Quick e-mail from the Shumlin campaign, signed by all five candidates (I’m assuming this went out to the other campaigns as well) indicating that if you want to volunteer for the recount, you can do so via this link.  It asks basic information (including who you supported in the primary to get a balanced recount team) and your district, etc.  

The recount officially starts September 8th, so time is of the essence.

Per the e-mail:

Judge Crawford has informed us that the primary election recount will begin on Wednesday, September 8th. We need your help to make this process go as quickly as possible. The judge has asked that we submit a list of volunteers by Friday morning (September 3rd). We will need 40 volunteers from each county to complete the recount.

Each county clerk will oversee a recount team, who will be responsible for counting all of the ballots in that county. Normally, each candidate would recruit their own volunteers in each county, but in order to make this process happen as quickly as possible, all five of us have agreed to put out the call generally and nominate the volunteers together.

The more volunteers we can recruit in each county, the faster the recount can be completed. Please help if you can, especially if you have experience with elections or if you are on the Board of Civil Authority. Once we have a list of volunteers, we will submit them to Judge Crawford, so the process can begin on time. If you know people who might be interested in volunteering, please forward this email to them.

This is urgent folks: those of us who are concerned about how long a recount will take should be the first to sign up, if at all possible.  

Information not yet known: are you able to volunteer for a single day or do you have to volunteer for the entire recount?  Is there a screening process?

Regardless, please volunteer if you can.  The sooner we can get this completed, the sooner we can get to the work of taking Dubie down come November.

It appears that Brian Dubie’s 10 point “plan” is not so much a plan but a series of talking points.  

A summary of the sort of “plan” we’re discussing:

The plan is:

1. Hold spending to affordable levels

Apparently this includes refusing to use stimulus money in the way it’s intended.

2. Provide tax relief for families and employers

Except that employers tell us specifically that they’d rather pay more taxes than pay for health care:

3. Laser focus on job creation

See above.  If businesses didn’t have to worry about health care, they’d have more resources to grow and create jobs.

4. Market Vermont’s strengths

Such as running an ad which claims that “Vermont ranks 47th best state for business.”  Way to market us.

5. Streamline permitting and regulation

Sidenote: “Streamlining” regulation is why the whole country is scared of buying eggs today.

6. Lower health care costs

By making it more difficult for people to sue doctors for malpractice.  Personally, when I was misdiagnosed to the degree that it caused me kidney failure, I think having the option to sue was a reasonable one.

7. Steady leadership for long-term challenges

I’ve worked in corporate America.  I know “quality” speak when I hear it.  It’s like doing Mad Libs at an Amway convention: “John chose to collaterize his long-term strategic assets to best compliment his portfolio futures.”

8. Build next-generation business infrastructure

Dubie’s been Lt. Governor for quite some time now.  Has he done anything in order to promote these goals?

9. Strengthen education and training

See the video at the beginning.

10. Power up our energy future

Awesome slogan!

The race appears to be promising in terms of symbolism.  Per today’s Rutland Herald:

A picturesque campaign tour by Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Dubie through Vermont on Saturday on a set of antique train cars ran into an antique problem…

Brattleboro Police Officer Chad Emery said he was called in after a New England Central Railroad conductor in charge of pulling the pair of private rail cars on the campaign train’s journey down from St. Albans found a man inside the train carrying a blanket.

I’d say that given Brian Dubie’s 10 point economic “plan” pretty much throws kicks the indigent to the curb, this actually fits perfectly, especially given this comment:

Dubie’s campaign manager, Corry Bliss, said Democrats are trying to obscure their own history of imposing “higher taxes, new government programs and other gimmicks that hit like a lead balloon.”

“Peter Shumlin never lets the truth get in the way of his political agenda,” Bliss wrote in a campaign e-mail. “I guess the National Federation of Independent Business/Vermont hadn’t heard about his plan when they gave him a 0-percent rating on their newest legislative scorecard.”

The National Federation of Independent Business?  That’s the organization that joined a lawsuit to get health care reform declared unconstitutional.

Some more gems from the NFIB:

Card-Check Agreements

NFIB opposes efforts to make it easier for unions to organize within small businesses by mandating card-check agreements instead of private-ballot elections.

In other words, they support more opportunity to bust unions.

Expansion of Family Medical Leave Act

NFIB believes government mandates take away small employers’ and employees’ freedoms to negotiate the benefits package that best meets their mutual needs.

FLSA/Overtime Reform

NFIB supports updating the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to give workers flexibility and to permit employers to reward workers financially for improving productivity and profitability.

