While there is strong support for Deb Markowitz, Peter Shumlin and Matt Dunne among some Democratic primary voters, the weakness for these three is they are each drawing from the same types of voters, whereas Doug Racine — and while there may also be some overlap there as well — is also drawing from different types of voters who are less likely to vote for Markowitz, Shumlin and Dunne.

In addition, with a lot of people when they say who is among their top two or three candidates, Racine oftentimes is one of them and the same can not always be said for the other candidates as well, so he enjoys both broader and deeper favorables; plus Shumlin has high negative ratings when it comes to unfavorables, etc.

When eating lunch the other day and without my bringing up the subject at all, someone started talking about how they were still undecided about whom to vote for in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, yet seemed to be leaning toward voting for Doug Racine; when we spoke further, they made clear they did not think much of the other four candidates, yet also felt they needed to do more homework before voting. Today this same individual made it clear they will indeed be voting for him.

Another person also recently mentioned to me out of the blue how they had been undecided on who to vote for in the race for Governor and had culled it down to being between Doug Racine and Peter Shumlin, however seemed to feel they have decided to vote for Racine, but did not sound solid yet.

These are only two small examples, however I am hearing or have read much the same type of things from others here and there across the state.

Likewise (i.e., just as will be the case for Racine of course), depending on who turns out to vote and how many voters end up voting in the Democratic primary, I see Susan Bartlett as a possible wild card who could do much better than most political pundits and members of the press are assuming.

Therefore I would not be surprised to see a very close race with Racine, Markowitz and Bartlett among the top three, with Racine edging out a win.

Most people tend to vote for the candidate, not for how much money or endorsements a candidate has  raised or mustered.

By the way, in case anyone is interested, read a compiled listing of the responses from each of the five Democratic Gubernatorial primary candidates concerning addressing homelessness as well as affordable housing across the state, here.

Morgan W. Brown

Montpelier