Most political candidates put out news releases that can safely be ignored. It’s the usual partisan push/pull, distortions of the opponent’s record and inflations of one’s own.

Doug Hoffer’s are different. There’s usually some substance, some real information, some lessons to be learned. So it’s disappointing when one of his releases is ignored by most of the Vermont political media. This morning, VTDigger finally gave it some coverage*, but nothing from the Freeploid, Vermont Press Bureau, Seven Days**, or VPR.

*But relegated it to the “News Briefs” section, while giving home-page treatment to Wendy Wilton’s baseless bleat about overtime in the Treasurer’s office.

** Well, Paul Heintz sorta-kinda covered it in his politics blog, but in a minimal and rather weird way. More below.

So we’ll shine our little flashlight on it here.

On Tuesday, he put out a bulletin saying that under Tom Salmon, the cost of performance audits has skyrocketed, averaging $158,000 per audit over the last three fiscal years. The methodology was simple enough: Salmon’s office spent $2.4 million for performance auditing, and released 15 performance reports. Divide $2.4 million by 15, you get $158K per. Hoffer’s comment:

Having read the reports and produced similar work on my own in the past, these costs are excessive and raise questions about the management of the Auditor’s budget and staff resources. Vermonters can be assured that as Auditor, I will make certain that we get the most for every dollar of taxpayer money. … The cost of reviewing state programs seems to have gone off the rails.

After the jump: Petulance from Salmon, irrelevance from Illuzzi.

When contacted by VTDigger, Salmon got all pissy. He called it a “classic, not fully informed, Hoffer cheap shot.” He called Hoffer’s figure “not factually correct,” and blasted Hoffer’s “negative” and “sensationalist” campaign tactics. And he said it was “misleading” to calculate an average cost because each audit is a different animal.

Gee, here I thought Doug Hoffer was a dry, dispassionate “numbers guy” who, if anything, is too wonky to be a politician. In other words, Salmon’s rant couldn’t be farther off the mark. And if he really had any political smarts, he’d know that this kind of attack just isn’t going to stick to Doug. In order for an attack to work, it has to align with a person’s perceived shortcomings — like calling Mitt Romney out of touch and uncaring.

And although Salmon claims to be a “numbers guy” himself, VTDigger noted that “Salmon… couldn’t, however, provide concrete figures to back up his assertions.” Furthermore, VTDigger reported,

Salmon estimated that his office had prevented over $6 million in wrongful payments through their performance audits, though they didn’t track the individual savings per audit.

Whaaaa??? Why the hell not? If you don’t track the results, how do you know whether the audit had any lasting impact?

In an e-mail to GMD, Hoffer noted that he asked the Auditor’s office for cost figures on each individual audit, but that Salmon failed to provide that information. GIven the puny results of Salmon’s most recent audit, he might be reluctant to reveal precise figures because they’d be too embarrassing.

Digger contacted Republican candidate Vince Illuzzi for comment:

You can’t sit back and criticize the professional staff at the auditor’s office until you know the size and scope of the performance audit, and what findings came from it.

Ah. Exactly the information that Hoffer sought and that Salmon failed to provide.

Illuzzi also added some soothing words from his own vast experience:

Based on his view from the Senate’s appropriations committee, which oversees the auditor’s office, said Illuzzi, Salmon had admirably managed his office’s performance audits over the last few years.

Hoffer’s response, e-mailed to GMD: :

My intent was not to annoy Mr. Salmon but to demonstrate (again) that I’m willing and able to ask the tough questions about state government including the office I hope to run. In contrast, my opponent assumed everything is fine instead of digging into the facts. He just blindly supported Tom without bothering to even consider the information I presented.

In other words, Illuzzi’s reaction encapsulates the weaknesses he would bring to the job: a lifelong insider’s go-along-to-get-along attitude that everything’s hunky-dory and we’ve always done it this way and please don’t look at the lumps under the rug. Exactly what you DON’T want in an Auditor.

Finally, a rare note of criticism for Paul Heintz. In “Off Message,” the 7D politics blog, he dumped a whole bunch of miscellaneous stuff into a single post. Y’know, clearing out the old inbox. In one paragraph, Heintz took note of Hoffer’s news release, and then concluded with “Alas, nobody picked up the story.” (That was before the VTDigger article was posted.)

Well, geez, Paul. Where do you get off saying that? After all, you yourself are one of the “nobodies” who failed tp pick up the story. Don’t go all Captain Renault on us.