As a glimmer of sunlight peeked out of the clouds above Vermont's Emergency Operations Center in Waterbury, Gov. Peter Shumlin had equally bright news to report to Vermonters in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

"We are pleased that we have escaped the bullet on Sandy without more damage [and] without loss of life," the governor told reporters Tuesday morning. Shumlin was quick to thank the hundreds of emergency personnel and utility workers who were deployed in recent days, some of whom were pulled in from as far away as Ontario. He also offered resources and equipment to nearby states to help in their recovery and cleanup.

As several million residents of New York, New Jersey and much of New England are without power and cleaning up after devastating flood and wind damage, Shumlin authorized the deployment of two Vermont National Guard helicopters to New Jersey to help in that state's recovery. The governor also said he'll be speaking to President Obama and regional governors and mayors later today to offer any assistance they may need.

Vermonters prepped for the worst with Hurricane Sandy approaching, but it looks like the state largely escaped the storm's wrath.

Sandy's wind wasn't as devastating as feared. According to the National Weather Service, gusts in Vermont topped out at 72 miles per hour atop Mount Mansfield, 61 mph near Lyndon Center and 60 mph in Underhill. At its worst point more than 16,000 Vermonters lost power, though that number is now below 10,000 as of this writing, primarily in Rutland, Windham, Windsor and Bennington counties. About six million people in total on the East Coast lost power due to Sandy. As expected, rainfall was not an issue in this storm — most Vermont locations got well below an inch of rain.

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?"   

As clouds scudded across Burlington's skies, about 50 activists gathered on Church Street Monday afternoon to "connect the dots" between weird weather and the fossil fuel industry.

The rally was sponsored by 350.org, a political-action group formed by Vermont author Bill McKibben to address climate change. About a dozen supporters of the movement stood on the steps of city hall holding signs with the logos of oil companies pasted at the center of the meteorological symbol of a hurricane.

The Burlington event took place the day after 350.org unfurled a giant circular banner in Times Square emblazoned with the demand to "End Climate Silence." The New York action was organized on the eve of the onslaught of Hurricane Sandy, described as the largest Atlantic storm in recorded history ever to hit the northeastern United States.

Katherine Blume, a local leader of 350.org, told the Burlington crowd that Sandy is the newest dot in a series that includes record-high temperatures, "glaciers melting all over the world" and a growing death toll attributable to climate change. "We saw one of the dots last year with Irene and unprecedented flooding in Vermont," Blume declared. "Why aren't we hearing over and over in the media and in our schools that we're facing a planetary emergency called climate change?"

The Progressive and Democratic candidate said Monday she's been offered a job as legislative coordinator — or chief lobbyist — for the Vermont State Employees Association, which represents 5200 state workers.

"I've had an interview with them and they've said they want to bring me on, so now it's sitting there until after the election," Gekas said.

Gekas said she reached out to VSEA executive director Mark Mitchell last week upon learning that the union was hiring. During a job interview last Thursday, according to Gekas, "He said it's yours if you want it."

She added, "I don't know what their processes are like, but I can't do anything official because I want to see where the race turns out. That's where my energies are focused."

——— We now interrupt serious news coverage for something completely inconsequential. ———

A new ad released Monday morning by Republican state treasurer candidate Wendy Wilton features a familiar face — and voice.

Former governor Jim Douglas — himself a four-term state treasurer — narrates the ad and appears in it, telling voters that, "Wendy Wilton is a professional, non-political fiscal leader who is looking out for you."

The ad features footage of Wilton strolling with a mother and child and Wilton chattin' with the former governor; it closes with Wilton facing the camera, saying, "I'll provide total transparency for all our state finances online, and I'd appreciate your vote on Nov. 6th."

Douglas did not immediately return a call for comment Monday, but said in a statement released by the Wilton campaign that the Douglas and Wilton families have been friends for years.

Here's the ad:

Here's what's happening in Vermont news and politics this week, the final one before Election Day. Note that schedules are subject to change due to the looming Frankenstorm.

Got a newsworthy event for next week's calendar? Email us by Friday to submit.

Monday, October 29

• Hurricane Sandy is forecast to slam into Vermont today, packing 50-mph winds and several inches of rain. So before you do anything, take down your political lawn signs!
• "Charlie, Ernie and Lisa" nab a pair of political guests this morning on WVMT 620 AM. At 8:10 a.m., Democratic Attorney General Bill Sorrell steps up to the mic, and at 8:40 a.m., it's Republican gubernatorial candidate Randy Brock.
• At noon, Brock is the guest on Vermont Public Radio's "Vermont Edition," and takes your phone calls. Listen live.
• At 5:25 p.m., the Ward 1 candidates vying to replace Ed Adrian on the Burlington City Council — Democrat Kevin Worden and Progressive Alison Segar — debate live on Channel 17 (CCTV). Stream it live.
• CANCELLED -- At 7 p.m., the Burlington City Council will take up a resolution by Councilor Vince Brennan (P-Ward 3) to hire an independent investigator (for as much as $10,000!) to review Burlington police conduct during the July 29 protest that ended in cops firing pepper-balls into a crowd of demonstrators.

Rest of the week after the jump...

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Speaking at the Vermont Emergency Operations Center in Waterbury, Shumlin said that, unlike Tropical Storm Irene, which inundated the state with water, the greatest threat Hurricane Sandy poses to Vermont is wind.

"To those victims of Irene who are feeling so much anxiety right now, I want to be a reassuring voice," the governor said. "In Vermont, we do not expect the kind of flooding we saw in Irene. It isn't going to be that kind of weather event."

(Pictured from left to right: Public Safety Commissioner Keith Flynn, Gov. Peter Shumlin and Vermont Emergency Management Director Joe Flynn)

Shumlin said that, as a precautionary measure, he has declared a state of emergency in Vermont. Doing so will allow the governor to deploy the Vermont National Guard, if necessary, and could speed federal assistance.

"That does not mean I'm expecting the worst," he cautioned. "What it means is we're preparing for the worst and hoping for the best."

Burlington-area business leaders are stepping up their offensive against opponents of basing F-35s at Burlington International Airport.

At a press conference inside the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, three business and real estate big-wigs accused opponents of the fighter jets of "fear mongering" and spreading "vicious misinformation."

"There is a lot of misinformation out there by people who misunderstand property values and people who really don't want a military presence here," said chamber president Tom Torti (pictured).

Torti, Greater Burlington Industrial Corporation president Frank Cioffi and realtor Ernie Pomerleau also unveiled a new petition in support of basing the warplanes at BTV signed by almost 11,000 Vermonters.

Torti said claims that noise from the F-35s would harm property values were a "red herring." 

"If it has such a dramatic effect on the prices of home values, why are they putting up luxury condominiums under the flight path?" Torti said, referring to a new apartment project that broke ground in Winooski this week. "It's not true. It's a red herring and we have the statistics to prove it. Don't let people buffalo you."

On Monday, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger publicly lambasted the promoters of last Friday night's Barstool Blackout DJ dance party at Memorial Auditorium for promoting "intoxication and wildness," after 16 local young-uns ended their evening in the emergency room or  detox unit.

According to the mayor, the city dropped the ball by not adequately vetting the promotional material of the 18-and-over rave-like fest. Presumably, someone at the city assumed the "barstool" referred to a breakfast bar, and "blackout" a temporary power outage.

OK, we totally get it that Mayor Buzzkill has to show a zero tolerance for underage binge drinking. But just how out of the ordinary is it for more than a dozen kids to wind up in the drunk tank after a Queen City bash?

Short answer: It depends.