Despite suggestions by some on this site that any negative reception to the Progressive Party’s letter (concerning the prospects of the Progs supporting one of the Democratic candidates for governor) is something I personally “spun” from thin air, it continues to be clear that others disagree. Why else have Martha Abbott and now Anthony Pollina clearly taken to damage control on the matter, after all?

Pollina appeared on Vermont Edition today (Friday) and clearly walked back a lot of the edge to the letter. Truthfully, he did a pretty good job and may have gone a long way toward hitting the reset button on much of this conversation.  

There was certainly a helping of standard Pollina fare (he commented that his photo-finish second place over Gaye Symington suggested he was “clearly more viable,” when its fairly obvious that their almost identical results showed pretty clearly that the two are equally non-viable). He also would not rule out running for the top spot again, and even went on a bit at the question, sounding a lot like he was making a campaign speech. More interesting, though, was his repeated floating of the notion of running for State Senate from Washington County. Fascinating, no? Maybe he reads this site after all. He was dismissive of Tim Ashe-style fusion candidacy, though, which presents challenges, but still…

But the big question was the letter, and Pollina walked the ultimatum and threat vibe way back, switching back to the language of diplomacy by describing the interactions thus far as the “beginnings of conversations” and the bullet list as “not the only issues.”

More significantly, he walked way back the failing grades Senators Racine and Bartlett were rewarded with, acknowledging that of the candidates, there “could be some folks that are better on some (issues) than on others” and that “opinions (among individual Progressives) will vary, person to person.” He also expressed explicit appreciation to Bartlett and Racine for reaching out, while admonishing Markowitz for her “bad attitude” of waiting to be invited, making it clear that no such invitation would be forthcoming.

Hard to say where this will go. Given that its sleepy-sleepy August, walking back this dust devil as well as Pollina did may cause the whole affair to largely disappear, whereas that wouldn’t have been the case if this had happened in the fall.