Nearly-Governor Shumlin graciously carved out a few moments to address the GMD community about his thoughts on the election and the tough policy road ahead. At this stage of the game, it’d be a bit much to ask to pin down the outgoing Senate President Pro-Tem on too many specifics, so we stay in the realm of generalities. Shumlin did, though, reaffirm his commitment to such goals as as single-payer health care system for Vermont.

It’s no coincidence that his rhetoric sounded much like President Obama’s rhetoric going into the Presidency. That’s a good thing – after all, it’s good rhetoric. The problem with the way it has unfolded with the President, of course, is that his insistence that all voices will be at the table and that no one group should be expected to get their way turned out to be code for all the folks who are used to being at the table of power will still be there, and you progressives will have to be content being represented by me and trust that I’ll be enough. That, of course, has not worked out too well in terms of policy, and has been a disaster in terms of politics, given the “enthusiasm gap” that followed and the fraying of Obama’s coalition.

So while the similar sounding rhetoric may press a few warning lights, with a little good faith, its likely that both our new executive and his progressive-moderate-conservative spectrum of allies within the electorate can avoid Obamaesque pitfalls going into the next election campaign which, after all, starts virtually right away with a two-year term.

Interview follows the flip:

GMD: First of all, congratulations. Folks like me are always looking for the weak links in the chain, but there really weren’t any in your campaign. How hands on were you in your campaign strategy day to day? Were you and Alex on the same page, or were there occasions when you either deferred to her and the team you put together, or alternatively told them “nope, we’re doing it this way?”

Shumlin: The fact is that I was extrodinarily lucky in choosing Alex Maclean to run he campaign. She pulled this thing off, there’s no question about it. She has incredibly political judgment, she works like a dog, and she has great instincts. We also had help – a really good inner team that worked together well. So there were occasionally times when I said ‘no we’re not doing this,’ and there were times when they told me ‘yes we are.’ It was a great partnership.

GMD: So you must be feeling some extrodinary vindication, here. I mean – you were the rising political star in the late nineties. You want to run for Governor, but in an era with a more rigorously controlled, top-down Democratic Party at the time, you’ve got a desire to avoid a primary and you’re encouraged to run for the Lieutenant Gov spot and let Racine go for gov. You run a good campaign, but see Pollina split the vote against you while Racine comes up short. Next cycle, you start making moves to run, but the establishment sees an opportunity to mend the Prog rift and coalesces behind Clavelle – pushed down a bit more there. Fast forwrd to the 2010 cycle, and Racine and Markowitz get all the nods as being the frontrunners. And after all that, you’re finally ‘da man.’ You must have been feeling a little like the Rodney Dangerfield of the party for a while.

Shumlin: You know, I knew the odds were against me as a candidate. When the legislature adjourned in May, first of all I was tired because, as the Speaker will tell you, it was a tough session – trying to negotiate a budget with Governor Douglas and trying to avoid a veto in an election year was – it was a long haul.

So we then polled it, and what we found in the poll is that I was down 2 to 1 against Deb Markowitz a distand third to Doug Racine. So we knew it was uphill fight just to get into the Primary. We – you know, I’ll be honest with you – there were moments in May where I asked myself if I was making the right judgment in running for Governor. I wrestled with that for about ten days, and then looked at myself in the mirror and said listen, I really want to be Governor. I think I can beat Brian Dubie. I understand the prospects of winning the Primary are not great, but what is there to lose? So we went for it and I never stopped after that day. You know, I worked 7 days a week from 6:30 in the morning to 11:30, 12 at night just pushing.

But you know I think, to answer your question, I understood that any of the 5 would make great Governors. I understood that to get the nomination it was going to be really tough for any of the 5 of us to beat Brian Dubie. We would all be broke. There was all of the (challenge) after a Primary of bringing people together, even when its a really positive Primary. The folks that are real die-hards for a particular candidate have a hard time making the shift, and understandably so. So i knew that whoever wins – one, would have no money and would have a – I dont want to say divided party, but a group of Democrats that might never be enthusiastic no matter who the other nominee might be. And Brian Dubie had a year and a half to amass a million dollars and do a lot of things right, and he’s a nice guy. And the argument that they didnt make very effectively but thought they could have of a divided government is a strong one.

