Monday, April 4, 2016
McAllister filed legal papers in February seeking to evict the woman from the trailer where she has lived for more than three years. The woman has now counter-sued, seeking to halt the eviction and asking for damages, according to court papers filed by her Burlington attorney, Andy Montroll.
In the new court case, first reported Monday by Vermont Public Radio, the woman alleges that McAllister turned off the water to her trailer in an illegal attempt to evict her.
"That's another crock," McAllister said by phone Monday. He said Vermont State Police came to his house about a week ago to tell him the water had been shut off at the trailer. When he checked, he said, he saw that an electric breaker had tripped. The nearly new pump came back on as soon as he reset it, he said.
The trailer is about half a mile from his house, McAllister said.
Tags: Norm McAllister , Vermont Senate , sexual assault , Image , Web Only
After 16 years in the Vermont Senate and six as its president pro tempore, Sen. John Campbell (D-Windsor) will not run for reelection this fall.
“We’ve done a lot of good for the state of Vermont and, I think, for my constituents in Windsor County, but I think it’s time for there to be a new view on where this state is going,” Campbell said Monday afternoon. “It’s time to get a new set of eyes and ears here.”
The 62-year-old Quechee lawyer said he was stepping down to take a new job as executive director of the Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs. In that role, he will report to and advocate for county prosecutors and law enforcement officials.
“It’s a good fit,” said Campbell, who got his start as a Florida police officer and currently serves as a deputy state’s attorney in Windsor County.
Campbell said he plans to leave his old job and start his new one next month, once the legislature adjourns for the biennium. He said he intends to serve out the remainder of his two-year term, which expires in January, and continue on as president pro tem until then.
VTDigger.org’s Mark Johnson broke the news of Campbell’s plans Monday morning.
The pro tem’s departure will complete a highly unusual changing of the guard in Vermont politics. Gov. Peter Shumlin, Lt. Gov. Phil Scott and House Speaker Shap Smith (D-Morristown) all previously announced they would not seek reelection.
Tags: John Campbell , Vermont Senate , Image , Web Only
Thursday, March 31, 2016
"I just proposed that we take it out because I actually am not comfortable saying that anyone with a contract can't donate to a gubernatorial candidate," the committee's chair, Sen. Jeanette White (D-Windham), explained Wednesday.
By Thursday, White had changed her mind.
"I do philosophically support it," she said. "I think we didn't have enough time for a detailed conversation."
Now, even though her committee has sent the ethics reform bill to its next destination, the Senate Appropriations Committee, White and her committee colleagues plan to author a floor amendment that would restore the pay-to-play ban.
"We got some more information," she said Thursday. "Isn't that the way things happen around here?"
Tags: Ethics , pay-to-play , Jeanette White , Joe Benning , Paul Burns , Bill Sorrell , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
After swearing in South Burlington City Council Chair Helen Riehle as the newest member of the Vermont Senate, Lt. Gov. Phil Scott met in his Statehouse office with the two other members of the Senate's powerful Committee on Committees: Senate President Pro Tempore John Campbell (D-Windsor) and Sen. Dick Mazza (D-Grand Isle). A Seven Days reporter attempted to cover the meeting but was asked to leave.
"We're talking about personnel issues," Scott explained before a Senate aide closed the door.
Ten minutes later, the three men emerged and said they had made two changes to the Senate's committee assignments in response to Diane Snelling's resignation from the Senate the day before. Scott said they had appointed Riehle to Snelling's seat on the Natural Resources and Energy Committee and Sen. Richard Westman (R-Lamoille) to her seat on the Appropriations Committee.
Tags: Committee on Committees , Phil Scott , Sen. John Campbell , Vermont Senate , Image , Video , Web Only
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Brian Searles, former secretary of transportation, noted two promising developments in recent weeks — the introduction of a bill in Congress that would enable negotiations to begin, and a promise from new Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during his U.S. visit that Parliament would pass similar authorization this spring.