When groups like this advocate for “freedoms” or “flexibility” they generally mean freedom to choose between doing what the company wants and getting fired or downsized and the “flexibility” to be classified as salaried employees in order to get extra work out of them without pay.

Federal Minimum Wage

NFIB opposes efforts to increase the federal minimum wage.

Well, of course they do.

Video of today’s press conference is here, linked from the 7 Days Blog:

This video does not include the Shumlin component so if anyone has that, please let me know and I will include that as well.

Press release has been moved below the fold.

This just in:

AUGUST 30, 2010

CONTACT: Alexandra MacLean

Shumlin Campaign Manager

1-802-272-0443

Amy Shollenberger

Racine Campaign Manager

1-802-793-1114

Paul Tencher

Markowitz Campaign Manager

1-401-965-3761

Democratic gubernatorial candidates, Peter Shumlin, Doug Racine and Deb Markowiz will hold a press conference today at 2:30 to respond to Brian Dubie’s economic plan.  The candidates will hold the press conference at Dealer.com in Burlington.

What: Peter Shumlin, Doug Racine and Deb Markowitz to hold press conference to respond to Brian Dubie’s economic plan

Where: Dealer.com, 431 Pine St. Burlington

When: Today, August 30 at 2:30

…’cause otherwise I’d be concerned.  Thanks to Larry Smith, Director of Communications for Vermont Yankee, for making us all feel better:

Operators at the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant declared an Unusual Event at 7:05 p.m., Sunday.

The Unusual Event was declared due to a loss of some control room alarm circuits… Plant maintenance and engineering technicians investigated the… problem. During the event, the plant was at 100 percent power and was stable, Smith stated…

Update: even the state police don’t want to be too close to VY, in a report on their attempt to find a new barracks location:

According to a 2008 report issued by the Department of Public Safety and the Department of Buildings and General Services, both the Rockingham and Brattleboro barracks are “worn out, under-sized and have outlived their useful lives.”

The report found that sites near Exits 1, 2, 3 and 4 would not work because of their proximity to Vermont Yankee. In case of an emergency at the nuclear power plant, a command center near Yankee might have to be evacuated.

Major Update on what just happened:

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

   AUGUST 29, 2010

   CONTACT:

   Alexandra MacLean

   Shumlin Campaign Manager

   (802) 272-0443

   Amy Schollenberger

   Racine Campaign Manager

   (802) 793-1114

   Paul Tencher

   Markowitz Campaign Manager

   (401) 965-3761

   Burlington, Vt – Gubernatorial candidates, Peter Shumlin, Doug Racine and Deb Markowitz sent the following e-mail to their lists of supporters today.

   Dear Vermonter,

   As we prepare for the recount process we wanted to share with you our plan to ensure that no matter what the results of the recount are, we will beat Brian Dubie in November.

   With the unofficial results showing Peter winning by 197 votes, we all agree that he should continue to campaign as the presumptive nominee.  We’ve also agreed to campaign together while the recount takes place.  Our vision for Vermont is dramatically different than Brian Dubie’s and as this process unfolds, it is critical that Vermonters understand the contrast between Brian’s vision and our own.

   We will all be working together over the coming days to ensure that the recount process happens as quickly and effectively as possible so the nominee has as much time as possible to beat Brian.  In addition, the three of us will continue to work together to ensure that fundraising, staffing and other efforts essential to the campaign continue.

   In many ways, this may have been the most extraordinary primary in the history of Vermont.  All five candidates articulated their vision for Vermont without disparaging each other.  The reason that roughly 75,000 Vermonters turned out to vote is because they were energized by these positive visions.  Whatever the results of the recount, the Democratic nominee will have this energy, passion, and excitement behind them as they take on Brian Dubie.

   Thank you for all of your support.

   Best,

   Peter, Doug, Deb

Racine has requested a recount.  At this juncture, there are several possible outcomes.  This piece outlines my perspective on the possible outcomes, and what we need to do to maintain our best chance of Democratic victory come November.

First, regarding the recount itself:

It’s easy to object to a recount and explain why it’s a bad idea.  It’s easy to sow discord over it because some people truly do resent it.  Others think it’s a bad idea, politically, for a variety of reasons.  They may or may not be wrong, but that’s become irrelevant at this point.

Here’s what’s important to remember: the campaign for the Democratic nomination is over.  The votes have been cast.  The decision has been made.  That decision will be known for certain in the not too distant future, but there’s nothing we can do to change it in any form at this point.  