So I thought, whoever won it was going to be a tough battle. I thought I could beat him if I got the chance, but I knew it would be close.

GMD: Okay, now you’re putting together a team, and you’ve brought Bill Lofy back to help, which is terrific news and I hope he’ll stick around. I’m sure you’ll be bringing on some conservative faces – even Republicans – into your administration. Obama caught a lot of flack for that nationally, but this is smaller, more personal Vermont so I wont expect anyone to fault you for that. There will be an eye, I think, in a couple specific areas where the left will probably have an expectation that they’ll be well-represented. First is the economic team. Are we going to see the continuing presence of people like Harlan Sylvester as the drivers of economic policy, or will there be room for the more Keynesian crowd like the Doug Hoffers out there?

Shumlin: Well you know I think there’s room for everybody. I think one of the mistakes that Governors sometimes make on economic policy is by coming up with a very small group of people and thinking that represents Vermont. I mean, its not campaign rhetoric, I’m incredibly optimistic about Vermont’s economic fortunes. I think that we can get jobs as we get off of our addiction to oil and move to other technologies. The other 49 states may not have the courage to make the infrastructure changes that allow us to get those jobs. And I’m not suggesting that we’re going to be, you know, this economic island that’s going to boom when everybody else fails. What I am suggesting is that I think the face of this economic opportunity is particularly well-suited for the Green Mountain State.

If we can get some small sliver of it that we pretty much have not gotten – you know, we pretty much missed the tech boom, pretty much missed the industrial revolution historically. We can get a piece of this one. If we continue to do what we’ve always done, we wont. so my plan is to listen to the people who have helped build jobs in the past and to listen to those who have new ideas, and I think that’s our opportunity. As a businessperson I look at it this way; the businesses that have succeeded in the last 3, 4, 5 years, my own being one of them, are the people that —

When this recession hit, (those that) said “if we do things the way we’ve always done them, we’ll be okay and this recession will pass,” the people who have thought like that are failing. The businesspeople who said lets change the way we do things, we can turn this into an opportunity, but we’ve got to change the way that we do business, they have succeeded. And that’s the sort of way I see the environment – the economic opportunity for Vermont. I think there’s a bright manufacturing future, I think we have a bright ag future – really bright. I think we have a bright renewable energy and efficiency future. I think we have a bright biotech and tech future. And definitely a bright future in tourism and travel, but we’re going to have to do it differently, and therefore the answer is I wont listen to any one group. I want to be as inclusive as I possibly can, but we need new ideas, new energy and new vision.

GMD: You made some big committments on Health Care, and I think you’ve got a strong resevoir of trust in the progressive community on that issue. But what should reformers expectations really be over the first term?

Shumlin:Well, we’re going to get Dr. (William) Hsiao’s work back shortly. I’m going to start assembling in the next few weeks a team of people – I abhor ribbon commissions because they just sit on shelves collecting dust. what I do like is a group of really informed people that can sit around and chart an ambitious course. I’ll be putting that group together. I am convinced that vermont has an opportunity to pass a single-payer health care system that does three things. First, that contains costs so that we’re not spending a million dollars a day than we were before. Second, where health care follows the individual and is not a requirement of the employer. And third, where health care is a right, not a privilege. They’re the sort of pIinciples that i go into this with.

Now, I got a lot of criticsim during the campaign by Brian and frankly a lot of the Democrats over the Primary saying ‘he’s overpromising more than can be delivered.’ And what I’ve said about this health care vision is this is not a promise, its a plan. My promise is that I will work as hard as I can over the next two years to make this happen as quickly as I can. I understand the obstacles. Some people see the federal waivers. My own view is that the federal waivers is the easy part. I think the hard part is designing a system that actually works, and bringing together the players and getting them to agree to change, and making it fast enough so that we dont bankrupt the state, see more and more people lose their health insurance because they cant afford it, keeping the middle class from continually being (inaudible), and most importantly, keep our providers alive. You know, we’re in crisis. We’re losing our primry care providers in Vermont. We’re losing many of our health care providers. Our hospitals are on the brink because of this crazy reimbursement system. Because all the money we’re spending chasing money around, and because of a lack of technology and efficiency in the system. So – its a very ambitious goal, I get that, but I’m going to work as diligently as I can with as many people as we can and get it done.

