But at the first gubernatorial debate of the season Wednesday at 7 p.m. on Vermont Public Radio, Smith will be nowhere to be seen — or heard, more accurately.

That's because a recount to determine whether Smith actually won the Progressive primary won't take place until Thursday. In the initial count, she was one vote shy of Progressive Party chairwoman Martha Abbott, who subsequently dropped out of the race.

So VPR is moving forward with just Shumlin and Republican challenger Randy Brock.

Patti Daniels, managing producer of VPR's Vermont Edition, says the station has been "planning a few contingencies" to deal with the lack of clarity in the Progressive primary. "But when we learned Friday that the recount will begin after the debate, that decided the situation for us."

Daniels says that if Smith ends up prevailing over Abbott, "we will make every effort to get her on Vermont Edition soon after that decision."

VPR's long-standing policy is to include only major party candidates in its debates, so neither independent gubernatorial candidate Emily Peyton nor United States Marijuana Party candidate Cris Ericson were invited to participate.

Photo of VPR debate moderators Bob Kinzel and Jane Lindholm from vpr.net.

With the 2012 campaign season in full swing, Seven Days has teamed up with VTDigger.org to create a fact-checker feature to test the "truthiness" of claims made by the candidates who want your vote this November. 

CLAIM: Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Scott is “against a woman’s right to choose.” 

— September 7 fundraising email by Jerry Greenfield, campaign treasurer for Progressive/Democrat Cassandra Gekas

FACTS: Last week, Ben & Jerry’s cofounder Jerry Greenfield served up some reasons to give money to Cassandra Gekas’ campaign for lieutenant governor. Most amounted to attacks on Phil Scott, the Republican incumbent.

In a fundraising email, Greenfield wrote, “Do you want Phil Scott to be Vermont’s next governor? ... He is against a woman’s right to choose.”

click to enlarge

"We're growing jobs, we're delivering on promises to get tough things done, and we are making extraordinary progress to make this state a better place to get a job, a better place to make a living and a better place for our kids to prosper," Shumlin said.

After spending the summer putting off questions about his long-running campaign for reelection, the governor finally embraced his status as a candidate Monday, touring the state from Bennington to Rutland to Burlington. At Nectar's, he found a welcoming reception from cabinet secretaries, legislators, staffers and donors.

In a 17-minute speech, Shumlin outlined the achievements of his first term and goals for a second term while hammering Republican opponent Randy Brock's health care plan. Though much of his speech focused on the brewing debate over competing health care plans — a debate the incumbent appears to relish — Shumlin told Seven Days afterward that his campaign would be squarely focused on selling his economic record.

We'll have more on Shumlin's campaign kickoff in Wednesday's Fair Game. For now, we leave you with a video of the governor's speech and some photos from the event.

On the same day a new conservative "super PAC" launched a two-week advertising campaign backing Republican candidates for statewide office, a liberal counterpart received its first five-figure donation.

Shelburne real estate developer and philanthropist Lisa Steele on Monday donated $25,000 to the liberal advocacy group Vermont Priorities, according to board chairman Bob Stannard.

Of that amount, $10,000 is earmarked for the group's Vermont-registered super PAC, "Priorities PAC," which can legally raise and spend unlimited sums to support political candidates, so long as it does not coordinate directly with those candidates' campaigns. The remaining $15,000 will go to the main, 501c4 branch of the organization, which is limited to spending on "issue advocacy."

"We're happy to get her support," Stannard said Monday.

Ain't it hard to keep track of all the news and politcal happenings of the week? Now you don't have to — because we're gonna do it for you!

Starting today, Off Message is launching a weekly feature that will compile all the upcoming week's news and politics happenings into a handy-dandy calendar. OK, not all of it — but the important stuff that seems likely to make news this week. Plus, some only-in-Vermont events such as the secession-tastic Vermont Independence Party happening at the Statehouse this Friday (poster at right).

Got a rally, press conference, speaker or other public event you want to plug? Send us an email by Friday afternoon to get in the following Monday's calendar.

Updated below with Vermont-National Education Association endorsements announced Monday afternoon.

As we reported in last week's Fair Game, Sen. Vince Illuzzi (R-Essex/Orleans) has so far run the table on labor endorsements in his bid for state auditor.

That changed Sunday when his opponent, Democrat and Progressive Doug Hoffer (pictured), took home the endorsement of the Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO.

"Both candidates had a lot of support, but in the end the delegates decided they wanted to come out and support one candidate," said AFL-CIO president Ben Johnson. "Sen. Illuzzi does have a lot of support from labor, but when the delegates looked at the totality of the two candidates' records, the delegates clearly came down on the side of Hoffer."

Meeting at its annual convention over the weekend at Jay Peak, the umbrella labor organization heard from most candidates for statewide office in Vermont. On Sunday, delegates representing the AFL-CIO's member unions voted to endorse a slate of candidates, most of whom are Democrats. They include Gov. Peter Shumlin, lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Cassandra Gekas, Secretary of State Jim Condos, Treasurer Beth Pearce, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Congressman Peter Welch.

