Sunday, January 24, 2016
"Well, my reaction is that if Donald Trump wins and Mr. Bloomberg gets in, you're going to have two multi-billionaires running for president of the United States against me," Sanders said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "And I think the American people do not want to see our nation move toward an oligarchy where billionaires control the political process. I think we'll win that election."
On Saturday, the New York Times broke the news that a surge of support for Trump and Sanders had prompted Bloomberg to revisit his long-running desire to seek the presidency. Earlier on "Meet the Press," former secretary of state Hillary Clinton said she, too, wasn't worried — but for a different reason.
"Well, the way I read what [Bloomberg] said is if I didn't get the nomination, he might consider it," Clinton said. "Well, I'm going to relieve him of that and get the nomination so he doesn't have to."
Clinton, who has lagged behind Sanders in several recent polls, picked up endorsements Sunday from the leading newspapers in Iowa and New Hampshire.
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Friday, January 22, 2016
For nearly nine months, the committee of 11 state's attorneys has been reviewing allegations made by Vermont Republican Party vice chair Brady Toensing that Sorrell violated campaign finance law and took official action in exchange for campaign contributions. The panel's investigation was conducted by Shelburne attorney Tom Little, who was appointed to the role last May by Gov. Peter Shumlin.
The Vermont Press Bureau's Neal Goswami obtained a draft of Little's long-overdue report and published it Thursday night. The panel released a finalized version Friday.
According to the report, which largely concerns itself with Toensing's lesser allegations, Little found no evidence that Sorrell violated campaign finance law. But he declined to investigate the most serious allegation — that Sorrell agreed to file suit against the oil and gas industry at the behest of a Texas law firm that contributed to his campaign while making the request. Sorrell's office later hired that firm and guaranteed it a percentage of any winnings from the case.
Little and the state's attorneys determined that "some relevant persons and alleged actions" related to the corruption allegation "lie beyond Vermont's borders and beyond the scope of this inquiry, making closure of the investigation vis a vis those allegations impossible at this time."
Tags: Bill Sorrell , Tom Little , David Cahill , Brady Toensing , Image , Web Only
Thursday, January 21, 2016
An ascendant Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told New Hampshire voters Thursday that his was “the campaign of excitement, energy, momentum” — and that nominating him would result in “victories for Democrats from the top on down.”
Speaking at a performing arts center in the Lakes Region town of Wolfeboro, Sanders brushed back concerns that he would lead his adoptive party to defeat.
“When you come within … two and a half weeks of an election, suddenly you start hearing a lot of strange things being said,” Sanders said Thursday night. “And one of the things that my opponent, Secretary [Hillary] Clinton, is saying is that Bernie Sanders is unelectable. ‘He just cannot defeat a Republican candidate in a general election.’”
To demonstrate that wasn’t the case, Sanders did something more common at a rally for Republican candidate Donald Trump: He read his own poll numbers to the crowd.
Recent public opinion surveys, he said, showed him faring better than Clinton against several top Republicans, including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
“And here is my favorite, because it deals with my good, good friend, Donald Trump,” the senator said, prompting laughter from his audience. “Secretary Clinton defeats Mr. Trump by nine points. We beat him by 23 points.”
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Wednesday, January 20, 2016
With 12 days remaining before the Iowa caucuses, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) launched a new television advertisement highlighting his environmental bona fides — and an attack on former secretary of state Hillary Clinton for failing to release a comprehensive plan to address climate change.
The ad, which began running in Iowa Wednesday, focuses on Sanders' opposition to the Bakken oil pipeline — a controversial proposal to transport crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois. It features two Iowa farmers speaking out against the project and praising Sanders for "say[ing] no to the big oil companies."
Hours after releasing the ad, Sanders' campaign issued a statement questioning Clinton's commitment to the environment, alleging that she never followed through on a July pledge to release a "comprehensive energy and climate plan."
"It’s now six months later," spokesman Michael Briggs said in the statement. "What’s taking so long? Is there a pattern here? It took the former secretary of state four years to take a stand on the Keystone pipeline, which would carry some of the dirtiest oil on the planet across the United States."
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Hillary Clinton , presidential campaign , environment , Recommended Reading , Image , Video , Web Only
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
New Hampshire, it seems, is feelin' the Bern.
A new poll released Tuesday by CNN and WMUR-TV found Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) leading former secretary of state Hillary Clinton 60 to 33 percent among likely Democratic voters in the first-in-the-nation primary state. Former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley trailed far behind, with just 1 percent of the vote.
Sanders has widened his lead from 10 percentage points to 27 since the same polling outfit, the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, last queried Granite Staters a month ago. The two top candidates have traded leads in the state since last August, but Sanders has edged out Clinton in six of the seven polls conducted in New Hampshire this month.