I think that – let’s put it this way; part of the economic opportunity I’m talking about in terms of infrastructure is cracking this nut. If we can be the state where health insurance follows the individual, where its affordable, and where everybody’s covered. And where we’re sharing –  using technology to reduce costs. Getting rid of the waste – the percentage for insurance companies and bureaucracy – we beat the other 49 states to jobs, because that is the  single biggest challenge. Small business, middle class families – how do we afford the health care increases, 10, 20 30 percent a year? It’s just not sustainable.

GMD: As far as the waivers go – you’ve got some of this wave around the country of Republican Governors that got in. I was just hearing Rick Perry in Texas – arch-conservative – saying the same sort of thing, you know, they want waivers for medicare so they can do their own thing. Obviously their own thing is going to be very different, but do you see some potential for maybe getting together on that?

Shumlin: I do, I’ve already talked to (Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen) Sibelius about this. I had the pleasure of having a conversation with the President of the United States, told him I was going to be looking for three waivers. You know, we just – all I’m saying is I dont think the waivers are the biggest challenge. The biggest cahllenge is designing a system, getting consensus on a system, and passing it.

GMD: In terms of the inevitable cuts your going to have to make. A lot of people – well, virtually your entire base of supporters, really, were unhappy with the “Challenges for Change” approach, which seemed to be pretty arbitrary, and borne from the “drown government in the bathtub” approach, as opposed to a genuine point by point analysis of what works and what doesn’t, letting the numbers lead the policy rather than vice versa. I’m just wondering – that was such a blow-up at the time – what did you learn from the challenges debacle and how will you tackle these issues now that you’re Governor, given that you are going to be looking at these budget challenges?

Shumlin: Well, you know, I’m not shy about telling you when I’ve made mistakes. I’ve made hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of decisions as Senate President which is one of the reasons I was so vulnerable in this camapign. Many of my running mates like Doug Racine and others had similar challenges – we have long records in government. But you know, the (inaudible) for Challenges for Change was a bunch of Democrats who were frustrated that we couldn’t get this administration to manage government better. And we had this notion that if we hired a sympathetic consultant, from Minnesota who – to work with us and this administration – that we could somehow move government to be more productive. To deliver services in a more efficient way by using technology and other simple methods of management. The mistake we made was by thinking we could do it with an administration who wanted to decimate many of the services of state government.

So – it was a good idea that was extraordinarily poorly timed. My goal is to rethink Challenges for Change, to go back to the principles which were to challenge state government, the managers of state government, starting with the Governor, to think of ways to deliver services to customers more efficiently. It was never about cutting services to vulnerable vermonters.

GMD: Will you be staying in touch with the GMD community?

Shumlin: Absolutely. I’m looking forward to being as available and transparent and as honest as any governor has been about what our direction is, what the challenges are. You know, I’ll close by saying this, John; first of all, you provide a really important service… (inaudible, unfortunately)… but second – whoever won this race was going to face some really daunting challenges, I get that.

We have the dual challenges of a tough budget, putting the state back on a responsible fiscal course, combined with making these really bold infrastructure changes – health care, corrections, things I talked about in the campaign. Broadband internet to every last mile. Obviously, growing jobs. Our committment to education, from childhood education to higher ed – the list goes on.

But no one is always going to be happy. We’re going to make tough decisions, we’re going to making things happen. When you do things, sometimes people feel a little shaken up. So our job is to have a really inclusive conversation about the initiatives that your going to see us put forward over the next 2 years. Because the more inclusive we are, the more we communicate, the more we get it right. But its not going to be another two years of ribbon cutting. We’ve got tough work to do, and I look forward to getting to work.