Shay:
With the legislative session now behind him, Chittenden County Democratic Senator Doug Racine is hitting the road to raise money and garner support in his run for governor.
On Saturday, Racine will break bread with the Progressive Party’s State Committee at its quarterly meeting. That confab will be at the Old Labor Hall in Barre at 10 a.m.
“I reached out to them,” said Racine, who met twice with Anthony Pollina, the Progressives’ 2008 candidate for governor (before he dropped the party moniker and ran as an independent). Pollina also ran under the Progressive banner for governor in 2000 and lieutenant governor in 2002.
“I told them I wanted to check in with him and asked for his support,” Racine said of his two meetings with Pollina. “He didn’t say no. And, he said the next step was to talk with the state committee. In talks with other Progressives, they’ve told me they are willing to consider the person, not just the party.”
Perhaps, after all, Progs & Dems can “get along” eh?
I expected Racine to start making big moves as soon as the session was over. I’ll admit, though, I wasn’t expecting this. Good on ‘im. As readers might recall, I went on record saying the Dem Committee should give Pollina a hearing last year. Also, the Progressive complaint against Racine last cycle (when he was thinking about a run) was that they had stepped aside for him in 2002, so he should step aside for Pollina.
Well…merits to that argument notwithstanding, he did step aside. Maybe that creates an opportunity for Racine to uniquely approach the Progressives with a clean slate.
Interesting. I may have to go and see what happens.
if Racine can play himself as the one candidate who will be in a two-way race, he’s got a much better shot at the nomination.
I think this is a smart move on Doug’s part.
Needless to say, I don’t buy into the idea that there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans. Still, looking at it from the Progs’ perspective, I think that Doug may be the only Democrat who can convince Pollina that he can stay out of the race and still trust that his issues will be addressed. This may be a good selling point for our fellow Democrats.
if we are going to get rid of Doesless. We can’t afford a two way split this time. If Racine gets in, he will sign IRV which will help thrid parties and avoid this type of stuff in the future.
I appreciate that Odum is covering the fact the Doug actually reaches out to us when many other Democratic candidates do not. I am one of the folks he has spoken with about possibly working together.
However, what happened in 2008 has little to do with this situation. To say Doug stepped aside in 2008 as a return favor for 2002 is a stretch at best. There were many other factors at play (particularly his timing) that were far bigger than that.
All that not-withstanding. Dougs views on many issues make him more palatable than many other potential candidates. He voted against the vote twice provision two years ago (that Shumlin and Symington agreed to and twisted arms within the D party for votes). He also voted against the budget (along with 4 other D Senators) when many other left leaning D’s (and sadly two P’s) voted for it.
This budget already contains far too many cuts to important services to be considered a fair compromise.
Doug stands for something (and generally good somethings).
His reaching out to the Party (and us welcoming him to speak…as Odum duly notes was not the reception Anthony received), is also helpful.
We have welcomed these kinds of discussions for years. This is nothing new. There are many (no fingers at individuals at this point…folks know who they are themselves), who like to paint it that we are always up for a fight. Our fights are about the issues and the positions that folks take on the issues. If they are better on them, better chance for “getting along”, when it is about lame positions, that is when we are more aggressive about going for seats (whatever they are).
Unfortunately I could not be at the meeting as we have our new farm and the saturday farmers markets have started. Too much to catch up on. But I look forward to hearing how it went.
Racine is the only Democrat to step forward so far and a very good one at that. All the others are basically Republican-lites. Democrats and Progressives need to unite behind a solid candidate, Doug is the one.