Friday, August 5, 2016
After green-lighting a story in Friday’s paper about financial troubles at the Rutland Herald, news editor Alan Keays was fired later that day by owner R. John Mitchell.
“He just walked out,” Duffort told Seven Days in a call from the Herald newsroom. “People asked if [they] had fired him, and he nodded his head and walked out.”
Seven Days heard from seven people with direct knowledge of the situation late Friday, all of whom corroborated elements of the story. Neither Mitchell nor Nelson immediately responded to a request for comment.
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In a story quoting five newsroom staffers and freelancers by name, Herald staff writer Gordon Dritschilo wrote that his colleagues "bristled Thursday in the face of continued silence from management regarding the newspaper's apparent financial difficulties."
As Seven Days reported Wednesday, the family-owned Herald and Barre-Montpelier Times Argus have not been reimbursing employees for expenditures and have not been paying some freelancers at all.
According to Dritschilo's story, "a number of staff payroll and expense checks bounced" in recent weeks. He quoted photographer Anthony Edwards saying that he stopped working for a time after going weeks without pay because he could not afford gasoline. Edwards was forced to borrow gas money from his mother.
"It wasn't a lot, but to us it is," Edwards told the Herald.
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At a Statehouse press conference in May, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Matt Dunne spoke out against those who finance their own political campaigns.
“I will personally be adhering to the contribution limits set for an individual Vermonter and will not be self-funding the campaign above those limits,” Dunne said. “And we’re calling on all the other candidates in the race to do the same and abstain from self-funding their campaigns.”
Dunne kept his pledge — for a time. He donated $2,000 to his campaign in March and another $2,000 in July. That’s within the $4,000 limit to which non-candidates must adhere in Vermont. (Candidates themselves are legally allowed to invest as much as they want in their own campaigns.)
But this week, as Dunne’s campaign appeared to crater, he broke his promise. According to filings with the Secretary of State’s Office, the former Google manager made a $50,000 personal loan to his campaign on Tuesday. He made another $45,000 loan on Wednesday.
Remarkably, Dunne continued to jab Democratic rival Peter Galbraith on Thursday for self-financing his campaign.
“Including the money that you put into your own campaign, Peter?” Dunne asked Galbraith during a heated debate on Vermont Public Radio. “How much?”
Tags: Matt Dunne , gubernatorial campaign , election 2016 , primary 2016 , Image , Web Only
Thursday, August 4, 2016
The Vermont Public Radio debate, broadcast live from Montpelier, came as a flood of outside money inundated the state’s small-dollar political system. Within 24 hours, two super PACs appeared out of nowhere to finance television advertisements for Democrat Sue Minter and Republican Bruce Lisman. In the same period, Silicon Valley venture capitalist Reid Hoffman personally financed a raft of ads for Democrat Matt Dunne.
A third Democrat in the race, former state senator and ambassador Peter Galbraith, used the debate to accuse his primary rivals of hypocrisy for benefiting from the outside cash. Both Minter and Dunne, Galbraith noted, had “made a great show” of refusing corporate campaign donations earlier this year.
“You even ran ads about how you were the first candidate to do it,” he told Dunne. “Now we learn Sue has a super PAC and, today, Reid Hoffman, one of your early campaign contributors and a friend, has just announced he’s spending $220,000 in the last three days of this election.”
Galbraith, a longtime proponent of campaign finance reform, suggested that Dunne had illegally coordinated with Hoffman and called on both of his opponents to denounce their respective benefactors.
Tags: VPR debate , Peter Galbraith , Matt Dunne , Sue Minter , gubernatorial campaign , election 2016 , primary 2016 , Image , Web Only
Retired investment banker Bruce Lisman is getting a little help from his friends in his race for governor of Vermont.
A conservative super PAC called American Future Fund bought $27,000 worth of television and radio ads on his behalf Wednesday, according to a document filed Thursday with the Secretary of State’s Office. The ads target Lisman’s Republican primary opponent, Lt. Gov. Phil Scott.
According to the disclosure, two of Lisman’s former colleagues at the shuttered Wall Street investment bank Bear Stearns are behind the commercials. Robert Steinberg of Greenwich, Conn., contributed $25,000, while Warren Spector of New York City put up $5,000.
Steinberg, who spent 40 years at Bear Stearns, was in charge of risk management at the bank before it collapsed during the 2008 financial crisis. He served with Lisman, a co-head of the global equities division, on Bear’s management committee. They now serve together on the board of the nonprofit American Forests.
Steinberg and his wife, Suzanne, had previously donated the maximum allowable $8,000 directly to Lisman’s campaign. They live in a $54 million home that used to belong to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Tags: Bruce Lisman , Phil Scott , super PAC , gubernatorial campaign , election 2016 , primary 2016 , Image , Web Only
California entrepreneur Reid Hoffman has purchased $220,000 worth of television, radio and online advertising in support of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Matt Dunne, according to a disclosure filed Thursday with the Secretary of State’s Office.
