Wednesday, May 6, 2015
“The court’s opinion in denying our request to block the Vermont law opens the door to states creating mandatory labeling requirements based on pseudo-science and web-fed hysteria,” Pamela G. Bailey, president of GMA, said in a news release. “If this law is allowed to go into effect, it will disrupt food supply chains, confuse consumers and lead to higher food costs.”
U.S. District Court Judge Christina Reiss last week ruled that the first-in-the-nation law, which is due to take effect in July 2016, can move forward pending the outcome of a lawsuit seeking to strike it down.
GMA takes issue with a state-by-state labeling approach. “This court ruling shows why Congress should pass the voluntary uniform GMO labeling bill quickly and federally preempt state mandatory GMO laws,” Bailey said in the statement.
Tags: genetically modified organisms , federal court , Grocery Manufacturers Associatoin , Image , Web Only
Sunday, May 3, 2015
"Is it really possible for someone who calls himself a socialist to be elected president of the United States?" ABC News "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos asked Sanders.
"Well, so long as we know what democratic socialism is," the candidate said, arguing that the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Norway and Sweden boast higher voter turnout, better child care, cheaper education and more accessible health care than the United States.
"And in those countries, by and large, government works for ordinary people in the middle class, rather than, as is the case right now in our country, for the billionaire class," the Vermont independent concluded.
"I can hear the Republican attack ad right now," Stephanopoulos said. "He wants America to look more like Scandinavia."
"That's right. That's right," Sanders replied. "And what's wrong with that?"
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Presidential Campaign , This Week , democratic socialism , Robert Reich , health care , Image , Recommended Reading , Video , Web Only
Saturday, May 2, 2015
But the Vermont senator had a house full of followers familiar with his offbeat style, and he delivered a message that was not at all new for him.
“We have a grotesque level of income inequality in which the billionaire class is getting it all,” Sanders told a gathering of 130 people packed into the Beech Street home of Elizabeth Ropp and Eric Zulaski in Manchester, N.H. “It’s like if we sat down to dinner — 10 people sit at a table to eat dinner — and one guy eats it all.”
The enthusiastic audience crowded into the living and dining rooms and onto the enclosed porch and the lawn outside, where some listened through the open window as Sanders gave a 32-minute speech.
“This campaign that we are going to wage in New Hampshire and all over the country is a very different type of campaign than others run,” Sanders said. “We are going to do a lot of door-knocking, and you are the guys who are going to do it.”
Sanders never mentioned Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, or any other potential candidate. Whoever his opponents are, he said, they will raise more money and he will be the underdog — but he could still win.
“I think we’ve got a real shot,” said the former Burlington mayor, who was elected to the U.S. House and Senate as an independent and has never been elected as a Democrat. “I know people say, ‘Bernie’s this, Bernie’s that, but he really can’t win.’ You know what? We really can win.”
Sanders called for gradually raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour; using $70 billion in “corporate tax evasion” money to provide free public college tuition; and putting 13 million people to work over five years rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure.
Sanders was making his 10th trip to New Hampshire since 2014, but Saturday’s visit was the first since he officially announced his candidacy last Thursday for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. New Hampshire holds the nation’s first presidential primary on February 9, a week after the Iowa caucus.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Presidential Campaign , Hillary Clinton , 2016 presidential election , Vermont , New Hampshire , campaign trail , Image , Recommended Reading , Web Only
Friday, May 1, 2015
Since his formal entry into the race Thursday at noon, more than 100,000 people have signed on to his mailing list, the campaign said.
That news was overshadowed by the revelation that Shelburne-based Vermont Teddy Bear Company has introduced a new ursine product in his honor: the Bernie Bear. The gray-suited, bespectacled bear, replete with "iconic, unruly hair," can be yours for just $79.99.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Presidential Campaign , Vermont Teddy Bear , Image , Recommended Reading , Web Only
Thursday, April 30, 2015
"No, I am an independent who is going to be working with the —" Sanders told Seven Days Thursday afternoon, cutting himself off mid-sentence. "I am what I am, and I will have to deal with the state-by-state regulations. But I am what I am."
