Peter Shumlin gets his first constituency group endorsement, breaking rival Doug Racine’s streak. This from Teamsters Local 597:

Burlington, Vt –  Teamsters Local 597 today announced its endorsement of Peter Shumlin as the Democratic Candidate to run for Governor of Vermont.

Peter has been a longtime supporter of Local 597 and other labor organizations throughout his years in public service.

Most recently, Peter assisted Local 597 in having comprehensive legislative reform regarding the misclassification of employees in Vermont.

When the Addison Bridge construction was announced and the Teamsters were working towards a Project Labor Agreement to protect Vermont workers from being displaced on the project Peter went above and beyond.  Rather then simply accepting the Douglas/Dubie Administrations rejection of a PLA on a project, Peter required hearings on the issue.  Due to Peter’s leadership, the Teamsters were able to negotiate a PLA on this project directly with the contractor who awarded the job.   Peter supports employee free choice legislation and assisted Local 597 in our efforts to achieve this important legislation.

Press release continues below the fold.

 

Peter also helped Local 597 secure a neutrality agreement with one of the Local Unions current bargaining unit employees to help the Local Union organize the non-union locations operated by the employer.

Over the years I have personally appreciated Peter Shumlin’s leadership as he is a straight-forward politician.   With Peter, you always know where you stand and that’s the kind of leadership we need in order to tackle the tough challenges that face Vermont.  Peter has a record of getting tough things done while considering working Vermonters lives and livelihoods.

As the Principal Officer of Local 597 here in the State of Vermont I am proud to throw the support of 1000 Teamster members and retiree’s of Local 597 behind Peter’s campaign to become the Democratic candidate that will be elected as the next Governor of this great State.

From a Shumlin campaign press release:

Today, Treasurer Jeb Spaulding endorsed Peter Shumlin for Governor of Vermont.

“Peter has the track record, capacity and commitment to protect the public purse and the vision, creativity and passion to make Vermont a great place to grow jobs,” said Jeb Spaulding.

A significant endorsement snagged by the Senate President Pro Tem. Though a social liberal (among the first elected officials to openly suggest full marriage equality back in the civil union era), Treasurer Jeb Spaulding is very popular with the moderate-to-conservative set. He is fondly spoken of at Republican-oriented Vermont Tiger, and has even been featured at their events (to the admitted chagrin of many Democrats).

As such, the endorsement is as much a boon to Shumlin as it likely is a blow to Susan Bartlett, who has been courting the more conservative wing of the party in her campaign.

(NOTE: The GMD byline represents collaborative work by multiple – but not necessarily all – site contributors)

Many readers have sent in emails asking us to bring back the gubernatorial mojometers. The reason they fizzled out was that it was more of a challenge to make the transition from an individually-driven feature to one essentially run by committee consensus. Still, we aim to please, so look for a renewed effort to return the mojometer feature next week. In the meantime, here is some brief candidate news housekeeping:

• Peter Shumlin: Senator Shumlin scored the endorsement of 7th Generation founder Jeffrey Hollender (click here to read the diary from the candidate… we’ve decided to start getting serious about the “no promoting press releases to the front page” rule, and this one was too close for comfort, so we left it on the sidebar).
• Matt Dunne: Dunne re-introduced Vermont to his “service politics” model last week:
  

  Matt Dunne, Democratic candidate for Governor of Vermont, along with members of his campaign and volunteers (participated) in a service politics event at Hubbard Park in Montpelier. Dunne will be joining Eric Clifford, an AmeriCorps*Vista volunteer with the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, who is working with the Parks Department to prepare a new and improved trail from the Cummings Street low income housing project to the Town Rec Fields and Pool. The goal is to make it easier and more fun for the kids and families from the Cummings St housing to walk or bike to the recreation area.

• Deb Markowitz: The Markowitz campaign made a strong pro-active move by releasing an economic plan for Vermont. While it’s garnering attention for its entrepreneurial savings account feature, it has other elements, including:
  

  69 workers sent to the unemployment lines after a Middlebury plant shuts down. A bridge closes and impacts the livelihoods of shop owners and their workers. As governor, I will have a plan for unexpected events like these. I will have job loss strike force teams with the expertise to respond quickly to assist dislocated workers and their families. These teams will help workers access the resources to help them weather the storm. They will also work with the affected communities to help them plan and prepare for future economic recovery.

  Click here to view the whole plan (as it doesn’t seem to be on the campaign website, strangely enough Here is the link on the campaign website, as per the comments below).

• Susan Bartlett: Bartlett may be having a hard time keeping up with her rivals’ press, but Andy Bromage has a full profile in this week’s 7 Days, so that helps balance the scales.
• Doug Racine: Another week, another major endorsement – this time the state employees’ union, VSEA. Margolis has now dubbed Racine the primary front runner.
• Brian Dubie:
  
  

Campaign notebook:

• Daniel Freilich turns to open condescension, if not quite open contempt, in his quixotic bid to unseat Patrick Leahy in the Democratic Primary for US Senate. From a press release: “After speaking at a South Burlington AFL-CIO meeting, I saw and heard Senator Leahy speak. My reaction, pity, surprised me, but reinforced the rationale for my challenging the 35-year incumbent.”
  
