Here’s a look at some of the winners and losers (behind the obvious candidates) given the reality of Governor-Elect Shumlin.
Winners:
- Shumlin Campaign Manager Alex Maclean is now the big dog electoral organizer in Vermont. With a re-election in 2012, she and Governor Shumlin will be the new Democratic Party power brokers, surpassing even the Congressional delegation. Maclean will lead a real generational power shift in Montpelier.
- Jill Krowinski and Planned Parenthood. The former VDP Director and Symington for Governor Campaign Manager seemed to have moved out of electoral relevance, but came roaring back directing an unprecedented muscular intervention from Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. The perfectly timed push changed the topic of the Governor’s race, putting the discussion into the arena of abortion rights which arguably catalyzed Dubie’s election loss. With this victory, Krowinski is more of a player than she even was when she worked in the Speaker’s office.
- Drew Hudson & Matt Holland. You probably haven’t noticed, but these guys’ fingerprints are all over this election, from the unprecedented League of Conservation Voters’ efforts to the impactful and widely-discussed Green Mountain Future organization. I must say, even I had no idea how much of the independent efforts that led to the Shumlin victory came from their new firm, PowerThru until I did some work with them in the last couple weeks. PT will likely be the go to political consultant firm on the left in Vermont.
- Vermont’s Teamsters. Lots of unions are big winners, here – NEA, VSEA, the Troopers – but none bigger than the Teamsters who backed Shumlin in the primary when most of the union support was going to almost-nominee Doug Racine.
Losers:
- IBEW and George Clain. They doubled down for Dubie, and not just in a matter-of-fact way. They were in-your-face with their support, Clain in particular. It’s hard to imagine a bigger loser with Shumlin’s victory, and they won’t have their allies in the Vermont labor community to turn to for solace, as they burned most of those bridges as well (and with relish).
- Entergy Corporation. Duh.
- Frank Cioffi The go-to “Democrat-for-[fill-in-the-blank-Republican]” just became irrelevant, even as his role as psuedo-Democrat big shot was already becoming a cliche.
- Harlan Sylvester. 7 Days just did the latest semi-regular expose on why investment money man Sylvester of Burlington is the master of the universe, or somesuch nonsense. He isn’t. He never has been, and his mystique is one of the biggest examples of Burlington-bubble insider silliness I can think of. It goes like this: he thinks he’s a kingmaker even though nobody’s heard of him but insiders. Insider types then feel they’re in the know by understanding that he’s a kingmaker. They tell others to impress them with how in the know they are about the real kingmakers that mere mortals don’t know about – and so it goes. Harlan Sylvester as political relevance doesn’t even rise to an Emperor-has-no-clothes example because virtually nobody’s even bothering to look. Sylvester is no emperor, just a name insiders like to drop to show other insiders how insidery they are. The fact that Sylverster’s candidate (Dubie) lost, just makes him that much more meaningless.
- John Mitchell, publisher of the Times Argus and the Rutland Herald. It’s an open secret that Mitchell overruled his editorial boards and had his papers endorse Brian Dubie. So openly undermining his own well-respected people just gave his whole operation a kick in the credibility, especially since his candidate lost. Add to that the well-known challenges the papers are having and it makes onlookers wonder if the papers aren’t in a relevance-spiral. As much as the Herald and Argus higher-ups have made their distaste of bloggers like myself well-known, there is a lot of undeniable talent there – talent which now has its work cut out for it more than ever with the ill-advised moves by the paper’s owner.
- 7 Days. Not to overstate what isn’t a huge deal, but after Routly & company dug in on defending the unprofessional “most ethically challenged” tag they slapped on Shumlin (which famously became Dubie’s number one tool of attack), there’ll be some chilliness, especially coupled with the “Dubie’s (election) to lose” drumbeat over the months. A bit of humility on 7 Days part makes it all go away, no doubt, but if the we’re-too-hip-for-words takes continue, “Vermont’s Independent Voice” might find their access to the new administration to be a bit less than they’d prefer for a while.
Coming soon, we’ll look at some of the folks who could imaginably get tapped for roles in the Shumlin administration.
Your take? Other winners and losers? It’s not hard to start coming up with a very long list of each when you start thinking about it.
