It's election week! Here's what's happening in the world of Vermont politics and news this week. Got an event you want listed in next week's calendar? Email us by Friday to submit it.

Monday, November 5

• It's the last day of campaigning before the big day, and the last day to request an absentee ballot (click here for more info.)
• Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin has a light (or incomplete) schedule for today. His campaign website shows the guv honking and waving at 7:30 a.m. in Barre, "visiting businesses and walking" in Richmond at 9:30 and doing the same at Five Corners in Essex at 10:45. Full schedule.
• Republican gubernatorial candidate Randy Brock starts the day with a 6:30 a.m. interview on ABC 22/Fox 44, and ends at 5:30 p.m. in the Springfield "GOP Victory Office." He'll be on "Charlie, Ernie and Lisa" on WVMT-AM at 8 a.m. Full schedule.
• Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Scott kicks off a "vote tomorrow" tour today, with the gimmicky idea of making 14 stops in each of Vermont's 14 counties, and spending 14 minutes at each location. The lite guv starts at the ungoldly hour of 4:45 a.m. in St. Albans and finishes at 6:35 p.m. in Barre. Full schedule.
• Republican candidate for attorney general Jack McMullen has just two stops on his schedule for today: a 2 p.m. sign wave outside the Sheraton Hotel in South Burlington, and a somewhat inexplicable 6 p.m. visit to the Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism. Presumably to court the all-important undecided herbalist bloc.
• At 9 a.m., "The Mark Johnson Show" on WDEV-FM welcomes guests Howard Dean and Vermont Pundit Laureate Eric Davis. Listen live.
• At noon, Vermont Public Radio's topic on "Vermont Edition" is the middle class — that nebulous group politicians have been courting so hard this year. Guests are UVM economics professor Elaine McCrate and Dartmouth sociology professor Marc Dixon. Listen live.
• Obama and Romney won't talk about climate change, but Norwich University will. At 7:45 p.m., award-winning microbiologist Dr. Brigit Sattler gives a talk titled "Ice and Life: Living Cryosphere" about the impact of melting polar icecaps on the ecosystem.

Rest of the week after the break...

click to enlarge

Brock's campaign released partial results of a survey conducted last Thursday by Ohio-based, Republican pollster Fritz Wenzel showing that likely voters favor Shumlin 46 to 41 percent. Eight percent favor three other candidates and 5 percent are undecided, the poll found.

The automated survey of 520 Vermonters has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.

"It's a close race," Wenzel said Saturday. "Obviously Shumlin has the advantage going into this last weekend. Clearly people are open to considering change. It fits with everything else I'm seeing in polling I'm doing all over the country. People are not satisfied with the status quo."

Neither Wenzel nor the Brock campaign would release complete results of their poll. Here's the scant data they included in a one-page polling memo (Click here to read it for yourself):

• Democrats favor Shumlin 74 percent to Brock's 19 percent, with 3 percent undecided.
• Republicans favor Brock 82 percent to Shumlin's 11 percent.
• Independents favor Shumlin 43 percent to Brock's 39 percent.
• Men favor Brock 49 percent to Shumlin's 38 percent.
• Women favor Shumlin 56 percent to Brock's 34 percent.
• 59 percent of those surveyed have a favorable opinion of Shumlin, while 35 percent have an unfavorable opinion. Six percent say they don't know enough about him to say one way or the other.
• 50 percent have a favorable opinion of Brock, while 29 percent have an unfavorable opinion. 21 percent say they don't know enough about Brock to say.

Okay, now that we've thrown a bunch of numbers at you, let's take a step back and look at a few reasons you should be skeptical of this survey.

Updated below with details of a Burlington City Hall press conference Mayor Miro Weinberger called Saturday afternoon to refute Vermonters First’s claims.

First they supported statewide candidates. Then they tackled legislative races. Now Vermonters First, the big-spending, conservative super PAC, is going local.

The group's latest mailer, which reached Burlington homes Saturday, targets a Queen City ballot item.

"Vote no on question 1. Say no to new debt," it reads. "A tax increase is not a fresh start."

That line appears to be a dig at Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger, who promised a "fresh start" during his successful mayoral campaign last winter. Weinberger has championed the $9 million ballot question, which seeks to refinance short-term borrowing made necessary by the Burlington Telecom fiasco with long-term bonding.

