Sam Hemingway has a brand-new analysis of the results of Burlington's mayoral election on the front page today, and I think it's a mixed bag. Still, in light of the continuing discussion of what happened, almost anything that keeps people focussing on the data is probably worthwhile.

Not that there aren't some howlers in the article. For instance, “The fact that Montroll came in third is what cost him the election,” Gierzynski said.

 I think it's very likely true that getting fewer votes than the winning candidate proved fatal to Montroll's election. How could it be any other way?

In addition, Hemingway seems to spend an inordinate amount of time talking about bullet voting as though it is some kind of distortion of the system, when in fact it is simply a way to vote your choices. If your preference is choice A, and no other candidate is acceptable to you, you will vote for A and leave the rest of your ballot blank. You will get what you wan: choice A gets your vote, and if A doesn't win none of the other candates gets any help from you.

We also get a relatively context-free comment from Garrison Nelson, an IRV opponent: 

“The fact is, 71 percent of the voters voted against Kiss.”

Maybe they just ran out of enough space for the quote where Nelson said, “The fact is that 67 percent of the voters voted against Wright,” or maybe I just missed it.

As skeptical as I am (maybe that's a polite way of saying I think te pending recount is a waste of time), I  hope the recount produces some useful information. I don't really expect that tobe the case, but I hope so.

Meanwhile, there's still an active conversation of IRV also going on over at Blurt.

With H.R. 1310 introduced into Congress, our friend Peter is absent from the co-sponsors list.  I’m a bit surprised to see Welch shy away from this one, given that most of the Progressive Caucus is aboard already, and a number of Democrats in tough districts, specifically for this issue, have had the courage to sign on.  When it was introduced in the 109th Congress, then-Rep. Sanders was all aboard as well.

H.R. 1310 would restrict the ability the ability to drop waste into valley streams.  Without the valley streams to pollute, the process of mountain top removal can’t wreck havoc our on our environment.  It’s a small step in fighting off the environmentally dangerous effects of coal, but an incredibly important one as well.

This shouldn’t be a far reach for our representative, but here’s the list of co-sponsors:

Rep. Timothy Ryan [D-OH]

Rep. Edward Markey [D-MA]

Rep. Fortney Stark [D-CA]

Rep. Bob Filner [D-CA]

Rep. Mark Kirk [R-IL]

Rep. Timothy Bishop [D-NY]

Rep. André Carson [D-IN]

Del. Donna Christensen [D-VI]

Rep. James Langevin [D-RI]

Rep. Nydia Velázquez [D-NY]

Rep. Bradley Miller [D-NC]

Rep. Robert Andrews [D-NJ]

Rep. Loretta Sanchez [D-CA]

Rep. Corrine Brown [D-FL]

Rep. Dennis Kucinich [D-OH]

Rep. Ben Chandler [D-KY]

Rep. Jerrold Nadler [D-NY]

Rep. Gerald Connolly [D-VA]

Rep. Neil Abercrombie [D-HI]

Rep. Rosa DeLauro [D-CT]

Rep. Donna Edwards [D-MD]

Rep. John Yarmuth [D-KY]

Rep. Kendrick Meek [D-FL]

Rep. James McGovern [D-MA]

Rep. John Tierney [D-MA]

Rep. Jared Polis [D-CO]

Rep. Betty McCollum [D-MN]

Rep. Jane Harman [D-CA]

Rep. John Conyers [D-MI]

Rep. Lynn Woolsey [D-CA]

Rep. Raul Grijalva [D-AZ]

Rep. Steven Rothman [D-NJ]

Rep. Barbara Lee [D-CA]

Rep. Chellie Pingree [D-ME]

Rep. Barney Frank [D-MA]

Rep. Tammy Baldwin [D-WI]

Rep. John Hall [D-NY]

Rep. William Delahunt [D-MA]

Rep. Dave Reichert [R-WA]

Rep. Anthony Weiner [D-NY]

Rep. Carolyn Maloney [D-NY]

Rep. Maurice Hinchey [D-NY]

Rep. James Himes [D-CT]

Rep. Heath Shuler [D-NC]

Rep. Louise Slaughter [D-NY]

Rep. Christopher Smith [R-NJ]

Rep. Joe Sestak [D-PA]

Rep. Eliot Engel [D-NY]

Rep. Bobby Rush [D-IL]

Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick [D-MI]

Rep. Janice Schakowsky [D-IL]

Rep. Charles Rangel [D-NY]

Rep. José Serrano [D-NY]

Del. Eleanor Norton [D-DC]

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz [D-FL]

Rep. Robert Wexler [D-FL]

Rep. Sam Farr [D-CA]

Rep. Alcee Hastings [D-FL]

Rep. William Clay [D-MO]

Rep. Russ Carnahan [D-MO]

Rep. Mazie Hirono [D-HI]

Rep. Jim Cooper [D-TN]

Rep. Allyson Schwartz [D-PA]

Rep. Keith Ellison [D-MN]

Rep. Jay Inslee [D-WA]

Rep. Michael Capuano [D-MA]

Rep. Christopher Van Hollen [D-MD]

Rep. Niki Tsongas [D-MA]

Rep. Adam Smith [D-WA]

Rep. Steve Cohen [D-TN]

Rep. Albio Sires [D-NJ]

Rep. Danny Davis [D-IL]

Rep. Adam Schiff [D-CA]

Rep. David Price [D-NC]

