Monday, January 27, 2020
During a visit Monday to Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) hometown, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg made clear that, unlike Sanders, he would not be leading a “political revolution.” But if he won the Democratic presidential nomination, he promised, he would evict President Donald Trump from the White House.
"I think I'm the only candidate that can beat Trump," Bloomberg told reporters at a campaign event in Burlington. "Because I think the country wants evolution, rather than revolution."
Since entering the race last November, the billionaire businessman and philanthropist has largely bypassed the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. Instead, he’s focused his firepower — and considerable fortune — on the 14 states that vote on March 3, including Vermont.
“I realize that candidates for president spend a lot more of their time in New Hampshire than they do here,” Bloomberg told a lunchtime crowd at the ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain. “But our campaign is different. We’re trying to take our message to states all over the country.”
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Gray, a political novice who works in the AG's criminal division, had been planning a run for several weeks and declared her candidacy in a press release Monday. She said she's seeking the state's No. 2 office because she believes Vermont is at a "crossroads."
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Thursday, January 23, 2020
Details of where and when remain to be ironed out, R. Christopher Di Mezzo said on Thursday. The event will be open to the public and press, he said.
Vermont and Maine are the only Super Tuesday states that Bloomberg has yet to visit, according to Di Mezzo. On March 3, those states will be among more than a dozen that will vote in presidential primaries.
"He's running a national campaign, and Vermont is one of our 50 states," Di Mezzo said of Bloomberg. "He's competing everywhere."
Tags: Senator , Michael Bloomberg , Vermont , presidential primary , Bernie Sanders , Burlington , campaign , Democratic , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
“[Kurt] been very steady. He gets along with every member of the council,” said Alex Farrell, a leader of the "Write-in Wright" campaign and a former GOP city council and Vermont Senate candidate. “To lose him, I’m not really sure the city can afford that.”
Wright had intended to run, but his radio gig complicated matters. Federal broadcasting rules require that WVMT must offer equal time on-air to both Wright and any challenger during the campaign. That wasn’t feasible, so station ownership told Wright he’d have to take a 60-day hiatus from the show. Wright chose to stay on air.
This week, Wright said he supports the write-in campaign and would gladly serve if he wins. He said he told organizers that he can’t participate in any way.
Tags: Burlington City Council , Kurt Wright , Sarah Carpenter , politics , Web Only , Image
But events — some within his campaign's control and some outside of it — have conspired to change the conversation.
First, there was a dustup over a private conversation between Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a longtime friend and current opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination. Then, there was an overreach by Sanders' campaign, when it took out of context a 2018 video of Biden discussing his views on Social Security.
Then, on Monday, Sanders found himself apologizing to Biden for an op-ed penned by Vermont native, Fordham Law School professor and Sanders surrogate Zephyr Teachout, in which she wrote that the former VP had "a big corruption problem" because he's gone to bat for major donors. "It is absolutely not my view that Joe is corrupt in any way," Sanders told CBS News. "And I'm sorry that that op-ed appeared."
Finally, on Tuesday, the senator from Vermont found himself on the receiving end of another round of fire from 2016 rival Hillary Clinton. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Clinton attacked Sanders' record in a documentary set to be released by Hulu.
Tags: Bernie Sanders , Election , Election 2020 , Elizabeth Warren , Hillary Clinton , Joe Biden , Primary 2020 , Senator , Web Only , Image
Monday, January 20, 2020
May, who owns a private practice in Montpelier, previously served on the Richmond selectboard and ran for Senate in 2018. He said in a press release that he believes Vermont needs to create a "network of policy" that puts the needs of families first.
"Affordability has become a buzzword somehow," he wrote. "We need more than empty platitudes."
May's campaign announcement outlines a handful of campaign issues, starting with changes to Vermont's health care system that he believes would increase access to addiction treatment.
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As the Senate prepared to vote on the rules of the trial, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) accused Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) of bending to the wishes of the White House.
“He’s treating the Senate as though it is a branch of the executive, which of course it’s not,” Leahy told Seven Days. “I think no matter what comes of this, if there’s not some significant changes in the procedure, history books are always going to [say] the whole thing was a farce.”
Vermont’s two U.S. senators are likely to play notable, if different, roles in the trial, which is expected to begin in earnest on Wednesday.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, will have to divide his time between the Senate proceedings and the campaign trail. He held events in New Hampshire over the weekend and was scheduled to appear in South Carolina and Iowa on Monday — then in Iowa again on Wednesday night.
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Friday, January 17, 2020
Siegel, the founder and director of the Southern Vermont Dance Festival and a self-described "proud single mom," had expressed plans to run for the office last week. She formally announced her campaign in a press release early Friday morning.
"We are in a new era of politics, where all voices and types of experience matter. Vermont needs statewide leaders who reflect the identities and experiences of regular Vermonters,” Siegel wrote in a press release.
Tags: Siegel , lieutenant governor , campaign , Brenda Siegel , Web Only , Image
Thursday, January 16, 2020
When Kunin, Vermont's first — and, to this day, only — female governor, ran for reelection in 1986, Burlington mayor Bernie Sanders told voters that he would do more for women if they replaced her with him.
"He claimed to be a better feminist than I was," Kunin said this week in an interview with Seven Days. "It shocked me at the time."
Sanders, now a U.S. senator seeking the presidency, has faced heightened scrutiny over his views on women in politics since CNN reported Monday that he'd declared in a private meeting that a woman could not win the White House in 2020. The other participant in the December 2018 meeting, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), confirmed the report.
"Among the topics that came up was what would happen if Democrats nominated a female candidate," said Warren, who is also running for president. "I thought a woman could win; he disagreed."
Sanders has denied the story. "Well, as a matter of fact, I didn't say it," Sanders responded when asked about the alleged remark at a Democratic debate Tuesday in Des Moines, Iowa. "Anybody knows me knows that it's incomprehensible that I would think that a woman cannot be president of the United States."
Kunin, whose path to power in the 1980s coincided and sometimes conflicted with Sanders', doesn't believe her former rival. "As far as the conversation between he and Elizabeth Warren, I tend to believe her, since she's been such a straight arrow on everything else," Kunin said.
Tags: Bernie Sanders , Election , Election 2020 , Elizabeth Warren , Hillary Clinton , Madeleine Kunin , Primary 2020 , senator , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Ingram, who told Seven Days last week that she was "leaning towards" joining the race, confirmed her plans in an email.
"Since the LG post is mostly a 'create your own adventure' kind of job, with few designated duties, it is the perfect platform to listen to people and to bring them together — two practices we don’t see enough of in our society today," she wrote.
An ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and executive director of Vermont Interfaith Action, Ingram was first elected to the Senate in 2016. The Williston resident previously served on her town’s selectboard.
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