First of all, WHEW! Very glad to wake up this morning and see that Superstorm Sandy didn’t hit Vermont very hard. Hope all readers are intact, with power, and without fallen trees. Dunno if the lack for significant damage will force cancellation of the big Shumlin/Scott “Hands Across Sandy” tour; I sure hope so.
And with a week left before the election, Super PAC activity continued apace in Vermont, with more activity from Vermonters First and a counter-attack by state house Democrats.
Late last week, Lenore Broughton’s conservative Vermonters First filed a brace of mass-media-buy reports. Some were for relatively small amounts, but there was another $43,000 for a mass mailing on behalf of 41 Republican candidates for the Legislature. And, surprise, surprise, another $36,000 for Treasurer candidate Wendy Wilton.
Which brings total VF spending for WIlton to $145,000. Since October 11. As I’ve said before, we have no idea how many Broughton Bucks were spent on Wilton before that date, because regular campaign finance reports don’t provide a breakdown of funds spent for specific candidates.
As of October 15, Lenore Broughton had donated almost $700,000 to Vermonters First, and VF had spent the lion’s share of that money. Since its spending spree has continued since October 15, we can assume that Broughton’s generosity has continued as well. It seems likely that she’ll crack the $1 million mark by Election Day. (We won’t find out until November 15, the next deadline for campaign finance filings.)
And as VPIRG pointed out in a Monday news release, Broughton’s pre-October 15 total of $683,000 was
…equal to 60.7 percent of all of the individual contributions made to all of the Democratic and Republican statewide candidates in Vermont (not including candidate contributions) as of October 15.
Which is another way of saying that Lenore Broughton is single-handedly trying to buy our election.
Meanwhile, a Democratic group with a whole lot less money is trying to fight back.
As reported by the Vermont Press Bureau’s Peter Hirschfeld:
In a series of radio advertisements and mailings, the Vermont Democratic House Campaign and Vermont House Solidarity PAC chides “Vermonters First” for contaminating local politics with outside money.
Of course, the Democratic groups have only $10,000 to spend — chump change by Broughton standards. Their mailers are designed to resemble those of Vermonters First, but with a very different message: don’t let big money take over our politics. Their radio ad features House Speaker Shap Smith:
“This election season we have seen some misleading ads that claim to represent everyday Vermonters,” Smith says in the spot. “Since our first town meeting, Vermont has been a state where everyone’s voice is heard. Your vote is your voice – don’t let it be drowned out by big money this Election Day.”
It was the first-ever radio ad for Smith, who says claims being made by Vermonters First “aren’t something you want to leave unrebutted.”
Amen, brah.
I guess I’ll comment here. I’ve been following all this on your site, and I have a couple of points.
1) On one post it was suggested that Wendy would be beholden to Lenore. I know them both, and they already agree on a lot, such as education issues. Lenore has a political philosophy to be sure. But she doesn’t have a financial stake the way, say, VTNEA does. Beth will certainly be beholden to them, which is an obstacle to real pension reform.
2) Well, I guess with this following comment I risk re-litigating Citizens United, but here goes: It’s Lenore’s right to participate the way she is. As a middle class citizen, I wish I could influence politics as much as anyone else. The problem is that if we reject the idea that big money is speech, we set arbitrary limits on freedom of speech. Should we all only get $2000 worth of free speech? I didn’t see any such language in the first amendment.
My thoughts. Have at them.