Rep. Brad Sherman [D-CA]

Rep. Betty Sutton [D-OH]

Rep. Anna Eshoo [D-CA]

Rep. John Sarbanes [D-MD]

Rep. Richard Neal [D-MA]

Rep. Michael Honda [D-CA]

Rep. Gary Ackerman [D-NY]

Rep. Diane Watson [D-CA]

Rep. Brian Higgins [D-NY]

Rep. Paul Hodes [D-NH]

Rep. James Moran [D-VA]

Rep. Susan Davis [D-CA]

Rep. Elijah Cummings [D-MD]

Rep. Earl Blumenauer [D-OR]

Rep. Jerry McNerney [D-CA]

Rep. Edolphus Towns [D-NY]

Rep. John Lewis [D-GA]

Rep. John McHugh [R-NY]

Rep. Carol Shea-Porter [D-NH]

Rep. Diana DeGette [D-CO]

Rep. Patrick Kennedy [D-RI]

Rep. Ellen Tauscher [D-CA]

Rep. Rush Holt [D-NJ]

Rep. Sander Levin [D-MI]

Rep. Howard Berman [D-CA]

Rep. John Olver [D-MA]

Rep. Bruce Braley [D-IA]

Rep. Dale Kildee [D-MI]

Rep. James McDermott [D-WA]

Rep. Luis Gutiérrez [D-IL]

Rep. Lois Capps [D-CA]

Rep. David Wu [D-OR]

Rep. Christopher Murphy [D-CT]

Rep. Henry Waxman [D-CA]

Rep. Todd Platts [R-PA]

Rep. Donald Payne [D-NJ]

Rep. Peter DeFazio [D-OR]

Rep. Frank Wolf [R-VA]

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver [D-MO]

Rep. William Pascrell [D-NJ]

Rep. Zoe Lofgren [D-CA]

Rep. George Miller [D-CA]

Rep. Patrick Murphy [D-PA]

So where are you, Peter?

For the past few years, there has been a pronounced absence of vision from the Democratic leadership and candidates in our state. This past week, there was a refreshing change to that trend as Shap Smith and Peter Shumlin took the initiative and announced their agenda for the remainder of the legislative session.

Unfortunately from a political perspective, their package of proposals is in danger of being reduced to only gay marriage in the perception of the voters.

Headlines ran with the gay marriage story after this press conference. For example, this article in the Times Argus mentions the other proposals in the 22nd and last paragraph, as an afterthought.

Other legislative priorities outlined by Shumlin and Smith on Thursday included a job creations bill, a $125 million transportation bonding proposal, a green energy bill, campaign finance reform, same-day voter registration and a bill forcing the owners of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant to full fund its decommissioning bill.

Please don’t misunderstand me, I think pushing for gay marriage now is a good and right move, absolutely, but it shouldn’t be the only issue that Dems are seen as leading on. Already there is a “poll” questioning the wisdom of having gay marriage so high on the priority list, when the reality is that it is part of a comprehensive range of programs including economic actions.

Democratic candidates, and savvy Democratic political leaders need to be a better job, a FAR better job, in making the case that they are a better alternative to lead this state. Leading on civil rights issues like gay marriage is one aspect of the leadership we need, but we won’t win elections without showing that we can lead this state in all areas of concern. The most frustrating thing about having Douglas as VT’s governor is that there are such fundamental differences between what he believes and what the majority of Vermonters believe in an array of policy areas such as education, spending priorities, protecting the environment, economic opportunity, etc., etc, and explaining the differentiation between Dem candidates and Douglas is central to a winning campaign cycle. The proposal by Smith and Shumlin is a decent step in the right direction, but I fear that they will not reap the benefits of it unless we can expand the dialogue to include the other worthy proposals included in their announcement.

The VT press has reduced the Democratic initiatives to a single issue for the sake of publicity, and simplicity. Almost all of the headlines across the media spectrum in our state described the press conference mainly as a gay marriage proposal. We are going to have to push back to fill in the rest of story for Vermonters to hear about how we will deal with the economy, the state budget, and building a new economic base in this state.

Do any folks here have more details on the rest of the plan? I would love to hear more details about the job creations bill, green energy bill, and campaign finance reform especially.

 Vermont like many states is unveiling shiny new websites to provide information regarding their state’s use of funds from the Federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Well Louisiana, maybe not?

Here is a link http://recovery.vermont.gov/ to Vermont’s shiny new site which contains perhaps an excusable amount of self promotion by Republican Governor Douglas.  For a man whose party leaders have come close to expressing the desire for Obama’s policies to fail he seems to have achieved a good   comfort level with this program.

………….Welcome to the Vermont Federal Recovery and Reinvestment Website: Thank you for visiting our site. Here you will find information regarding the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as it relates to our state. You can learn about Governor Douglas’ plans for using these resources to strengthen Vermont’s transportation and technological infrastructure; to invest in renewable energy and efficiency programs; and to grow our economy and put Vermonters back to work.

But Two Heads? The Governor has interestingly found the need to appointed two people to head this office in less than a month. In the beginning of February   Governor Douglas named as head   Jim Bush, the current Assistant Director of Program Development at the Agency of Transportation. ……However just the other day  it was announced  that The Office of Economic Stimulus and Recovery will be headed by Tom Evslin, who will report to Administration Secretary Neal Lunderville. March 2, 2009.One head must be bigger than the other.

http://recovery.vermont.gov/