Dick Mazza’s knickers not withstanding, Dean Corren is getting down to business.  

With the first substantive press release from his campaign for Lieutenant Governor, the candidate, who has already demonstrated the proactive ability to qualify for matching funds,  shrewdly allied himself with the state’s Democrat-in-Chief; to wit:

BURLINGTON, VT — A candidate for Lieutenant Governor announced his support for equal and open access to high speed internet service, calling it one of the keys to growing Vermont’s economy. The announcement came on the same day Senator Patrick Leahy led a hearing at the University of Vermont on preserving an open internet.

Dean Corren, the Progressive candidate for Lt. Governor, said he was grateful that Sen. Leahy held this hearing in Vermont, and his attendance reflects the importance of this issue to Vermont’s economic development. “The internet must be used as an interstate tool of competition and a race to the top,” said Corren. “Let’s not create a race to the bottom in which the largest companies can outbid Vermont’s startups and growth companies for access and bandwidth, we must preserve equal access across the board,” he said.

“Some of Vermont’s fastest-growing businesses, and a great deal of our future economic potential, rely on unfettered access on a level playing field,” says Corren, citing his own work as Chief Technology Officer for Verdant Power. In developing energy from tidal flows in the East River in New York, Corren explained he often needs fast access to send and receive large graphics files, along with streaming video of installations at remote sites.

“This is one of the great economic development issues of our era — even greater in scope than uniting the nation by railroads, the internet unites the world socially and economically in a way that should yield enormous benefits to Vermont.

“Today’s challenge is to make sure we realize the benefits of the technical capability to serve the world with information and information services, without being throttled,” said Corren.

“In the new information economy, the fundamental communication infrastructure is critical to Vermont’s development of clean, well paid jobs,” said Corren, “and we cannot sacrifice Vermont’s small employers for the sake a of a few corporate giants.”

Take that, Dick Mazza.