The ballot item requires two-thirds support from Burlington voters Nov. 6 in order to pass.

click to enlarge

Thirteen of the city's 14 city councilors support it. Its sole opponent, Republican Paul Decelles, tells Seven Days he worked with Vermonters First treasurer and consultant Tayt Brooks on the super PAC's new mailer.

"We definitely talked about it," Decelles says. "They ran some things by us and we ran some things by them."

Decelles says he can't quite recall whose idea the mailer was. He says he's in close touch with Brooks, with whom he worked closely when Brooks managed former Republican city councilor Kurt Wright's mayoral campaign against Weinberger. Decelles says he sees no problem with a super PAC delving into municipal politics.

"I see no issue with it," he says. "I don't necessarily have issues with super PACs in general trying to spread their message."

Weinberger certainly does.

So this week we bring you an expanded edition of The Scoreboard. And, somewhat unusually, we've found way more winners than losers.

Here's the list for the week of Friday, Nov. 2:

Winners:

Vermont — Fourteen months after Tropical Storm Irene, Vermont would've had a tough time taking another direct weather hit. We're thankful Sandy mostly passed us by — and we're thinking of our friends in New Jersey, New York and elsewhere in the eye of the storm.

Green Mountain Power — Vermont's dominant power company faced its first major test since gobbling up CVPS earlier this year — and it passed with flying colors. GMP secured out-of-state (and -country) line-workers early, turned the lights back for 29,000 customers by 7:30 Tuesday morning (eventually 48,000 within 48 hours), and then sent its line-workers down south to help harder-hit states. A job well done.

The Media — With Irene in mind, Vermont news outlets took Sandy seriously and worked hard to get good information out quickly. The Burlington Free Press, Rutland Herald and Barre-Montpelier Times Argus dropped their online paywalls, Vermont Public Radio produced special coverage Monday night and the state's TV stations flooded the zone.

Bill and Lou — The Green Mountain College oxen got a temporary reprieve after hippies freaked out.

Doug Hoffer — The Democratic/Progressive state auditor candidate produced the best ad of the election season this week. And he managed to make a serious point about the influence of money in politics without sounding like a Debbie Downer. As of this writing, more than 3000 people have watched the video on YouTube (and likely many more on Vimeo). But because it won't see the light of day on TV, most folks who haven't made up their mind probably won't get a chance to see it.

Phil Scott — The Republican lieutenant governor burnished his bipartisan bona fides this week by attaching himself to Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin during the state's response to Sandy. Then he spoke out against a negative ad produced by Sen. Randy Brock, his party's gubernatorial nominee. Like Republican state auditor candidate Vince Illuzzi, he's done an effective job of distancing himself from the more extreme elements of his party.

Brattleboro — More jobs and more yogurt. Everybody wins!

M. Dickey Drysdale — As first reported by Green Mountain Daily, the conservative super PAC Vermonters First recently bought two quarter-page ads in the Herald of Randolph attacking Rep. Sarah Buxton (D-Tunbridge). But because he "deplores" super PACs, Herald editor Dickey Drysdale donated the $504 payment from Vermonters First to the Randolph Area Food Shelf. Talk about leading by example.

Gene Bergman — One of two Progressives running for a two-member House district in Burlington's Old North End, Bergman took part in a debate I moderated last night featuring local candidates for the House and Senate. In one of his answers, Bergman took the unusual step of bashing the moderator for writing a weekly blog feature calling out the week's winners and losers. Ballsy move. You, sir, are definitely a winner!

Losers after the break...

Call it a Mirobocall.

On Sunday, almost every land line in Burlington will get a pre-recorded call from Mayor Miro Weinberger urging them to vote yes on three ballot items next Tuesday, and inviting them to participate in a "telephone town hall" about the initiatives.

The robocall, which will go out to roughly 10,000 phone numbers, is part of a $17,000 campaign to win support for three ballot questions that go to Burlington voters on Election Day: a $9 million "fiscal stability bond" that requires a difficult-to-achieve two-thirds majority to pass; and two initiatives to improve and repair waterfront instrastructure, which can each pass with simply majorities.

The campaign, organized by a group called the Partnership for Burlington's Future, is not advocating for passage of a fourth ballot question: a nonbinding referendum on legalizing marijuana and hemp products.

Seven months into his administration, Weinberger is making a strong push for approval of plans that define the direction in which he wants to take the city and that will act as a gauge of his political standing. Weinberger and his supporters have scheduled a rally for passage on Sunday evening at Club Metronome with the Dave Grippo Funk Band and DJ Craig Mitchell providing the tunes.