• Is the Vermont GOP quietly giving institutional support to former Douglas spokesperson Jason Gibbs over Attorney Chris Roy in the Secretary of State primary, or did former Party leader Rob Roper simply abscond with party resources when he left? It’s hard to see another option when considering the following:

  This past week, the Gibbs campaign delivered emails to Republican in-boxes throughout Vermont. As one denizen of the GOP cyber community (whom GMD notes is not supporting Jason Gibbs) explained to us:

  It is strange how I received Jason’s email because it didn’t come to my regular address. I have an email address that is on my business website. I use it for all of my personal or business emails. It is the [email] address I give to everyone, friends, associates, whatever. But I did not receive the email [from the Gibbs campaign] through my publicly available email address.  
  
  I have one other email account but I never use it to send emails to people and I don’t know any private individual who knows what it is. I use it for banking or to get my credit card statements or to logon to a few websites or to go online shopping, that type of thing. It is also the private email address I use on the VT GOP website for our newsletter.  I’ve never given it to any candidate though, only the party. But that’s the address he [the Gibbs campaign] is using.

  It is important to note that this email address is not in use in any capacity other than commercial online transactions, so it’s hard to imagine that the Gibbs campaign could obtain the email address from any source except the State GOP. The recipient indicated that he had not received any such communication from the Roy campaign to this point, despite the fact that Roy has been an active candidate far longer than Gibbs.

  Hardly conclusive, but it does at least suggest that Gibbs may have been given special access to Party resources, either from the Party proper or from Roper himself. Given that lists are considered things of value for campaign financing purposes, it does raise an eyebrow, even if it doesn’t cross into illegality. In any event, there may be some heated back and forth phone calls between high profile Republicans underway.

  (NOTE: The GMD byline represents collaborative work by multiple site contributors)

A lot of news on the electoral front to report. The first round of primary endorsements from a constituent interest group arrived this morning at 10 AM from Vermont’s AFL-CIO. They include:

• Governor: Sen. Doug Racine
  
• Lieutenant Governor: Rep. Steve Howard
  
• Secretary of State: Jim Condos
  
• Auditor: Doug Hoffer (who will run in the Democratic primary and seek the Progressive party endorsement as well)
  
• Treasurer: No one. Jeb Spaulding was not backed bacause of his support for lowering public employee pensions.
  
• Attorney General: No one. Union delegates reportedly expressed concerns about Bill Sorrell’s positions on IRV and campaign finance regulations.
  
• US Senate: Patrick Leahy
  
• US House: Peter Welch

Anthony Pollina also made it official; he is running for State Senate from Washington County. It is unclear from the report whether he will engage with what is shaping up to be a crowded Democratic Primary, but recent indications have suggested he will not.

In an active, primary-driven year, this AFL endorsement could make a difference – as could expected endorsements from other organizations in the coming days. Stay tuned.

It's back, and it's likely to be the biggest year ever. For its fifth iteration, the big grillin' fest moves back to its North Beach (Burlington) birthplace on Saturday, July 17th. Come participate in the Bastille Day (more or less) festivities with swimming, frisbees, food, mimes, fireworks, bungee jumping and much, much less (by which we mean no fireworks, bungee jumping, and probably no mimes unless somebody gets a chicken bone stuck in their throat or somesuch).

Tell your friends, spread the word, and stay tuned for updates…

In case you haven’t already heard, author, former ambassador, and international man of intrigue Peter Galbraith is a candidate for the state senate seat being vacated by gubernatorial candidate Peter Shumlin. It would be hard to recall or imagine a higher profile member of the state senate. Exciting!

But it’s not the only news from the southeast corner. Ginny Milkey (Windham 3-1), a progressive “D” who served 20 years for Brattleboro, won’t be seeking a another term.

And one race to watch will be Patty O’Donnell‘s (Windham-1) seat. She won’t be seeking another term and the Windham County GOP chair, Mike Hebert, will be running against Rich Davis, a popular health care advocate (and hockey coach) from Guilford. Davis has a weekly column in the Reformer.

Are you feeling kinda nauseous about the ongoing financial relationship between Vermont Teddy Bear and reactionary messianic right-wingnut Glenn Beck? Frustrated that while most respectable business have already broken off their advertising deals with him, VT Teddy Bear continues to support his show with advertising revenue?

Are you doubly disgusted that VTB has him promoting their Mother’s Day products in virtually the same breath he goes off on a rant against Mother’s Day – a day founded on the idea of promoting peace.

Well, be nauseous no more, as Green Mountain Daily is proud to present its alternative Glenn Bears. Our Green Mountain Daily Bears (actually for sale through cafe press) are not only cute and cuddly, they feature actual public quotes from VTB’s favorite media spokesperson (our first offering above was picked out especially for Mother’s Day, in fact). And GMD will offer new bear options regularly until we either run out of offensive Beck quotes (not likely) or VTB decides to do the right thing and stop its financial support of Mr. Beck’s unique brand of bile.