The one Democrat spurned by the group was Attorney General Bill Sorrell, who for the second time this year was passed over by the AFL-CIO. In June, the organization backed Sorrell's Democratic primary opponent, T.J. Donovan. On Sunday, it endorsed Progressive AG candidate Ed Stanak (pictured below).

Vermonters First, a new conservative-oriented "super PAC," will back two down-ticket Republicans in a two-week burst of advertising slated to hit the airwaves Monday.

The group plans to run two 15-second commercials spotlighting Republican state auditor candidate Vince Illuzzi and Republican state treasurer candidate Wendy Wilton.

"Unfortunately, both through the media and elected officials, we're a lot of the time only hearing one perspective," said Tayt Brooks, the GOP operative who founded the group. "I certainly think it's important to have two sides of the issues debated and bring some balance back to the state."

The Vermont Press Bureau on Thursday first reported the group's filing and initial ad buy, which the news organization pegged at $70,000-plus. Seven Days viewed copies of the commercials filed with WCAX-TV Friday afternoon.

Video of the ads after the jump.

One of the storylines heading into last week's Democratic attorney general primary was that Chittenden County state's attorney T.J. Donovan might not have enough name recognition in Vermont's other 13 counties to unseat Bill Sorrell for the nomination. Of course we know now that Sorrell won the primary by a thread, but now that we have official results from the Secretary of State's office, we can see how the vote broke down geographically.

Was geography a factor? Maybe, but it's hard to discern a pattern. Donovan did well in Burlington and its surrounding areas, but Sorrell won some Chittenden County towns including Williston and Shelburne. Donovan generally performed well in Windsor and Rutland counties, but not well enough to match Sorrell's big wins in Brattleboro, Springfield and other parts of Windham County. (One exception: The vote was very close in Vernon, home of Vermont Yankee, where Donovan beat Sorrell by a single ballot.)

Below, take a look at the results map for yourself. Darker blues indicate a bigger Sorrell win, darker greens indicate a bigger Donovan win, and towns in grey saw remarkably close results. You can also click on each town to see its results by the numbers.

Ready for a Sorkin-style walk-n-talk? Okay, here goes:

Donna: What's take out the trash day?

Josh: Friday.

Donna: I mean what is it?

Josh: Any stories we have to give the press and we're not wild about, we give 'em all in a lump on Friday.

Wait, why am I taking you back to The West Wing, episode 13? Not because it's awesome, which it is. But because on Thursday at 6:08 p.m. Vermont reporters received something in our inboxes we've been awaiting for months: Republican gubernatorial candidate Randy Brock's eagerly-anticipated health care plan.

Given the hype — and the fact that Brock's criticism of Shumlin's single-payer-ish health care plan has formed the core of his campaign — we kind of figured the GOPer would make a big deal out of his announcement. But as Brock knows well, "take out the trash day" comes early here in the Green Mountains. Shit, I usually check out by 4 p.m. Thursday and phone it in thereafter.

We've asked the Brock campaign for comment, and we're told we'll get a crack at the candidate later today. But in the meantime, we don't want you to miss this seminal campaign document. You can read all 5.25 pages here.

What will you find? Upon first inspection, it looks to us like a whole lotta nothingburger. Just poll-tested slogans and recycled GOP talking points, promising to "Strengthen the Safety Net and Leave No Vermonter Behind," offering "Robust Choice," and emphasizing the importance of "Personal Responsibility."

And free coke in the water fountains!

Of course, I suppose you gotta give Brock props for at least putting something forward. Had he followed the lead of national Republicans, who for two years now have promised to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act without actually replacing anything, Brock simply could have kept on trashing Shumlin's "TitanicCare" without offering his own plan.

If you'd rather watch the West Wing than read Brock's plan, then here you go.

My inbox this morning was full of "Howard Dean" Google Alerts notifying me that news outlets were comparing former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm's convention speech last night to Howard Dean infamous" target="_blank"> 'I Have a Scream' speech from 2004.

I've seen such comparisons before, and usually I don't pay 'em much attention. I've found most turn out to be cheapshot attempts to link any fired-up liberal to Dean's widely-mocked speech after the 2004 Iowa caucus. So when I read the National Review Online headline "Granholm Channels Howard Dean" and the Mediaite header "Was Jennifer Granholm's Speech Too Reminiscent of Howard Dean's?", I figured it was more of the same.

Until I watched the speech, which I missed last night. (Thanks a lot, baby who needed to be put to bed!) All I can say is, Dean might want to lawyer up — because Granholm has totally ripped off his act!

Not only is Granholm every bit as whipped-up as our former governor and erstwhile presidential candidate, she even does the Deanesque litany of states — in this case, a state-by-state breakdown on the auto industry jobs created under President Obama.