So who's bankrolling the Partnership for Burlington's Future?

Newspaper editorial boards throughout Vermont appear to be lining up behind incumbents ahead of next Tuesday's statewide elections.

Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin has been endorsed by six newspapers thus far, including the Burlington Free Press and the more conservative St. Albans Messenger. His Republican opponent, Randy Brock, has garnered endorsements from two papers: the conservative Caledonian Record and the Manchester Journal.

Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Scott has so far shut out Progressive/Democrat Cassandra Gekas, while fellow Republican Vince Illuzzi has shut out Democrat/Progressive Doug Hoffer in their race for state auditor. Though neither candidate for auditor is an incumbent, most of the seven papers endorsing Illuzzi treated him as one, given his 32 years in the senate. 

In the hotly contested race for state treasurer, appointed incumbent Democrat Beth Pearce has drawn the support of seven papers, including the Freeps, the Messenger and opponent Wendy Wilton's hometown paper, the Rutland Herald. Like Brock, Wilton was endorsed by the Caledonian Record and the Manchester Journal.

click to enlarge

Not surprisingly, the bulk of that came from the conservative super PAC Vermonters First, which has been almost entirely bankrolled by Burlington super-donor Lenore Broughton.

Since Oct. 6, the organization has spent $322,000 on mass media. The next five biggest-spending outside groups all support Democratic candidates, but their combined spending in the past three weeks pales in comparison: just $138,000.

In that period, $192,000 of Vermonters First's cash has gone to ads and mailers backing the Republican candidate for state treasurer, Wendy Wilton. Thanks to Vermont's quirky campaign finance disclosure laws, it's impossible to determine precisely how much money Vermonters First has spent on Wilton's candidacy in total — but it's likely far greater than that.

Since the super PAC was founded two months ago, it has spent at least $814,000 attempting to influence the election.

Each week in Fact Checker, reporters and editors from Seven Days and VTDigger.org will evaluate the veracity of statements and rate them on a five-point scale: True, Mostly True, Debatable, Mostly False and Udder Bull.

CLAIM: “NO-CHOICE: At Least 15 GOP Senate Candidates Oppose Abortion For Rape Victims,” Oct. 26 story on Huffington Post, which said Republican U.S. Senate candidate John MacGovern opposes abortion even in cases of rape.

FACTS: Last week, the Huffington Post’s Amanda Terkel sought to determine how many GOP Senate candidates share the view of Missouri’s Todd Akin and Indiana’s Richard Mourdock that abortion should be illegal, even in the case of rape. Terkel originally wrote that 13 held the same view, but subsequent corrections to the story reduced that number to 11.

A new TV ad released Tuesday morning by Republican gubernatorial candidate Randy Brock is drawing criticism from the top elected official in his own party: Lt. Gov. Phil Scott.

"I've never bought into the notion that negative campaigning is something Vermonters necessarily want to see," Scott says. "I'm sure there's some portions of the ad that are accurate. It's, I guess, the innuendos. It just seems a little over-the-top to me. I'm not comfortable with that kind of thing."

Brock's 30-second ad brutally slams his Democratic opponent, Gov. Peter Shumlin, on everything from land deals to out-of-state travel to "thousands of taxpayer dollars spent to settle undisclosed discrimination and misconduct allegations."

Here, watch it for yourself:

Scott says he first saw the ad during an editorial board meeting with the Barre/Montpelier Times-Argus and the Rutland Herald Tuesday afternoon. He says it reminded him of the nasty 2010 gubernatorial campaign between Shumlin and former lieutenant governor Brian Dubie.

That Bernie Sanders will retain his U.S. Senate seat in next week's election is a foregone conclusion. So you could be excused for not tuning in to the formality that was the U.S. Senate debate on Vermont Public Television last Thursday night. But if you were one of the estimated 26 people who did watch, then you were witness to perhaps the strangest and most unintentionally hilarious 90 minutes in the history of Vermont politics.

When ol' Bernardo is the most even-keeled voice in the room, you know you've entered a political Twilight Zone. Nothing against the distinguished gentleman from Vermont, but subtlety and nuance has never been his strikeout pitch. Yet in comparison to the rogue's gallery of challengers he faced on this night, Bernie was a vision of stoicism. To call these folks eccentric would be an act of charity so generous that Paul Ryan would probably enact legislation against it.