So we have options.  We can discuss whether or not the recount is a good idea.  We can complain about it or praise it.  We can argue over it.  But that ship has sailed, and, honestly, come November 3rd, no one will care what we say now about it.  Some of us will be able to say “see!  I told you it was an awful idea” or “I was right!  The recount helped us in the end.”  

Right here, right now, I, personally, would like to focus on the things that we can change, the things we can do, and where to go from here.

So let’s talk about the things to look out for:

When the nomination was undecided for President in 2008, there was a concerted effort on the part of Republicans to sow discord and disarray among Democrats, exploiting anger between the groups.  I don’t need to tell anyone this, but sometimes we need reminders.

Expect this.  Expect a media narrative that this is bad for Democrats.  It doesn’t matter whether you agree with it or if it’s right.  This narrative would have come no matter the situation, no matter the outcome.  Expect people to come to groups such as ours, pretending to be Democrats, trying to make us fight one another.  

But also expect real Democrats with real anger over this to be coming here to have their say about this as well and expect to have difficulty telling the difference.

All of that is okay.  What, however, is dangerous is turning it into an opportunity for the rest of us to start bashing our candidates in the process.  There is potential for harm in this, because it does sow discord, whether intentional or not.

I say this and some of you will use this as an opportunity to vent anger.  Do that or not, but keep in mind the bigger picture.  We have a Democrat to elect in November.  

In the meantime, those of us who do not have an axe to grind over this have an obligation to speak with kindness and clarity, without attacking one another.  We can disagree without fighting.  We can dissent without dismissing.  We can discuss without damage.

When this is all over, we will have one of three outcomes.  Either Shumlin will win, Racine will win or, in a move that will completely amaze everyone, Markowitz will win.

In any case, some people will be disappointed, but they’ll have felt at the end of this that their voice was heard and know their vote was counted.  They’ll end up as supporters of the final winner if we can keep the campaigns as cordial as they have been prior to the vote.  

This means not rising to bait.  This means thinking about what we post– not self-censorship but just thinking of intent.  When we post something that’s an attack on a candidate or his or her supporters, are we doing so to validate or own egos?  Are we doing so to be defensive and/or aggressive?  Or, instead, are we doing so to benefit the campaigns?  Again, I’m not saying what people should or should not do except to say that we need to be conscious of what we are doing and think about it clearly.  

I say all this because I’ve already seen hostile comments from supporters of both Racine and Shumlin, about each candidate and/or his supporters.  These have come up here and on the candidates’ Facebook pages.

All I’m really asking is “what’s the point?”  As I said, the campaign is over.  Arguing the relative merits of a Shumlin vs. Racine choice is no longer of value.  In any case, 3/4ths of the Democratic electorate refused to support your candidate and they had reasons for making the choice they did.  Whoever comes out on top here, doesn’t just want that other 75%.  She or he desperately needs it.

So this is what can happen in the meantime:

The candidates themselves can reach out to one another.  They can work together and with their own supporters to encourage them to support the winner.  They can show great respect for one another throughout the process.  And they can agree as a group to go after Brian Dubie.  

One vulnerability that exists right now is that if any of the candidates goes after Dubie directly, taking the fight to him, it will seem presumptuous, like they’re declaring victory before it’s over.

You need to be presumptuous to run for Governor.  You need to be a little arrogant.  It’s okay.

So let’s have them all do it, hammering him constantly over the next three weeks.  And I don’t just mean Shumlin and Racine.  I mean Markowitz, Dunne and Bartlett.  I mean they need to be playing up why Dubie is bad for Vermont.  If all five are doing it, there is no room for anyone to look presumptuous.  And if they all do a great job of it, we’ll all be more comfortable with who the nominee is, even it wasn’t our first (or 3rd choice).

But we need to be doing this too.  And we’re especially poised to do this because we have nothing to lose and, quite frankly, we can be mean in ways the candidates never can.

We can muckrake.  We talk about this:

MONTPELIER – Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie received a helping hand in his gubernatorial bid from Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell Monday, who hosted a major fundraiser for the Vermont Republican in Washington, D.C.

He also got a barrage of criticism from Democrats for appearing with a man who once said that working women and feminists are “detrimental” to families and has recently rescinded a state policy against discriminating against gays and lesbians.

“It’s not suprising that one of the most conservative governors in America is helping out Brian Dubie,” said Alex MacLean, the campaign manager for Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin. “Brian Dubie is far too conservative for Vermont.”

in ways that are far less polite than our candidates need to be.