Amtrak’s Vermonter, which now runs between St. Albans and Washington, D.C., used to go to Montréal, until 1995, Searles said. But requirements for crew changes and a border stop created lengthy delays “that basically rendered it noncompetitive with the auto,” he said.
Tags: Brian Searles , Vermonter , Amtrak , Sen. Dick Mazza , Image , Web Only
Snelling, who has held the Senate seat since 2002, will be replaced for the remaining weeks of the legislative session by former senator Helen Riehle, a Republican who chairs the South Burlington city council.
Gov. Peter Shumlin announced the two appointments Tuesday morning in his ceremonial Statehouse office. Snelling’s resignation took effect shortly thereafter. Though governors often wait for party committees to recommend replacements to fill vacant legislative seats, Shumlin said he acted swiftly because the session is winding down.
Snelling, 64, of Hinesburg, said that when former board chair Jon Groveman announced his departure in February, she was immediately interested.
Tags: Diane Snelling , Helen Riehle , Peter Shumlin , Image , Web Only
Monday, March 28, 2016
Shumlin wrote an op-ed on the subject on March 18. He referred to a measure on which Massachusetts residents are scheduled to vote in November as a “bad pot bill.”
Never mind that it’s actually a referendum, not a bill.
Shumlin argued, “If Massachusetts moves forward with their legalization bill while Vermont delays, the entire southern part of our state could end up with all the negatives of a bad pot bill and none of the positives of doing the right thing.”
Tags: Cannabeat , marijuana legalization , Peter Shumlin , Image , Web Only
Two more Democrats on Monday confirmed their plans to run in the two-seat district. That puts at least three Democrats and two Republicans in the running, with more than a month to go before the filing deadline.
Interest in the race is particularly strong, with incumbent Republican Sen. Norm McAllister facing criminal sexual assault charges. The Senate suspended McAllister until the charges are resolved. A trial is tentatively set for May. McAllister told Seven Days he has not ruled out seeking reelection.
Former state senator Sara Kittell, a Democrat who held the seat for 17 years before retiring in 2012, announced Monday she is making a second attempt to return to the Statehouse. She ran in 2014, and came in third behind Republicans Dustin Degree and McAllister.
Tags: Sara Kittell , Denise Smith , Norm McAllister , Dustin Degree , Caroline Bright , Carolyn Branagan , Image , Web Only
In a letter to Attorney General Bill Sorrell, Vermont Public Interest Research Group executive director Paul Burns called for "an appropriate investigation and determination from your office in order to help clarify the meaning of the law moving forward."
Citing a recent Seven Days story, Burns questioned whether the Vermont House Republican PAC failed to register as a "leadership PAC" — defined in statute as "a political committee established by or on behalf of a political party caucus within a chamber of the General Assembly." Such PACs are prohibited under a new law from accepting contributions from lobbyists and the companies that employ them until the legislature adjourns at the end of a two-year biennium.
The Vermont House Republican PAC accepted $1,000 late last year from the cigarette company Altria Client Services and $2,000 from the drug company Pfizer, both of which employ registered Vermont lobbyists.
Tags: Vermont Public Interest Research Group , Vermont House Republicans , Paul Burns , Don Turner , Suzanne Butterfield , Image , Web Only
Friday, March 25, 2016
Baruth pledged at the time to introduce legislation that would level the playing field. On Friday morning, the Vermont Senate passed his bill by a vote of 19 to 6.
Not all his colleagues agreed with him. Sen. John Rodgers (D-Essex/Orleans), who is considering running for lieutenant governor, said he was worried that the change would encourage more candidates to seek public financing — and therefore cost the state more.
"I think when we're using taxpayer money, the bar should be set a little higher," Rodgers said Friday on the Senate floor.
Tags: Public financing , elections , Phil Baruth , David Zuckerman , John Rodgers , Joe Benning , Image , Web Only