[Update: From dearth to flood — Senator Ginny Lyons of Williston will be at the Grand Isle County Committee meeting Monday Feb. 1 as a potential Lt. Gov. candidate, joining Steve Howard and Chris Bray, making it possible that there will be four candidates in that Democratic primary.]    

Two of the three Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor introduced themselves to Franklin County Democratic activists on Monday night. Both Chris Bray and Steve Howard made it to the meeting, having driven a considerable distance in flood weather to be there, while the third candidate, Tim Palmer, from Chittenden County, had to be in Washington DC instead.

Bray was quiet and professorial at his first outing as a statewide candidate. Howard took a more rabble-rousing partisan tone, which might work well with a larger audience.

The gist of their presentations is after the jump.

Rep. Chris Bray, from New Haven in Addison County, concentrated primarily on the role he envisions for his tenure as lite guv in encouraging the re-establishment of food processing and distribution centers in the state as a way to bring back a half-billion dollars in money sent out of state for food. That would represent a 10 percent increase in money spent locally. According to Bray, 97 percent of our food money goes out of state. In addition to increased processing and distribution facilities, he like to see more diversification in farming toward other foods than dairy, and at the same time an alliance [in law and policy] among all farmers, not the current division between “dairy” and “non-dairy” farms.

Bray has degrees in Zoology (BA, UVM, 1977)  and English (MA, UVM, 1991), and taught English at UVM for four years. He is the principal of Common Ground Communications, a writing-editing-design-production outfit in New Haven. He’s been on the House Ag Committee since 2007. Bray and his partner Kate Selby have a horse farm on 82 acres.

Rep. Steve Howard (Rutland City), is a 6-term veteran of the House, half from Rutland Town, more recently from Rutland City. He gave a near-textbook stump speech, hitting the current governor for trying to balance the budget on the backs of senior citizens without even asking Vermonters in the top two income brackets to contribute a little more, specifically, 3 percent more, the same amount as the state employees gave back in their recent contract negotiations. If we can ask the snow-plow driver to give 3 percent, then we should be asking people in the top two brackets to give the same, he said. He was running to stand up for “the little guy.”

He touted his ability to bring people together — as shown by his successful campaigns in two tough, conservative districts.  Howard also named healthcare a major issue that must be addressed in order to encourage job development and control the state budget, identifying increases in medicaid costs as the biggest state budget buster of all, and the lack of wage and salary increases in the small-business private sector as a direct result of the rising cost of health insurance. He favors making Vermont a national leader by establishing a single-payer system within the state.

Howard graduated from Mount St. Joseph Academy (a private Catholic school) and from Boston College (1993). He is a political and communications consultant.

Both men said they would address the current budget deficit through a combination of approaches, including some budget cuts in services, better government efficiency through re-organization and outcome-based budgeting, an increase in some taxes, and using some portion of the “rainy day” fund.

How either man will fare against the Republican candidate — construction company owner and stock car racer Phil Scott or political family scion Mark Snelling — is the question.