So here’s my question, to every one reading this:

What are you going to do next that increases the chances that we end up with a Democrat in the Governor’s office come November?  

Per today’s Rutland Herald:

When Republican state Sen. Kevin Mullin voted to support same-sex marriage in 2009, some of his supporters in Rutland County vowed to get revenge at the polls this year.

“This isn’t about moving on,” said Steve Cable, a Rutland resident opposed to same-sex marriage, shortly after the April 2009 vote. “This is about getting even.”

Opponents of same-sex marriage had nearly a decade to oppose civil unions, the 2nd class-citizen equivalency unit we received in 2000.  The bigots got their retribution the next year, doing major damage to some supporters of civil unions through primary challenges.  

This time, not so much so.

There’s something that happens when you make dire predictions and noise about calamity that fail to manifest.  You lose your power.  You lose your relevancy.  You become a joke.

You had your grace period.  We gave Vermont time to get comfortable with same sex couples receiving some state recognition.  That time is over.  No one cares.  Everyone’s moved on.  There are more important things for us all to deal with than whether or not some lesbian couple in the Northeast Kingdom needs your permission before they can marry.

Or, as the Herald reports:

Mullin said there was some opposition to him during the race because of his same-sex marriage vote, although the crowd that tried to unseat him was “very small and not very organized,” he said.

The wrong side of history is a very lonely place to be.

Racine’s press release:

BURLINGTON, VT – The results of the gubernatorial race are too close to call, Doug Racine declared Wednesday morning. “We are seeing discrepancies in the online, unofficial results, and we want to wait for the official results before making a decision about next steps,” Racine explained. “I have not conceded and I have talked with Peter Shumlin, who has agreed that we should see the official results before announcing a winner.”

The Secretary of State indicated to Racine that the official results would be available sometime between Friday and Tuesday.

From the e-mail I just received from the Shumlin campaign:

Thanks to your incredible support, it looks like we have won the Democratic gubernatorial primary!

Personally, I’m waiting for the official results.

First, a note from us to the candidates:

We at Green Mountain Daily would like to thank the candidates for engaging our readers and participating in our ongoing forum.  Your involvement has made for a greatly enriched experience and we’ve enjoyed seeing the back and forth among candidates, GMD writers, and our readers.  Thanks to all of you for making this an election to remember.

We will be updating this thread as time permits with any breaking news from the primaries:

This space reserved for election results, or you can get results as they come in at VPR or wcax.

Jim Condos is confirmed winner for Secretary of State Dem primary.

Doug Hoffer is confirmed winner for Auditor.

Governor is just too close to call.  See comment threads as reports come in.  I won’t be updating it here until we have a confirmed winner, which at this point might not be until morning September..

After the fold, where you can go to celebrate with your candidate of choice, and a special treat: we asked each of the five candidates for Governor to provide us with a short statement to the readers of Green Mountain Daily for this special end of the primary thread.  Below are the statements we’ve received, in order of when we received them (the Shumlin campaign did not send us a statement, but if they do, we will update this thread):

Next, where you can go to celebrate with your respective candidates:

Susan Bartlett: The Alchemist, 23 South Main St. Waterbury

Matt Dunne: Tip Top Cafe, 85 N. Main Street, White River Junction

Deb Markowitz: Main Street Landing Train Station, Burlington

Doug Racine: Burlington Hilton, 60 Battery Street, Burlington

Peter Shumlin: Nectars, 188 Main Street, Burlington

Also, Wednesday will be a Democratic Unity Event:

Wed, 08/25/2010 – 12:00pm

Train Station

One Main Street Landing

Burlington, VT, 05401

Susan Bartlett:

It has been an honor to campaign in this Democratic primary. I am impressed that five highly competitive candidates all ran campaigns that focused on the issues without resorting to negative campaigning. All of us understand that the primary voters must decide who best represents their interests and that ultimately one of us must be in a position to beat Brian Dubie. We will all pull together to elect the winner in November. Most of all, I enjoyed traveling the state listening to voters and understanding their concerns. I am so grateful for the support I found for my message of a pragmatic approach to solving the problems we face. 

Doug Racine:

Whatever happens tonight, I’m very proud of the campaign we have all run. We all had different strategies, but we all made a pledge not to be negative toward each other, and we all kept our pledge. I have very much enjoyed traveling the state and talking with Vermonters over the past year. I have also enjoyed engaging with Vermonters online through Green Mountain Daily, Facebook, Twitter and other media. I appreciate that GMD provides an online forum for folks to discuss issues that are important to them. Thank you to everyone who helped on my campaign. Let’s keep working together to beat Brian Dubie!