His dismal performance over the last couple of weeks was a disgrace for someone whose very job description implies service to the public, not allegiance to a candidate for office…
I hope he will enjoy his future job as janitor at Entergy HQ in Louisiana when Shumlin does the right thing fires his sorry ass on Day One.
I think Shumlin’s non-denial of the vermont tiger story casts a little more doubt on VY’s future than you’re assuming. Entergy would probably do very well if they sold VY, which at this point seems the likeliest scenario.
Also, I don’t think anyone really noticed Routly’s comments. There was too much going on in recent weeks for any of that to resonate. Any passing props they gave Dubie were clearly to provide a (pretty transparent) veneer of impartiality; everyone knows they’re in the bag for the P’s and D’s. No way does Shumlin shut them out in any way.
Re: Mitchell – wanting someone to win and having them lose doesn’t make you a loser. Even incorrectly predicting a race doesn’t make you a loser. Everyone here predicted that Hoffer would win and he got killed – do you feel like losers today? Of course not.
Perhaps it goes without saying, the “gang of four” (the “team of rivals”) are all winners. Look for at least some of them in the Shumlin Administration.
I was stunned by the personal level of vitriol toward now-Governor Shumlin in Lynn’s editorials since pre-primary days. I kept thinking how insane that was; even for a Dubie partisan! What kind of access does he imagine his paper will have (nevermind he, himself) to a Shumlin administration? He’ll be striking matches to keep warm outside the statehouse and begging for crumbs at his brother’s table.
The “Free Vermont” candidates? AFAIK, they all came in last in their races.
Despite Thomas Naylor’s “13%” prediction, and Matt Cropp’s assertion that “Dennis Steele will take the NEK”, Steele got a whopping .081 % of the vote. Betcha Cris Ericson was quakin’ in her tinfoil hat over that one.
.081 PERCENT!
“Imagine Free Vermont” is just a figment of their imagination. That’s fer sure. Maybe they will need a new Brawny towel guy soon.
One worthy collective failure, more broadly might include Jim Douglas’ team. Although repeatedly now referred to as “still popular” it’s worth remembering that Douglas early on chose not to seek re-election in-part because it looked a difficult up hill(losing) battle for him.A couple Vermont pundits have adopted “still popular” to him almost like an honorific.
The old hands from his team failed notably at extending their influence.The two major statewide republican victories Scott and Salmon aren’t from the Douglas in crowd. David O’Brien’s (suggested above )efforts to cast a hail Mary pass for Entergy fell flat and Gibb’s effort at earning an elected job failed as well.Some small part of Gibb’s flop may have been his flirtation with the tea party.
…our friends in NH appear to have gone all teabag this time around (apart from Lynch). Re-electing Bass? Talk about a nostalgia trip down Douchebag Lane. Kelly Ayotte — would appear to be a yankee version of the Angle/O’Donnell/Bachmann/Palin hydra that has been haunting our national discourse for a bit. Congrats, NH, you really outdid yourself this time.
For those of us who are at the mercy of NH politics for much of our work & play that is going to get very interesting to watch…
Didn’t they pride themselves on always picking the winner or something? I know they tried to distance themselves with the trooper dustup… but…
Winner = John’s view of the DGA 🙂
GREAT work up there everybody!
who will benefit from Shumlin’s commitment to early childhood education.
Clear winners also are those who are concerned about preserving the environment. A Dubie administration would have meant further efforts, begun under Douglas and disguised in the beard of “reform,” to weaken land-use regulations and Act 250.
UPV/AFT and the Kids Count on Me Campaign, which, along with the Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign and the Vermont Center for Independent Living, did fifteen candidate forums across the state and managed to get a great many candidates from multiple parties to commit to their causes.
I know Jill said the Gang of Four are all winners, but this especially applies to Doug Racine.
Doug’s decision to request a recount was very controversial, and engendered hard feelings even among people who supported him in the primary. If Peter had lost plenty of people would have blamed the recount for the defeat.
Now that the election is in the W column, and people are observing that the recount helped galvanize supporters of all the candidates, Doug looks pretty good.
Maybe I missed something, but what is with all the hating on 7Days? I’ve always taken their opinions and reporting to be liberal-leaning, so what’s the big deal if they did a high-school style legislative poll thing?