What follows is a brief rundown of some of the evening's highlights, with a declaration of who really won the day. You can view the entire debate — highly recommended — right here.

NAME: Peter Diamondstone

PARTY: Liberty Union

BASIC PLATFORM: Fuck you, Bernie.

LINE OF THE NIGHT: "Fuck you, Bernie." OK, he never actually said that. But he might as well have — and did catch himself just before dropping a nuclear f-bomb on at least one occasion. Regardless of the question or topic, the ever-agitated Diamondstone attacked Bernie's voting record on military spending, accused the Senator of being a puppet for Lockheed-Martin and repeatedly bemoaned Burlington's impending Sanders-led transmogrification into "Bagram 2." Bonus points for rocking shorts and a t-shirt at a debate for national office.

NAME: Cris Ericson

PARTY: United States Marijuana Party

BASIC PLATFORM: We have no idea.

LINE OF THE NIGHT: Where to begin? Every time the camera panned to Ericson, we found ourselves giggling in anticipation like a stoned 15-year-old. While Ericson's assertion that the F-35s could turn Burlington into a smoldering crater because increased solar flare activity might trigger the planes' nuclear weapons was breathtaking, we're going with this gem from early in the debate regarding the danger of China's relationship with Iran: "When President Obama spoke about the big yellow bird, I don't think he was talking about [Big Bird]. I think he was talking about China. You know, Chinese people, Oriental people are referred to as yellow."

NAME: Laurel LaFramboise

PARTY: VoteKISS

BASIC PLATFORM: No relation to former Burlington mayor and current state Senate candidate, Bob Kiss, or, sadly, the band Kiss — or even Mini-Kiss. LaFramboise's central idea is a constitutional amendment shortening and simplifying legislation to create transparency in government. The KISS part stands for "Keep It Short and Simple."

LINE OF THE NIGHT: One of the more coherent candidates on the panel, LaFramboise made a salient point in her closing argument regarding Sanders' bloated campaign cache: "What he's gonna do with $6.9 million when he's a shoo-in is beyond me." 

NAME: John MacGovern

PARTY: Republican

BASIC PLATFORM: We gotta send somebody out there, right?

LINE OF THE NIGHT: In those moments when he appeared to actually be awake, the Republican Party's sacrificial elephant certainly looked the part of a GOP candidate: a stiff, graying, affluent white guy. MacGovern also seemed to be comically under-informed on issues that didn't overtly involve gobs of money, in particular, the F-35 debate, which he admitted to only having learned about recently. But we found endearing his reliance on the pseudo-catchphrase, "Get the facts and let the chips fall where they may," as an answer to pretty much every question posed.

NAME: Peter Moss

PARTY: Peace and Prosperity

BASIC PLATFORM: Taking down these guys.

LINE OF THE NIGHT: A mix of your kindly Old World grandfather and Colonel Klink from "Hogan's Heroes," Moss is just friggin' adorable. And paranoid. On term limits to discourage career politicians he said, "This helps the real decision makers, who are the Bohemian Club, who meet once a year in July in California. … The politics you see on the media, which the Bohemians own and manipulate, are a make-believe of two parties, which are really one party with a donkey face and an elephant face. I am running to reveal the truth of these machinations."

NAME: Bernie Sanders

PARTY: Independent

BASIC PLATFORM: I'm Bernie Sanders, bitches!

LINE OF THE NIGHT: Under constant attack from all sides for most of the night, Bernie was his usual curmudgeonly self. But both longtime foil, Peter Diamondstone, and moderator Mark Johnson landed blows that seemed to rattle the champ. In particular, when Johnson pressed the senator on whether he'd still support the F-35 as a weapons technology if Vermont were not in the running to land the planes, Sanders not-so-gracefully skirted the question, declining to delve into hypotheticals. It was a cop-out and fairly nonsensical, which, on this night, was par for the course.

AND THE WINNER IS!: Moderator Mark Johnson, for keeping a straight face throughout. His performance was reminiscent of Will Ferrell as Alex Trebek on those old "Celebrity Jeopardy!" skits on SNL. We have to imagine the respected WDEV radio host was calling into question the entirety of his distinguished journalism career when he had to ask Ericson to clarify her breathtakingly goofy Big Bird statement: "Were you suggesting that Mitt Romney, in the debate when he used the reference to Big Bird, that he was not talking about the Big Bird from Sesame Street?"