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But with seemingly just one candidate in the running — Sen. Philip Baruth (D-Chittenden) — the real behind-the-scenes jockeying appears to be elsewhere: namely, committee chairmanships.

With the retirements of Sen. Sara Kittell (D-Franklin) and Sen. Vince Illuzzi (R-Essex/Orleans) last year, the chairmanships of the committees they led — agriculture and economic development, respectively — are up for grabs.

On top of that, Sen. Ann Cummings (D-Washington), the longtime chairwoman of the Senate Finance Committee, says she's giving up her chairmanship. Cummings, who unsuccessfully challenged Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell for his leadership job last year, cited health issues in her decision.

"My health right now is fine, but the last two years have been very high-stress for me," she says. "Both myself, my family and my doctor thinks that the stress of the last two years during the session played a role in my health issues."

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In the 25-question endorsement survey filled out during his 2012 reelection campaign, Shumlin appeared to side with the NRA in all but one case: he disagreed that the mourning dove should be classified as a game bird — "not on principle," he wrote in the margins, "but because Vermont does not have a viable hunting population of doves, and they are primarily found in backyards and roadsides."

On every other issue, though, Shumlin was all in on gun rights:

Does he want to close the gun show loophole in Vermont? No.

Would he support a state ban on assault weapons or high-capacity magazines? No.

Does he support mandatory gun locks? No.

Does he believe Vermonters should be restricted to buying one gun a month? No.

Does he believe guns or gun-owners should be licensed in Vermont? No.

Shumlin's answers help explain why he earned a 92 percent rating from the NRA last fall and a $2500 campaign donation. (Shumlin may have lost points for the 'mourning dove' question and for leaving two others blank.)

Seven Days has been seeking a copy of Shumlin's answers to the survey since December 17, shortly after a gunman opened fire on a school in Newtown, Connecticut, killing 20 young children and six teachers.

Shumlin's campaign manager said at the time she did not keep a copy of the questionnaire. The NRA did not respond to a request from Seven Days to provide it. But after the paper asked Shumlin this week to request a copy from the NRA himself, his staff obtained it and passed it along to Seven Days.

Here it is — after the jump:

The Scoreboard took a couple weeks off to drink eggnog, hang out under the mistletoe and watch C-SPAN on New Year's Eve (just kidding!). But don't worry: It's back with a vengeance in 2013.

Just as we did last year, we'll deliver a list each Friday of the winners and losers in Vermont news and politics. As always, we've consulted with a wide range of people as clueless as we are — and totally arbitrarily aggregated the results below.

So, without further ado, here's The Scoreboard for the week of Friday, Jan. 4 (oh, and all those weeks we missed):

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That job goes to a familiar face: Armando Vilaseca, who has served as commissioner of education since 2009. Last year, at Shumlin's urging, the legislature elevated the state's top education job to a cabinet-level position, which is now subject to gubernatorial appointment.

"I can't tell you how grateful I am to Armando not only for his past service but for his future service," Shumlin said at a press conference on the 5th floor of the Pavilion State Office Building. "We have an incredibly ambitious agenda coming up and his willingness to serve as the first secretary of education is going to be a great distinction for the state of Vermont."

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"We're all breathing a sigh of relief that they got something done down there," he said. "It's a huge help to us as we try to put together a 2014 budget... There's more uncertainty ahead, but we're more certain than we were on New Year's Eve and that's a step in the right direction."

Uncertainty over federal tax and spending laws has already delayed the Shumlin administration's own budget planning process. Secretary of Administration Jeb Spaulding said at a separate press briefing later Wednesday that the governor's annual budget address would be delayed until January 24, at which time the state expects to have a better sense of the impact of Congress' fiscal deal on state coffers.

Shumlin says he's grown used to "managing around" a Congress he says leaves every decision to the last minute.

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"Something we run into a lot as Progressives is that people sometimes don't know what a Progressive is," explains Robert Millar of Winooski, who took the helm of Vermont's favorite third party on New Year's Day.

