This came into my email box today from the Vermont AFL-CIO (note that I am a member of the National Writers Union). Seems that the AG primary is coming down to out-of-state super PAC money for Sorrell, vs the grassroots support from local labor for Donovan.
FRIENDS, PLEASE JOIN US FOR A LABOR RALLY IN SUPPORT OF TJ DONOVAN FOR ATTTORNEY GENERAL
WHEN: 5Pm, Tuesday, August 21
WHERE: Barre Labor Hall (46 Granite Street Barre,VT 05641)On August 9, the floodgate of Super PAC money in Vermont politics was opened. A Washington, D.C. Super PAC spent $100,000 on ads on behalf of Attorney General Bill Sorrell. That’s not the Vermont way.
On August 21, the working people from across Vermont will come together to stand up for their rights and make their voices heard in spite of the opposition from out of state corporations. By electing TJ Donovan in the Democratic primary on August 28, we’ll show the rest of the country that in Vermont, labor wins elections, not Super PACS. Join us for a GOTV Rally at the Barre Labor Hall on August 21st at 5PM. Working and middle class Vermonters have flocked to TJ’s campaign because they want an Attorney General that will stand up for the rights of workers and use that office to address their concerns.
Now correct me if I am wrong, but didn’t Mr. Sorrell argue and lose Vermont’s campaign finance law before the federal court? And did he not just announce that he was not going to contest unlimited super PAC funding in this year’s Vermont election? And now, low and behold, he gets a $100,000 check from Washington DC? Is it just me (and the Vermont AFL-CIO, VSEA, NEA, VPAA, etc.) Or does this have a very sordid appearance?
Based on the above as well as on Sorrell’s history of fighting against Abenaki recognition, against instant run off voting, and on his recent high profile losses (especially concerning VY), I think Sorrell is in big trouble. Anyone want to venture an election prediction?
…Sorrell wins the primary because he’s more important to the Dem ‘establishment’ who want ‘electable’ hacks to hold office forever simply because they are Dems. In other words, you may see on the 28th the awful spectacle of Sorrell raising his hands in victory–a ‘narrow’ victory won by votes from Dems who are afraid of a precedent being set by a challenge to the entrenched Dem structure. Sorrell has been a bum and a party hack for 15 years. He represents the very worst in the Vermont Dem Party and you would think the Vermont Dems would want to get his rotten apple removed from their barrel. So, why do we see no ‘overwhelming’ support for Donovan from Dems at every level in Vermont–those elected, those running County Committees, those who blog here and elsewhere? In this case the old cliche doesn’t apply because “the alternative (here) is so much BETTER.” It is as if the ‘body’ of the Vt. Dem Party is holding its breath and waiting it out–either Sorrell will completely foul out, or Donovan will somewhat stumble. But I’d be willing to bet money that phone calls and emails have been made throughout the state by ‘establishment’ Dems surreptitiously supporting Sorrell. THAT, coupled with the Super PAC money that Sorrell claims the U.S. Supreme Court has instructed him to use (he almost said it that way, the turd) in obeyance of its Jan.,2010 bullshit decision would make a Sorrell victory on the 28th the SHAME of the Vermont Dem Party, and perhaps give Herr Brock and other Repubs an issue to poke at.
Dems should be surreptitiously urging Sorrell to withdraw before he stains all Vermont Dem candidates with his smelly bucket of HACK. Well, I think I and a lot of folks like me (and we vote Dem) will be holding our noses for the next 12 days, and will be goddamn good and pissed if, on the 29th, the Huey Long of Vermont Attorney Generals gets another two years to fuck workers, the Abenakis, the anti-Vermont Yankee folks, the abused elderly and disabled, and all the Vermonters whose children are threatened by a Party Hack who thinks that sugary drinks is Vermont’s #1 CRIME problem. We shall see. This will be where the Vermont Dem Party rises to a higher level and perhaps a renaissance, OR, becomes that cliche itself–the alternative that is so much worse, because it could have been so much better.