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Alex MacLean (pictured at right), a veteran staffer and two-time campaign manager for Gov. Peter Shumlin, was hired Monday by Jay Peak owners Bill Stenger and Ariel Quiros to serve as a project manager for their proposed $600 million Northeast Kingdom Development Initiative.

The Peacham native says she'll be charged with directing community relations and recruiting foreign investors for the ambitious project, which includes expansions at Jay Peak and Burke Mountain Resort; the development of a convention center, window factory and biotechnology campus in Newport; and an expansion of the Newport State Airport in Coventry.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a longtime darling of the lefty political rag, won the magazine's top honor, "Most Valuable Progressive." Citing Ol' Bernardo's fights against cutting entitlement programs and the Postal Service, Washington correspondent John Nichols writes:

"Sanders has broken the boundaries of conventional politics. By refusing to bend to the compromises and spin of Washington, he has made himself the conscience of the fiscal cliff fight."

Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin, meanwhile, took home the mag's "Most Valuable Governor" award.

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Apparently, MacLean didn't keep one.

But given Shumlin's 92 percent rating by the group, it ain't hard to figure out how the pro-gun gov filled it out.

Yesterday, we got our hands on a blank copy of the 25-question survey distributed to Vermont state lawmakers in July (it's posted below). The comprehensive questionnaire touches on everything from safety locks to the expired assault weapons ban to the so-called "gun show loophole." The phrasing of several of the questions is, shall we say, loaded.

Here's an example:

10. In 1994, Congress imposed a ten-year ban on the manufacture, for sale to private individuals, of various semi-automatic firearms it termed "assault weapons," and of ammunition magazines capable of holding more than ten rounds of ammunition, which primarily affected handguns designed for self-defense. Congress' subsequent study of the ban, as well as state and local law enforcement agency reports, showed that contrary to the ban's supporters' claims, the guns and magazines had never been used in more than about 1-2% of violent crime. Since the ban expired in 2004, the numbers of these firearms and magazines owned have risen to all-time highs and violent crime has fallen to a 35-year low. Would you support state legislation restricting the possession, ownership, purchase, sale, and/or transfer of semi-automatic firearms and/or limits on the capacity of magazines designed for self-defense?

So how did your lawmakers answer?

John D. Haywood caught a flight from North Carolina to Burlington on Wednesday to tell a judge why St. Michael's College should pay him $50 million in a libel lawsuit aimed at student journalists.

Haywood (pictured) ran for president of the United States as a Democrat in the New Hampshire primary this year and blames a profile of him written by St. Mike's students for sinking his White House dreams. (Click here for background on the case.)

Students in Professor David Mindich's "Media and American Politics" class have been profiling lesser-known presidential candidates in every election since 2004, with the goal of giving voice to all candidates. Haywood complained that students grossly misrepresented his positions in the article, published on a college website 10 days before last January's primary, and says the errors cost him the race against President Obama. Haywood received just 432 votes, meaning he lost to Obama by a ratio of 115 to 1.

"Anyone who read their profile wouldn't touch my website with a 10-foot pole," Haywood told U.S. Magistrate Judge John Conroy on Wednesday. "Things they said about my positions are so extreme, so ridiculous."

The top vote-getter in the Chittenden County state Senate race also finished near the front of the 14-candidate field in terms of cost effectiveness of individual campaign expenditures. Democrat-Progressive Tim Ashe was elected to a third term with 37,357 votes on reported spending of $10,250 — which works out to 27 cents per vote.

Democrat Ginny Lyons was the No. 2 finisher in the race for six available seats, corralling 34,957 votes. But she was No. 1 in bang for buck. In winning a seventh term, Lyons spent only $5668, according to a November 15 campaign report — or 16 cents per vote.

Patrick Brown didn't gain entree to the charmed circle of six, but among candidates filing campaign finance reports, Brown stretched his money further than anyone in the race except Lyons. The Burlington-based civil rights activist and restaurant owner received 12,217 votes and spent $2150 — a productive investment of 18 cents per vote.

The bottom — or least cost-effective — spot is occupied by Robert Letovsky, a St. Michael's College business professor running as an Independent. He spent $15,402 and got 8321 votes, which earned him an 11th place finish and cost him $1.85 per vote.

Votes also proved an expensive commodity for David Zuckerman, a Hinesburg farmer and former state representative. The Progressive-Democrat did win a Senate seat, finishing fourth (behind Ashe, Lyons and Democrat Sally Fox). But Zuckerman's return ticket to Montpelier cost him $1.04 per vote. He reported expenditures of $33,550 — by far the most of any candidate who filed on November 15.

Here's what's happening in Vermont news and politics this week. Got a newsworthy event for the calendar? Email us by Friday to submit.

Monday, November 12

• At 10:45 a.m., newly re-elected U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) holds a press conference at his Burlington office to talk "budget deficits" and the fiscal cliff — the main issue facing the lame duck Congress.
• At 11 a.m., Champlain College will celebrate Veterans Day by dedicating a new campus memorial to members of the military, past and present, who attended the school. Newly re-elected Gov. Peter Shumlin and former guv Jim Douglas will speak, as will Provost Robin Abramson, Brigadier General Steven Cray, and Digital and Computer Forensics Assistant prof Cristian Balan, an Afghanistan War veteran.
• At noon, Vermont Public Radio's "Vermont Edition" hosts Vermont Law School professor Greg Johnson and lawyer and Vermont Freedom To Marry founder Susan Murray to discuss what's next for the same-sex marriage rights movement. Listen live.
• At 2 p.m., newly re-elected U.S. Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) meets the press at his Burlington office to talk about the farm bill and the fiscal cliff. And how Washington should totally just act more polite. Like Vermonters.