A 28-year-old University of Vermont graduate who grew up in Essex and Shelburne, Millar has dabbled in Progressive politics for years — volunteering on campaigns and winning election to the Winooski School Board for a two-year term. Most recently, he worked as office manager for Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) 2012 reelection campaign.

Millar replaces the party's longtime executive director, Morgan Daybell, who left after the November election to take a decidedly less political job at the Franklin Northeast Supervisory Union. Daybell oversaw a tactical transition within the party away from running statewide Progressive candidates against Democrats; instead, many Progressive-oriented candidates have recently run with the Democratic label as well.

That's a strategy Millar says he's interested in continuing to pursue, assuming the party's elected leadership agrees.

In a late night vote Tuesday, Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vt.) joined his colleagues in Vermont's three-member congressional delegation in backing a last-minute deal to raise taxes on the very wealthy and temporarily avert steep spending cuts.

Welch joined the vast majority of the House Democratic caucus and roughly a third of a bitterly divided House Republican caucus in approving a deal forged the night before by Senate negotiators and the White House. The final tally in the House was 257 to 167.

Barely 20 hours earlier, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) were part of a far more lopsided, 89-8 Senate majority voting in favor of the bill shortly after the new year dawned.

But neither Leahy, Sanders nor Welch appeared to be crowing about the compromise measure, which fell short of nearly everybody's hopes and expectations.

Sanders, who has been particularly outspoken during Congress' debate over the fiscal impasse, was notably quiet Tuesday after falling in line with most Senate Democrats. Asked for comment on Sanders' vote, spokesman Michael Briggs said only, "There is a long history of the senator's views on his website from releases and interviews."

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"There can't be a human being in America who has seen the events of what happened in Connecticut and not recognize that we have to do everything in our power to bring some sanity to the availability of weapons of war to people who are unstable and crazy. Period," Shumlin said in an interview with Seven Days.

But Vermont's gun-toting governor cautioned that, "State-by-state solutions don't work," and said he wouldn't support efforts in the Vermont legislature to tackle gun violence at the state level.

"If they worked, we would've solved the problem already. We know that if one state has strict restrictions, you can go purchase an assault weapon at another state or gun show," he said. "So I fully support President Obama's and Joe Biden's urgency to come up with a 50-state solution that will work."

Shumlin, who chairs the Democratic Governors Association, declined to say what approach he thought the federal government should take, but said it should be "multi-faceted" and include enhanced services for those with mental illness.

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.

While Sen. Bernie Sanders has been railing against the high price of gasoline in Chittenden County, a buyers' cooperative in northwestern Vermont is focused on the cost of a different kind of fuel.

The Hilltop Energy Buyers Group, a new fuel-buyers' cooperative that launched over the summer, uses the collective buying power of its members to negotiate below-market prices for home heating fuel.

Peter Katz is co-founder of Hilltop Energy Buyers Group. Since June, when Katz and his partner, Jason Marias, first began negotiations with local fuel providers, the group has signed up about 200 members, who were able to lock in a one-year fixed rate for propane at below-market prices.

"We’re definitely getting some favorable feedback," says Katz. "People are talking about us, and I know the [fuel] companies are talking about us. They now know we’re out there."

Katz explains how the buyers’ group works: Members pay a $50 annual fee to join, which allows Hilltop Energy to act as their fuel "broker" and negotiate the lowest price for members. Customers still continue dealing with the provider — which this year is Amerigas — for service and maintenance, and pay their bills directly to that company.

For now, propane is the only home heating fuel for which Hilltop has been able to secure a discounted price. Still, the savings have been impressive. For the 2012-13 season, Hilltop clients are paying $2.60 per gallon for up to 400 gallons, $2.25 per gallon for 400 to 899 gallons, and $2.10 per gallon for 900 gallons or more. Those prices are fixed until August 2013.

How do those rates stack up to current market prices?