Miro, Miro, on the wall

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UPDATE:  Thanks to our legacy media colleagues Paul Heintz at Seven Days and Joel Banner Baird at the Burlington Free Press for linking to this diary.

(Facebook wall, that is.) 

I just noticed some interesting developments in the Burlington City Council race coming up next week. In Ward Two, Democrat Emily Lee is running against longtime Progressive council member Jane Knodell. Jane Knodell is an old line Prog who held a seat for fourteen years, while Lee is a young newcomer to city politics.

If you've been watching the election on Facebook you might be excused for a bit of confusion about which of these candidats has the endorsement of Mayor Weinberger.

For instance, if you go to Knodell's campaign Facebook page you will see a photo of Senator Tim Ashe with the message encouraging you to vote for Knodell “If you want to see Mayor Weinberger succeed with his initiatives.”

Then, if you go to Lee's campaign page you will see this picture:


So wait a minute: who actually gts the mayor's endorsement? 

I put that question to the Knodell campaign, and here's the response I got:

 No it's an observation from Senator Ashe regarding the importance of having experience on the Council

As I say, one might be excused for thinking that Weinberger is supporting Knodell, or at least that the Knodell campaign wants you to think that Weinberger is supporting her. The fact, though, is that Weinberger has endorsed Emily Lee, no matter what you might have otherwise inferred from Facebook.

And if you're just curious about who will help advance Miro Weinberger's initiative, well, Miro thinks it's Emily Lee. 

9 thoughts on “Miro, Miro, on the wall”

  2. I saw the Tim Ashe message for Knodell.  As someone who follows Progressive, as well as Burlington city politics I immediately got that Ashe’s statement was a threat.  Who except the most vanilla of moderates could be enthusiastic about Miro is lost on me, and Progs are doubly annoyed by him as he pushed out one of their most high profile electoral seats.

    What wasn’t as clear to me was the soundness of the strategy: it’s very directed at progs and those to the left of the mayor- which is all well and good, except one rarely sees a campaign focused so narrowly.  With so many voters who show up at the polls but engage little otherwise, is there a groundswell of people who will understand immediately that Miro’s agenda is out of line with their own wants for the city, and will understand the implication that voting for a council that won’t ruber stamp the mayor’s plans is the goal?

  3. If you’re watching the election on Facebook at all, you might also notice that the author of this blog post is an avid supporter of Lee’s.

    Here is Tim Ashe’s endorsement in its entirety: “If you want Mayor Weinberger’s initiatives to succeed, then give Jane your support. With so many new Councilors, Burlington needs her experience and leadership to get things done.”

    Now in the interest of transparency, I’ll admit that I’m a strong supporter of Jane’s and, yes, a Progressive, but I fail to see what the big deal is here. No one is being deliberately misleading or sneaky. Senator Ashe is making the point that an experienced leader like Jane has a lot to offer city government when it comes to helping new ideas and initiatives succeed.

    I know the last week of a campaign can start to feel really stressful, but let’s all try to keep it positive!

  6. All I know is that Weinberger’s people are hardballing my union, trying to negotiate us out of work and free up the city for low-paid goobers that don’t expect decent pay or benefits.

  7. Whatever the VDP is smoking, I need me some of that. Apparently in less than two years, they have completely reversed their position on UVM administrator’s compensation packages and tuition hikes.

    Anyone with access to the internet could learn that the UVM Board of Trustees is dominated by eight elected or appointed Democrats; Rep. Bill Botzow, Rep. Joan Lenes, Rep. David Potter, Rep. Donna Sweaney, Rep. Kesha Ram, Sen. Jeanette White, Sen. Chris Bray and former representative and current Department of Health Commissioner Harry Chen. On July 20, 2011 all of the aforementioned Democrats voted to give President Dan Fogel a $35,400 per month severance package, save for Sen. Jeanette White who left the meeting prior to the unanimous vote. Moreover, these same Democrats voted to extend Fogel’s severance package by five months, which they publicly defended by stating “Competitive compensation and other arrangements are essential to successfully attracting talented candidates”.  

  8. It’s the Progs, who are so eager to see that Mayor Weinberger’s agenda succeeds, who are so unhappy about the agenda of Democratic Mayor Weinberger?

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