” it said in its report, “believes these are actually fundraising expenses

…” http://www.burlingtonfreepress…

This article caught my eye,as my worry has increased about where the RNC will ultimately donate Sarah Palin’s $150,000 worth of clothes.I don’t know a thing about Planet Aid other than seeing one of their yellow donation boxes in a nearby town and now reading an article in the Free Press about low ratings it has been given by two charity rating groups. A quick search tells me that Planet Aid has been criticized in the past. It appears that the basis for the low ratings is threefold: one being the hard-to-factor value of “saving” discarded clothing from the landfill and two, selling the clothes and then channeling the money(profits) to other charities,three competing in a way with older established groups .The overall environmental value is a tough one to quantify, I would think.The profit of donated clothing sold versus the money in turn donated leaves a documented trail – money in money out ratio.

This group itself may have problems but it seems like a good model to explore for an application of Vermont’s new L3C law.It might remove an organization from the gray area between selling ,operating expenses and “re-donating” that this group seems to have fallen.Earlier this year the Vermont Legislature passed a new law for a new hybrid-style low-profit/non-profit corporation. According to reports, an L3C with a carefully written operating agreement, could perform the best services of both a profit and a nonprofit under one structure. The designation allows for the creation of a hybrid between a nonprofit organization and a for-profit corporation. The entity would be a low-profit company with “charitable or educational” goals.  $150,000 worth of good Republican campaign clothes will soon hit the charity world.

I want Gaye Symington and Anthony Pollina to lock themselves into a room and not come out until one of them is running with the other’s support.

             Because that person would become the next governor. And if they both stay in the race, its welcome back governor Douglas.

                I asked Gaye what she thought of the idea. “Not much” was her immediate response. She said that it was the 11th hour, and this should have been worked out long ago.

            But that has it exactly backwards. Only because it is the 11th hour does it make sense to think about unity. In the early months of the campaign, each campaign had every reason to make their case that their candidate would be the star for us to hitch our wagon to.

           But neither Gaye nor Anthony have taken that commanding lead. They should sit down together, realistically decide who has the forward momentum, who has the dynamism to win, then give us a real chance to get rid of Douglas.

          Why couldn’t Governor Symington work with Agricultural Commisioner Pollina, or Governor Pollina work with Transportatipn Secretary Symington, for example?

            It seems obvious to me that Gaye has struggled during this campaign and is barely holding her own if not sinking. Anthony’s performance on the campaign trail and in the debates have been able to keep him abreast with Symington in spite of a fraction of the campaign money, He is my obvious candidate to choose

            But if the two of them emerge and tell me that Gaye is to be the standard bearer, I would do everything that I could to help her get elected. Likewise, If Dems would support a Pollina choice, we could change the political landscape in this state in the next ten days.

Actually, just another excuse to post this picture: