Thursday, May 14, 2015
Sanders officially announced late last month that he is seeking the Democratic nomination for president, and he then made a quick trip to New Hampshire. He has yet to visit Iowa as an official candidate but made several trips there before his announcement.
Sanders’ campaign released plans Thursday for these events in the two states that hold the first 2016 presidential caucus and primary:
- May 27: Noon at New England College in Concord, N.H.; 5 p.m. house party at the home of Kathryn Williams and Brant Hardy, 277 Main St., Epping, N.H.; and 7 p.m. at the South Church in Portsmouth, N.H.
- May 28: 7 p.m. at the Rogalski Center, St. Ambrose University, Davenport, Iowa.
- May 29: 3 p.m. at Strahan Hall, Muscatine Community College, Muscatine, Iowa; 7 p.m., House party at the home of Dave Johnson and Jennie Embree, 326 N. 4th St., West Branch, Iowa.
- May 30: 10 a.m. at Robert A. Lee Community Center, Iowa City, Iowa; 5 p.m. at Kensett Community Center, Kensett, Iowa.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Iowa caucus , New Hampshire primary , 2016 presidential race , Presidential Campaign , campaign trail , Image , Web Only
Saturday, May 2, 2015
But the Vermont senator had a house full of followers familiar with his offbeat style, and he delivered a message that was not at all new for him.
“We have a grotesque level of income inequality in which the billionaire class is getting it all,” Sanders told a gathering of 130 people packed into the Beech Street home of Elizabeth Ropp and Eric Zulaski in Manchester, N.H. “It’s like if we sat down to dinner — 10 people sit at a table to eat dinner — and one guy eats it all.”
The enthusiastic audience crowded into the living and dining rooms and onto the enclosed porch and the lawn outside, where some listened through the open window as Sanders gave a 32-minute speech.
“This campaign that we are going to wage in New Hampshire and all over the country is a very different type of campaign than others run,” Sanders said. “We are going to do a lot of door-knocking, and you are the guys who are going to do it.”
Sanders never mentioned Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, or any other potential candidate. Whoever his opponents are, he said, they will raise more money and he will be the underdog — but he could still win.
“I think we’ve got a real shot,” said the former Burlington mayor, who was elected to the U.S. House and Senate as an independent and has never been elected as a Democrat. “I know people say, ‘Bernie’s this, Bernie’s that, but he really can’t win.’ You know what? We really can win.”
Sanders called for gradually raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour; using $70 billion in “corporate tax evasion” money to provide free public college tuition; and putting 13 million people to work over five years rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure.
Sanders was making his 10th trip to New Hampshire since 2014, but Saturday’s visit was the first since he officially announced his candidacy last Thursday for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. New Hampshire holds the nation’s first presidential primary on February 9, a week after the Iowa caucus.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Presidential Campaign , Hillary Clinton , 2016 presidential election , Vermont , New Hampshire , campaign trail , Image , Recommended Reading , Web Only
Monday, April 6, 2015
In the settlement agreement, former South Burlington City Council chair Pam Mackenzie, who controlled a political action committee called Pam PAC, acknowledged failing to disclose expenditures made on behalf of Patricia Nowak and Chris Shaw, who won seats on the council with her help.
Pam PAC will pay $2,000 and will file corrected campaign finance reports, Sorrell said. Nowak and Shaw will each pay $750 and file corrected reports.
"The state’s resolution of this matter should make clear that when people or entities pool their money to fund advertising in support of candidates they become a political committee and must register and file reports with the secretary of state’s office," Sorrell said in a prepared statement.
Tags: South Burlington , Bill Sorrell , campaign finance , campaign finance , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
The RGA and the Office of the Attorney General reached a settlement to resolve a four-year-old case. The state had alleged that when the RGA ran political ads in favor of Republican candidate Brian Dubie, the organization failed to register as a political action committee and to file campaign finance reports, and also accepted contributions that exceeded the $2,000 limit.
Dubie lost a close race to Democrat Peter Shumlin. Shumlin has twice since then won reelection.
The RGA also agreed to file amended campaign finance reports within 30 days, and will detail contributions from two people in particular – Skip Vallee and Rich Tarrant.
Attorney General Bill Sorrell said in a statement that the case sends a message about campaign finance law. “It is essential that PACs make the disclosures required under the law. The public should know who is funding the activities of the PACs that seek to influence Vermont voters,” he said.
This is the second settlement between his office and the RGA in the 2010 governor’s race. In 2013, the RGA agreed to pay $30,000 in a case in which Dubie also agreed to pay $20,000. They were accused of violating state campaign finance law by sharing RGA polling data without declaring it as a contribution to Dubie’s campaign.
Tags: Brian Dubie , Republican Governors Association , Peter Shumlin , Bill Sorrell , Image , Web Only
Monday, March 30, 2015
Teachout will discuss her book Corruption in America when she takes the stage Thursday at Vermont Law School. The free event is from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in Chase Community Center at the South Royalton school. (Her father, Peter, teaches constitutional law there; her mother, Mary, is a Vermont Superior Court judge.) She’ll also be signing her book at Barrister’s Book Shop from 3:30-4:30 p.m. that day.
The 43-year-old Teachout, who grew up down the road in Norwich and teaches law at Fordham University, went from relative obscurity to prominence as the bee in Cuomo’s political bonnet during last year’s New York gubernatorial primary.
Tags: Zephyr Teachout , Corruption in America , Andrew Cuomo , Image , Web Only
Thursday, March 26, 2015
“How can that town clerk be assured you haven’t voted somewhere else that day?” Sen. Dustin Degree (R-Franklin) asked.
The Senate agreed to delay enacting same-day voter registration until 2017, instead of the originally proposed 2016, after complaints from town clerks. Some were worried that it would be easier for voters to get away with fraud. The Vermont Municipal Clerks' & Treasurers' Association agreed to support the bill, however, if it were delayed a year.
Sen. Anthony Pollina (P/D-Washington) argued that the ease of same-day registration in other places increases voter turnout on the order of 12 percent.
Degree contended it wasn’t worth the risk. He noted that some elections in his area have come down to a margin of just a few votes, or ended in a tie. “I think the integrity of our elections is more important than increased participation,” he said.
Julia Michel of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group countered afterward, “We think the biggest fraud is voters who don’t have the chance to vote because this arbitrary voter registration deadline gets in people’s way.”
After another vote in the Senate on Friday, the bill, S.29, heads to the House.
Tags: Vermont Senate , voter registration , voter fraud , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
When Mayor Miro Weinberger delivered his victory speech at Nectar's on election night, he made a point of recognizing contributions from both the city and state parties. "I want to thank the Burlington City Democrats and the state Democratic party for the incredible effort that they organized... It was an awesome thing to watch and incredibly exciting to head down to College Street [Democratic headquarters] and see that kind of effort going down day in and day out. In both of the campaigns I’ve been fortunate enough to run in, we’ve had a huge piece of help from the Democratic Party, and I want to thank everyone who’s been involved in that effort."
How huge the help remains unclear. The campaign finance report shows that the Vermont Democratic Party raised $20,641 during the election cycle, including a $10,000 donation from David Blittersdorf, president and CEO of AllEarth Renewables. It spent $44,255, but a large portion of the spending was money transferred to its federal fund, according to the VDP's compliance officer.
Tags: Town Meeting Day , Burlington city council , Vermont Democratic Party , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
So it was Tuesday as the Senate debated S.93, a bill that would require those seeking to influence legislation to share more information about who’s spending what.
“Our restrictions on lobbyists are minimal,” Senate Government Operations Committee Chair Jeanette White (D-Windham) told fellow senators. “S.93 is a slight constriction without restraining free speech.”
Tags: Vermont legislature , lobbyist disclosure , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
In an email to Seven Days, the Central District councilor said all six non-Democratic councilors are supporting her bid: fellow Progressives Max Tracy, Selene Colburn and Sara Giannoni; independents Sharon Bushor and Adam Roof; and Republican Kurt Wright. Knodell's own vote makes seven.
The vote takes place when the newly elected council convenes on April 6.
When the Democrats lost their majority on Town Meeting Day, Knodell quickly emerged as the Progs' pick to replace the current council president, Joan Shannon. When she took the stage at the party's victory bash at Magnolia Bistro, several people in crowd shouted "Council president!" Late last week, Knodell told Seven Days she was considering heeding those calls.
Tags: Burlington city council , Jane Knodell , Progressive , Image , Web Only
Monday, December 29, 2014
The ads are slated to start running Tuesday on WCAX-TV and other stations, according to filings with the Federal Communications Commission. The legislature is scheduled to vote on the governor race January 8 because no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote in the November 4 election. Despite being a heavy favorite, Shumlin won just 46 percent of the vote, leading Milne by roughly 2,400 votes.
Bill Round, a retired U.S. Navy captain and Vermont native who lives in Newport Center, issued a news release Monday afternoon saying he formed the group that is behind the ad and a website — www.vthonestgov.com — that went live Monday. “Vermonters have had enough of Peter Shumlin and his broken promises,” Round said in the release.
Tags: Scott Milne , Peter Shumlin , Image , Web Only