Hoffman, a cofounder of LinkedIn and PayPal, has supported Dunne’s campaign from the start. Last summer, he and his wife, Michelle Yee, donated $8,000 to the Vermonter’s gubernatorial bid.
Currently a partner at the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Greylock Partners, Hoffman has an estimated net worth of $4.7 billion. He is one of many wealthy tech executives who have contributed to Dunne, a former Google manager. A California native, Hoffman went to school in Vermont, graduating from the Putney School. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The advertising influx comes just days before the August 9 primary, in which Dunne faces fellow Democrats Sue Minter and Peter Galbraith. Republicans Phil Scott and Bruce Lisman are also competing for the office, which is being vacated by retiring Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin.
According to the disclosure, Hoffman spent $154,000 on TV, $44,000 on radio and $22,000 on online ads. A Washington, D.C., firm that worked closely with Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (D-Vt.) presidential campaign, Devine Mulvey Longabaugh, produced the ads.
Tags: Matt Dunne , Reid Hoffman , gubernatorial campaign , election 2016 , primary 2016 , campaign finance , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
At an emotional press conference in White River Junction, campaign manager Nick Charyk bemoaned what he called “unfounded, unfair and flat-out false” attacks on his boss over the past week.
“Matt is running on a platform of bold, progressive change. And that is a threat to the establishment. And the establishment is attacking Matt,” Charyk said, standing outside of Dunne’s campaign headquarters with fellow staffers, volunteers and the candidate himself. “That is what this debate over the past few days has been about — plain and simple.”
Charyk was referring to the deluge of criticism Dunne has recently faced from political rivals and environmental activists over his position on siting industrial-scale wind projects in Vermont.
Tags: Matt Dunne , Nick Charyk , Sarah Stewart Taylor , Sue Minter , Peter Galbraith , Peter Shumlin , gubernatorial campaign , election 2016 , primary 2016 , Image , Web Only
A political action committee connected to a retired Vermont lobbyist and a Washington, D.C., advocacy group is going to bat for Democrat Sue Minter’s campaign for governor.
The group, called Vermonters for Strong Leadership, has spent at least $120,000 on television advertising, according to a document filed Thursday with the Secretary of State’s office. Earlier filings with the Federal Communications Commission indicate that the ads are slated to run from Thursday through next Tuesday’s primary election.
Bob Sherman, who cofounded the Montpelier lobbying firm KSE Partners, is the president of the independent-expenditure committee, better known as a super PAC. He said Thursday that he expects to spend “probably more than $100,000” and “less than $200,000” on pro-Minter ads in the next five days.
The state filing indicates that the super PAC has raised $140,000 so far — $125,000 of which comes from EMILY’s List, a D.C. organization focused on electing pro-choice women. The rest of the money comes from five Vermont donors: Travis Belisle of St. Albans ($5,000); Lola Van Wagenen ($3,000) and George Burrill ($2,000) of Shelburne; and Arthur Berndt ($2,500) and Anne Berndt ($2,500) of Sharon.
Belisle and his family are behind a controversial wind project proposed for a Swanton ridgeline. In recent days, Minter and her allies have accused rival Democrat Matt Dunne of an “11th-hour flip” on the siting of large-scale wind projects. A third Democrat in the race, Peter Galbraith, vehemently opposes such installations.
Tags: Sue Minter , Emily's List , Bob Sherman , super PAC , election 2016 , primary 2016 , Image , Web Only
A veteran of Gov. Peter Shumlin’s administration will take over as state secretary of commerce and community development, the governor’s office announced Wednesday.
Current Deputy Secretary Lucy Leriche replaces outgoing Secretary Pat Moulton, who leaves her post to serve as interim president of Vermont Technical College.
Leriche previously spent about seven years in the state legislature representing Hardwick, including a stint as Democratic House majority leader.
Shumlin also announced that Economic Development Commissioner Joan Goldstein will oversee the Vermont EB-5 Regional Center. The appointment comes two weeks after Gene Fullam resigned from the post. Fullam served just one year that saw scandal as the feds charged Ariel Quiros and Bill Stenger with longtime fraud related to EB-5 projects in the Northeast Kingdom.
The changes come as Shumlin’s deputy chief of staff and spokesman, Scott Coriell, embarks on a two-month unpaid leave to travel. Coriell returns October 1. In the interim, Sue Allen, also a deputy chief of staff, will take over press duties, Coriell said.
Shumlin’s tenure as governor is in its final months. He’ll retire and be replaced by one of five candidates vying for the position. The primary election is Tuesday.
Tags: Lucy Leriche , Joan Goldstein , Peter Shumlin , Scott Coriell , Gene Fullam , Image , Web Only
The vote took place Monday and vendors have been notified of the new policy, according to Field Days business manager Cara Mullin.
In the past, Confederate flag merchandise has been sold at the agricultural fair that draws thousands of people to view horse team hitching, racing pigs, arm wrestling, tractor pulls and 4-H exhibits. The board's vote came in response to concerns, Mullin said.
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