Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Rebecca Ellis, a Democratic state representative from Waterbury since 2011, has resigned to take a job as the Department of Environmental Conservation's senior counsel for government affairs.
Ellis, 49, has been vice chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources and Energy. Gov. Peter Shumlin announced Wednesday in a press release that he will fill the vacant House seat before the legislature reconvenes in January.
Shumlin appointed Ellis to the seat after former representative Sue Minter resigned to become Shumlin’s deputy transportation secretary.
Tags: Rebecca Ellis , Sue Minter , Peter Shumlin , Vermont legislature , Image , Web Only
Thursday, July 16, 2015
That flight has started.
David Mears, a Vermont Law School professor who cut short his Fulbright scholarship work in China to join Shumlin's administration as Department of Environmental Conservation commissioner in 2011, is going back to the law school, Shumlin’s office announced Thursday. He’ll lead the South Royalton school's Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic, .
Mears’ departure is significant. It comes just as the state is about to hear from the federal Environmental Protection Agency on its Lake Champlain cleanup plans and just after the governor signed a hefty new water cleanup bill into law. The highly regarded Mears has been managing that for the state, but won’t be there to implement the plans.
Tags: David Mears , Vermont Law School , Peter Shumin , Aly Richards , Jon Copans , Joe Flynn , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
A novice politico raised nearly $103,000 for his lieutenant gubernatorial campaign in the first half of the year, though much of it came from his own pockets and those of his family members.
Brandon Riker, a 28-year-old Marlboro Democrat, donated nearly $60,000 to his fledgling bid, according to a disclosure filed late Tuesday with the secretary of state's office. Eight family members donated another $32,000.
"This is about building a grassroots campaign and engaging people in the process," Riker says. "The idea is going around the state talking to people one-on-one, and the money is just a part of it."
Riker’s hefty haul was one of the few surprises to come out of Vermont’s first campaign-finance filing deadline of the 2016 election cycle. Candidates who raised or spent more than $500 this year were required to disclose that information by midnight Wednesday. Another surprise was former Democratic state senator Matt Dunne’s announcement that he’d raised nearly $134,000 for his all-but-certain gubernatorial campaign.
As Seven Days reported in this week’s Fair Game column, Dunne accepted donations from more than 100 donors over the course of 10 days — including some from top Vermont Democrats and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. The Google executive, who lost a 2006 lieutenant gubernatorial race and a 2010 campaign for governor, claims he still hasn’t decided, for sure, whether he’ll run again.
Tags: Brandon Riker , Vermont , lieutenant governor , Image , Web Only
Thursday, June 18, 2015
While the next election is more than 16 months away, early jockeying began in earnest last week when Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin announced he won't seek a fourth term. That's prompted many to speculate that Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Scott is even more likely to leave his post to seek the state's top office.
Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell (D-Windsor), a close ally of Scott's, says such a vacancy may well lure him into his first statewide race.
"Depending on what [Scott] does, the lieutenant governor's office is one I certainly would be interested in," says the Quechee lawyer and Windsor County deputy state's attorney.
Tags: Vermont lieutenant governor , Phil Scott , John Campbell , Phil Baruth , Dick McCormack , Joe Benning , Sue Minter , Brandon Riker , Image , Web Only
Monday, June 15, 2015
What to make of the move? Not much, according to Bob Rogan, Welch’s chief of staff.
“As you know, there is a cottage industry of people who buy up political domain names to make money by selling them back to the politician,” Rogan said Monday. “Unequivocally, you should not read into this that a decision has been made or is even close to being made. This is just prudent scenario planning by campaign staff. Nothing more.”
Tags: Peter Welch , Phil Scott , Vermont governor , Image , Web Only
Thursday, June 11, 2015
“I love the job I have. That's a big factor,” Welch said in a phone interview from Washington, D.C. But, Welch said, “The governor stunned all of us with his announcement that he’s not running, so the circumstances have changed.”
Welch, in his fifth term in the U.S. House, declined to characterize how real the possibility is that he will give up his relatively safe seat as Vermont's lone representative. "That's what I have to consider," he said. "For me, the question is where can I best serve."