Doug Hoffer's victory in Tuesday's state auditor's race wasn't just surprising. It was historic.

For the first time, Vermont voters elected a statewide candidate with the Progressive Party label. Hoffer ran as a fusion candidate with endorsements from both the Democrats and Progressives.

But many see Hoffer as a Prog at heart, pointing out that he came to Vermont 30 years ago to work for Bernie Sanders when the latter was mayor of Burlington, and later worked for Progressive mayor Peter Clavelle. Hoffer also provided paid staff assistance to Progressive city councilors and research for the Peace & Justice Center.

On election night, Hoffer stopped by the Progressive Party gathering at Magnolia's Bistro in Burlington before joining the Democratic victory party at the Hilton.

"This is my family," Hoffer told the assembled Progs.

Unlike lieutenant governor candidate Cass Gekas, who ran as a Progressive/Democrat, Hoffer elected to run as a Democrat/Progressive. No doubt, Hoffer's Democratic label helped him enormously in a year when President Barack Obama topped the party's ticket.

But Progressive stalwarts such as state Rep. Chris Pearson (P-Burlington) view Hoffer's 51-to-45 win over Republican state Sen. Vince Illuzzi as an "extremely significant" victory for the Progs. Combined with wins by fusion state Senate candidates Tim Ashe and David Zuckerman — and a strong showing by Gekas — Pearson says the Hoffer victory "sort of suggests that the Progressive label is something voters are pretty comfortable with."

Maps are cool! Especially these maps created by Stone Environmental's Charlie Hofmann for the Vermont Secretary of State's elections web site.

Since they rely upon data from the state's voluntary election night reporting website, they are sadly incomplete for now. Town clerks reported the results from just 206 precincts that night — roughly 75 percent of the state's 275 precincts.

The secretary of state's office hopes to release unofficial results this weekend and certified results next Tuesday. We'll try to bring you complete maps when they're available.

Despite the missing info, these maps show some pretty interesting regional trends. The most obvious, of course, is the northbound retreat of the Vermont Republican Party. The GOP still has a couple southerly pockets of strength — particularly in Rutland County — but they are few and far between.

You can check out all the maps here. Also, in case it's not obvious, you can zoom in to view town names and check out a town's results by clicking on it.

President: This is both the most and least interesting map. Yeah, we all know President Obama beat Mitt Romney 67 to 31 percent in Vermont, but this map shows just one town going for Romney: Maidstone. (Of course, it's likely several other of the 69 precincts not included in the map also voted for Mittens.) Even in Maidstone, it was a close one. Romney won 52 votes to Obama's 50. If only the two voters who backed Gary Johnson and Rocky Anderson had backed Obama, it would've been a tie!

Peter Hirschfeld over at the Vermont Press Bureau has a good story today about the guy who helped make that happen: 26-year-old Nick Charyk, director of the Vermont Democratic House Campaign. Here's a little snippet:

Effective recruitment is the kind of labor-intensive undertaking for which professional staff is usually needed. Charyk spent much of 2011 embedding in Republican districts he believed Democrats could win, or in Democratic districts where outgoing officeholders would leave open seats.

“I sat down with as many people as I could, had coffee, developed a list of people, five or 10 people in town that might make great candidates and worked hard to recruit them,” Charyk said. “The metaphor we use is find out who built the Little League field, and go talk to them first.”

We've made this point before — a couple of times — but it's worth repeating: You just can't win if you're not putting up good candidates. I mean, duh. But really.

Anyway, check out Hirschfeld's story. Two-thirds of it is posted on the Press Bureau's blog. But you should really go buy a copy of the Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus or the Rutland Herald. Because, hey, newspapers are totes dying, right? And someone's gotta pay Hirschfeld's salary.

When Vince Illuzzi was first elected to the Vermont Senate, Ronald Reagan was the president-elect, The Empire Strikes Back was in movie theaters and John Lennon was still alive.

The year was 1980. Illuzzi was 27 years old.

Over the next three-plus decades, Illuzzi became a fixture in the state Senate and a powerful legislator known for cutting last-minute deals in the waning hours of legislative sessions to the benefit of his Northeast Kingdom constituents.

That storied Senate career came to an end — or at least a pause — yesterday. Illuzzi retired from his seat representing Essex and Orleans counties this year to run for state auditor, a race he lost to Democrat/Progressive Doug Hoffer, a policy analyst making his second run for the job. Riding a Democratic wave that turned out big for President Barack Obama, Hoffer beat Illuzzi by a margin of 51 to 45.

What's next for the "King of the Kingdom" remains to be seen. For now, Illuzzi says he'll continue in his day job as Essex County state's attorney while pondering his options. Standing beside him at the Republican Party gathering in Montpelier last night, his wife, Eileen Maher (pictured), chimed in, "And spend more time with his family."