Matt Dunne:

It’s been an extraordinary campaign in a truly unique year. Each of the candidates have brought their own flavor to the election and after all the forums, parades and events we all know each other pretty well. The caliber of each of the candidates is phenomenal and I know that whoever wins the Democratic primary will be a worthy competitor to Brian Dubie.

Especially with so much information out there about each of the candidates, this year more than ever voters have turned to the experts to help digest the data. With this type of connected, netroots support, GMD has played an important role helping to highlight and analyze key elections news and we are indebted to the entire GMD community for sparking conversation and debate throughout the election season.

It’s been a long road and Vermont is now truly at a crossroads. It is critical that we all rally behind whoever is the Democratic candidate to ensure that we work together to move Vermont forward.

Deb Markowitz:

You have all heard the speeches. You’ve seen the ads. You’ve read the mail. You know that I am running for governor because we have to change the way we do business in Montpelier if we are going to keep Vermont the best place to live, work and raise a family–if we are going to jumpstart job growth, fix health care the right way and plan for a home grown renewable energy future. Over the last 18 months, I have had the honor to witness what is best about Vermont and what is best about Vermonters. And I can tell you what that has taught me about how this election and our future will play out. I want to thank Susan, Matt, Doug and Peter for their hard work and determination. My respect has only grown for you and I am thankful for the journey. Thank you also to Green Mountain Daily for continuing this lively experiment in democracy. It has been quite a campaign! Please join us at our party tonight at 7 p.m. at Burlington’s Union Station, 1 Main St.

Wherever you are, and whatever side you came down on, I hope this primary has energized and excited you.  Since I’m writing this before knowing who the winner is, I won’t bother writing a congratulations note just yet.  I’ll just say that this has been a lot of fun to watch and blog.

Feel free to share your favorite moments from the campaign, your expectations for the next few months, or anything else that’s on your mind.  

‘Cause tomorrow, it’s time to get down to serious work.

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We now know that at least one of our candidates knows how to use Google Ads (screen shot of my weather forecast below the fold, so as not to be mistaken for an ad for Matt Dunne).

I’m actually curious as to how this is going to pan out, because this is the first Vermont governor’s race where I’ve seen a serious and concerted web presence on the part of multiple candidates.  I’ve joined the Facebook groups of three candidates and I get multiple updates from them.  I’ve also managed to get lots of e-mails from many campaigns, even ones I didn’t sign up for (I’m not sure how that happened, but since I found the updates interesting I never asked them to remove me).  

But as far as web ads go, I’d like to solicit some opinions: have you ever been influenced by a web ad (either for or against?).  Do you block ads entirely?  Do you find them annoying?  

I’ve got mixed feelings about this.  I have ads on my own personal web sites because, quite frankly, I’m hoping to make at least enough money to pay the hosting fees.  I don’t do the google ads thing– I have very specific things I’m advertising that I want advertised and little else (i.e., the music ads link to places where people can purchase my music, the photography site ads link to books about birding and camera equipment), and I try to avoid anything with lots of flashy activity, but there are reasons people make ads flashy: they’re meant to get attention, and really, candidates do need to advertise.  

I’d especially like to hear from the Dunne campaign about this (it can wait until after the primary is over 🙂 ).  Once the primary is all said and done, do you think the Google ads were worth it?  If you’re the nominee, will you continue to use them?  If you’re not, do you recommend that the nominee use them as extensively as you have?

As far as Facebook goes, and this question is for all the campaigns: have you found the Facebook tools a good way to outreach?  One thing I’ve noticed that’s really interesting is the discussion going on between people still trying to decide.  I’ve posted on the walls of several candidates wishing them luck, while explaining that I’m still undecided, and I’ve had mostly cordial and respectful responses advocating for the candidate.  I did have one particularly annoying and unpleasant response from one candidate’s support (I’m chalking that up to heat of the moment frustration from someone who might have issues with interpersonal communication), but almost everyone I know has given me very polite and respectful suggestions and thoughts on why their candidate is the best, and most of this happened on Facebook.

Has this been everyone else’s experience as well?

What about our exchanges here on Green Mountain Daily?  Have you found it to be helpful?  Useful?  What about our live blogging of the early education forums?

So just to finish off:  I look up my weather forecast, and I get this:

I’m going to start calling this “the Full Dunne.”