After Shumlin's announcement Monday, many considered Welch to potentially be a formidable contender.
Tags: Peter Welch , Peter Shumlin , Election 2016 , Vermont governor , Image , Web Only
Monday, June 8, 2015
It's on.
Vermont's 2016 gubernatorial race began in earnest Monday afternoon with Gov. Peter Shumlin's surprise announcement that he will not seek a fourth term.
After a lackluster showing in last November's election, the East Montpelier Democrat was expected to face tough opposition next year from Republicans, Progressives and Democrats alike. But his decision to step down will almost certainly widen the field of contenders, which could include the state's lieutenant governor, House speaker, U.S. congressman and many others.
In public comments and private conversations, several potential candidates immediately sought to stake out a position in the race, while others indicated they would take a pass.
Speaking at a Statehouse press conference just hours after Shumlin's announcement, House Speaker Shap Smith (D-Morristown) told reporters he would spend the next several weeks weighing his options.
"I am seriously considering running for governor," he said.
Lt. Gov. Phil Scott, the Vermont Republican Party's sole statewide officeholder, said recently he, too, was "considering" a run for governor.
"This doesn't change anything from my perspective," Scott said Monday.
Tags: Brian Dubie , Bruce Lisman , Chuck Ross , Dan Feliciano , Deb Markowitz , Doug Racine , Matt Dunne , Miro Weinberger , Peter Galbraith , Peter Shumlin , Peter Welch , Phil Scott , Randy Brock , Scott Milne , Shap Smith , Sue Minter , T.J. Donovan , Tim Ashe , Image , Web Only
Gov. Peter Shumlin stunned the political world Monday with the unexpected announcement that he won’t seek reelection in 2016.
The three-term Democrat emerged from a closed-door Statehouse meeting with cabinet members and close advisors just after 1 p.m. to address reporters in front of a bust of Abraham Lincoln. Speaking at times in the past tense, the governor reflected on his four years and five months in office and said he hoped to spend the next year and a half finishing the job he started.
"I am announcing today for those reasons that I will not be a candidate for a fourth term in 2016," he said. “I believe that we will have accomplished — and in many cases exceeded beyond my expectations — the work we set out to do when I became governor.”
The news took by surprise even the governor’s top staffers, many of whom stood by his side for the announcement. Secretary of Administration Justin Johnson said he had found out just an hour earlier. Vermont Democratic Party chair Dottie Deans said she had been summoned to the Statehouse for a meeting about 2016 messaging, only to learn that the field had changed dramatically.
Tags: Peter Shumlin , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Along with the layoffs, the state also plans to cut another 48 vacant positions in 14 departments. The cuts are part of $10.8 million in state personnel savings intended to help close a $113 million budget gap.
“It’s not a lot of fun,” said Agency of Administration Secretary Justin Johnson, whose own office will see two layoffs, which are technically called reductions in force, or RIFs.
“Fourteen RIFs are … 14 RIFs too many,” said Steve Howard, executive director of the Vermont State Employees Association, who fought the cuts that were once proposed to be more significant. “It’s not a good way to balance the budget.”
Tags: Vermont State Employees Association , Vermont legislature , layoffs , Peter Shumlin , Image , Web Only
Monday, June 1, 2015
missing change-of-circumstance function — has been solved.
"I am pleased to announce this team behind me has delivered that tool," Shumlin said at a briefing about the upgrade, which adds the ability to make changes to insurance documents that become effective across six systems. The fix was made by the deadline the governor had set in March when he suggested that if this important function couldn't be implemented, it would be time for the state to consider options. One would be to move the state's online health insurance operation to the federal platform.
The new automated change-of-circumstance function will be available only to staff. Lawrence Miller, Shumlin's point man on Vermont Health Connect, said it would likely be October 1 before members of the public can type changes into their own documents. For now, customers must continue to call Vermont Health Connect or fill out an online form to process changes.
While the governor praised the achievement, he noted, "We have plenty of work yet to do." The next big challenge is to introduce automated renewal, which the state wants its contractor, Optum, to have operating by fall, when the bulk of policyholders need to renew for the next calendar year.
Tags: Vermont Health Connect , Peter Shumlin , Optum , Image , Web Only