“Sanders is still performing very strongly in New Hampshire and the actions by the Clinton campaign as well as the debate last night are an indication, in my view, that the Clinton campaign is nervous,” UNH Survey Center director Andrew Smith told Seven Days on Monday, before his latest poll was released. “I don’t think they’re panicking yet, but they’re nervous. And there are some people who are having nightmares about 2008 all over again.”
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The six-lane pool on Pine Street is ailing. The cinder-block construction leaks, the pumps are shot and the filters need to be replaced. Repairs needed just to open the pool in June could total more than $25,000 and might keep it running for just the summer, if that, city officials say.
"We've been putting it together with baling wire and chewing gum for way too long," said Katherine "Deac" Decarreau, Winooski city manager.
The City Council is trying to decide whether to put repair money in the budget for fiscal 2017 to fix the pool, or to close it and focus on the question of building a new one. A new pool could cost between $250,000 and $1.5 million for a big, heated facility.
The council is expected to decide in February. Residents weighed in at a meeting last week. Several people said they like having a pool in the city's mix of amenities, and asked that, if the pool closes next summer, some alternative be offered, especially for local children.
"I think it's something we all value," said Decarreau.
Tags: Winooski , swimming pool , recreation , budget , Image , Web Only
Monday, January 18, 2016
With two weeks remaining before the Iowa caucuses, Clinton tried her best to portray Sanders as a slippery politician, whose half-baked platform would roll back the successes of the Obama administration and raise taxes on middle-class families. But by keeping the focus on Sanders' record and agenda, Clinton provided her opponent an opening to speak to the Democratic Party's progressive base — and characterize her as a craven opportunist, willing to say anything to win an election.
"I am disappointed that Secretary Clinton's campaign has made this criticism," Sanders said of her allegation that his health care plan would hurt working families. "It's a Republican criticism. Secretary Clinton does know a lot about health care. And she understands, I believe, that a Medicaid-for-all, single-payer program will substantially lower the cost of health care for middle class families."
The two candidates appeared at times to be speaking to different audiences — Sanders to disaffected liberals disappointed in President Obama's inability to fully implement his agenda and Clinton to those who feared that a Republican successor would wipe away his accomplishments.
"The Democratic Party in the United States worked since Harry Truman to get the Affordable Care Act passed," Clinton said of Obama's signature policy success. "I do not want to see the Republicans repeal it. And I don’t wanna see us start over again with a contentious debate."
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Friday, January 15, 2016
In the push and pull between newsmakers and the media, both sides generally agree that it's an opportunity for the former to push their message and the latter to ask unfiltered questions. But for years — actually, decades — Sanders has resisted the second part of that proposition: the answering unfiltered questions part.
Long before he ran for president, the independent senator established a reputation in Vermont for calling press conferences — on, say, employee stock ownership plans — and then refusing to answer questions about anything else.
"In terms of politicians manipulating the news, you've mastered the art," the late Vanguard Press and Seven Days columnist Peter Freyne complained to Sanders at a 1985 forum. "When asked a question you don't want to answer, you leave the room. You got up and walked right out of here."
Now that he's a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sanders appears to be giving the same treatment to the national political press corps.
Sanders summoned reporters to a press conference Thursday evening at a Dartmouth College faculty lounge in Hanover, N.H., to announce what his campaign billed as an "important endorsement." Nope, it wasn't Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the darling on the progressive movement, but a relatively obscure predecessor of hers: former Democratic National Committee chair Paul Kirk, who replaced the late Ted Kennedy in the Senate for a brief span of four months.
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The Shumlin administration says the rate changes are necessary to bring the state into compliance with its federal contract with the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services. Officials noted, too, that the state had been paying more for group therapy than most other states.
The administration expects to save $1.8 million in Medicaid costs with the rate change, one of the few reductions in a Medicaid budget that has grown significantly this past year.
But Margaret Joyal, director of outpatient services at Washington County Mental Health Services, told the House Human Services Services Committee that the rate cut could force her agency to reduce the number of group therapy sessions it offers. It would likely double the waiting list for counseling. She predicted many clients would end up receiving more expensive individual therapy — but only after lengthy waits.
"Other agencies are just closing down their groups," Joyal said.
Tags: Ann Pugh , Mitzi Johnson , Margaret Joyal , Medicaid , group therapy , mental health , Image , Web Only
Thursday, January 14, 2016
“I have never run a negative radio or television ad in my life,” he told a capacity crowd at a Dartmouth College auditorium in Hanover, N.H. “And it is my very strong hope that I never will.”
But, he added, “If people are distorting my record, as is the case right now, we are going to deal with it — and I have dealt with it.”
Sanders was alluding, perhaps, to a tough new television ad his campaign launched earlier Thursday, which made reference to former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s relationship with the financial sector.
“There are two Democratic visions for regulating Wall Street,” Sanders says in the ad. “One says it’s OK to take millions from big banks and then tell them what to do.”
In a conference call Thursday afternoon, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, cried foul.
“We were particularly surprised today to see him break [his] pledge and run this negative ad,” Mook said.
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