How’s that for a bear market? CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOUR DAILY BEAR NOW!!!

(Diaries posted under the GMD user represent collaborative efforts of multiple admins.)

Vermont Teddy Bear has made the rather odd business decision to pay what is undoubtedly a huge sum of money to the most divisive person in America to pitch their product. This is an individual who has called social justice “marxism”, has called President Obama a “racist”, has opined “[I]f you’re an ugly woman, you’re probably a progressive as well“, and many more disgusting, arguably violence-provoking comments too numerous to mention. While VT Teddy Bear is propping up his show with ad dollars, most respectable business have already broken off such advertising deals with him in response to public pressure and their own horror at his venomous content.

Vermont Teddy Bear, however, still sees Beck as their kind of guy, apparently.

That’s why it was poetic justice when Beck undoubtedly did their Mother’s Day sales push more harm than good on his radio show yesterday. While hawking VTB’s product, Beck breaks into a rant about the evils of Mother’s Day. After a few lines, he apparently remembers his contractual responsibility to his advertiser, but the sneer in his voice remains as he gets back on message.

BECK: Our sponsor this half hour is the Vermont Teddy Bear Co. Vermont Teddy Bear is getting ready for Mother’s Day weekend.

Can you believe Mother’s Day week — by the way, Sarah and I were talking on Saturday and she didn’t believe me, or it was on Friday, and she didn’t believe me. And I said, Mother’s Day, it’s a scam. It’s a big business scam. And I said, I bet it was started by Woodrow Wilson. Look it up, Sarah. And she didn’t. I said, look it up. She’s like, no, I’m not going to look it up. I said, look it up, I’ll bet you, I’ll bet you. Mother’s Day? Started 1914. Woodrow Wilson. Hate that guy. Love my mom. Hate the holiday. Now, you could go to Hallmark because Hallmark and Woodrow Wilson would like you to do that.

But there’s something new from Vermont Teddy Bear. Three handmade teddy bears in pink, green, and white. The bears are scented, each one with a different scent: strawberry, watermelon and cupcake. It’s like a bouquet of flowers, only it’s a bear bouquet for life. Call 1-800-829-BEAR or go to VermontTeddyBear.com, VermontTeddyBear.com. Something new for mom this year to let her that you love her and you’re thinking about her. The bear bouquet. From Vermont Teddy Bear. Delivery before Mother’s Day is guaranteed. Don’t forget guys, it’s Sunday. 1-800-829-BEAR or shop online at VermontTeddyBear.com.

(HT to JL at HuffPo – NOTE: Diaries posted under the GMD user represent collaborative efforts of multiple admins.)

Governor Douglas’s former spokesman and current commissioner of Forests, Parks and Recreation is leaving his post to run for Secretary of State. He’ll face Republican Chris Roy in the Republican primary and will face either Charles Merriman or Jim Condos on the Democratic side, depending on the results of that primary.

Following is the email that went to the department:

From: Gibbs, Jason

Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2010 2:19 PM

To: ANR – FPR

Subject: Moving on…

Importance: Low

Dear Colleague:

As the legislative session draws to a close, I write to notify you that I will be stepping down as commissioner effective May 14th to pursue other options.  

Above all else, I want to thank you for your extraordinary professionalism, hard work and resilience during a tumultuous time.  Working with, and learning from, each of you has been an amazing experience for which I will always be grateful.  My admiration for FPR and its important work will never fade and you can count on me to be an advocate for the department in the years ahead.

Together, we’ve overcome historic challenges.  We focused our entire organization on actions that would help generate economic activity, increase (and diversify) our revenue base and reduce our reliance on tax dollars.  We resolved to be agile and innovative-constantly evaluating changes in our environment-always adapting in ways that maximize our productivity and the value of every dollar that taxpayers invest in us.

To be sure, it hasn’t been all peaches and cream.

Continued below the fold.

 Our progress wasn’t easy, without difficult decisions or the need for each of us to shoulder more responsibility.  Nevertheless, you rose to the challenge and embraced the opportunity to prove that a government agency is capable of being nimble, innovative, less costly, more productive, and a true partner to private sector economic activity.  I could not be more proud of this organization.

Because of your hard work, both the legislative and executive branches regard FPR as a model for other areas of government and are poised to provide us with a level of operational flexibility-and budgetary stability- over the next two fiscal years that is truly unprecedented and does not, in any way, deviate from our core public service and natural resource functions.  In fact, this flexibility and stability is critical to preserving these important functions and our current staffing levels.

As FPR moves forward, our state continues to face serious challenges.  We need to rethink, revitalize and reform policies and systems at every level of government, until we are satisfied that they are the best, most efficient, most productive and most valuable policies we can put in place. But because of our efforts, FPR is among the best positioned, and the best prepared, to succeed in this era of change.  

Over the next few weeks, my focus will be on wrapping up our legislative priorities and tying up various loose ends.  And, when a replacement has been selected by the Governor and Secretary, I will work to ensure a seamless transition.

As always, please feel free to contact me for any reason.  My personal contact information is below.

I wish you all the very best for a bright and productive future-please do stay in touch!

Sincerely,

Jason