The first state whose regulations he will have to deal with is New Hampshire, home of the all-important, first-in-the-nation primary. The Granite State's election laws restrict the Democratic contest to Democrats.
"If they're going to run in the primary, they have to be a registered member of the party," New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner told CNN. "Our declaration-of-candidacy form that they have to fill out says 'I am a registered member of the party.'"
That would be difficult for Sanders, given that Vermont has no party registration system. Voters simply select a ballot of their choosing — Democratic, Republican, Progressive or Liberty-Union — at their polling place during primary elections.
Tags: Senator , Presidential Campaign , Bernie Sanders , Tad Devine , New Hampshire ballot access , Image , Recommended Reading , Web Only
"I am writing to inform you that I will be a candidate for President of the United States," Sanders emailed supporters Thursday at noon. "I ask for your support."
Moments later, Sanders addressed reporters outside the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., promising to address the “enormous issues facing this country.”
An independent and self-described democratic socialist, Sanders said he would seek the Democratic nomination for the presidency. Though he has been cast as a long-shot contender against former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, Sanders told reporters: “I run vigorous campaigns.”
Asked whether he was running simply to advance his progressive agenda, Sanders said, “No, no, not at all. We’re in this race to win.”
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Presidential Campaign , environment , Image , Recommended Reading , Web Only
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Sanders plans to release a statement Thursday confirming that he'll seek the presidency in 2016, Kinzel reported. He'll hold a formal campaign announcement in Vermont "several weeks" later.
Spokesman Michael Briggs would neither confirm nor deny the report Tuesday afternoon. He noted that Sanders has previously said he would reveal his intentions by the end of the month.
"We'll have something to say later this week," Briggs said.
Sanders, the nation's longest serving independent in Congress, would face off against former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who announced her candidacy two weeks ago.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , president , 2016 , Presidential Campaign , Image , Recommended Reading , Web Only
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Nineteen months before he faces reelection, Vermont's senior senator on Wednesday reported raising $416,000 in the first quarter of the year. That's more than he's taken in since the July 2010 reporting period, shortly before his last reelection.
It's also more than Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a potential presidential candidate, raised. Sanders accepted $241,000 last quarter, he reported Wednesday to the Federal Election Commission. That's not exactly chump change for a guy who doesn't face reelection until 2018, but it's less than the $719,000 he raised in the quarter ending last June.
The third member of Vermont's congressional delegation, Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vt.), took in just $37,530 last quarter.
All of these figures come with an important caveat: They cover only the congressmen's reelection campaign accounts. All three control separate political action committees through which they also raise and spend money, but reports for those entities aren't due until July.
Tags: Senator , Patrick Leahy , Bernie Sanders , Peter Welch , fundraising , campaign finance , presidential campaign , Image , Web Only
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Those include economic inequality, unemployment, climate change and campaign finance, he said.
"I hope that Secretary Clinton will speak out on these and other important issues in the days and weeks ahead," Sanders said in a written statement released after Clinton formally entered the race.
The Vermont independent, who has been mulling a presidential campaign of his own, still hasn't decided whether to run, according to spokesman Michael Briggs.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Presidential Campaign , Hillary Clinton , Image , Recommended Reading , Web Only
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
The RGA and the Office of the Attorney General reached a settlement to resolve a four-year-old case. The state had alleged that when the RGA ran political ads in favor of Republican candidate Brian Dubie, the organization failed to register as a political action committee and to file campaign finance reports, and also accepted contributions that exceeded the $2,000 limit.
Dubie lost a close race to Democrat Peter Shumlin. Shumlin has twice since then won reelection.
The RGA also agreed to file amended campaign finance reports within 30 days, and will detail contributions from two people in particular – Skip Vallee and Rich Tarrant.
Attorney General Bill Sorrell said in a statement that the case sends a message about campaign finance law. “It is essential that PACs make the disclosures required under the law. The public should know who is funding the activities of the PACs that seek to influence Vermont voters,” he said.
This is the second settlement between his office and the RGA in the 2010 governor’s race. In 2013, the RGA agreed to pay $30,000 in a case in which Dubie also agreed to pay $20,000. They were accused of violating state campaign finance law by sharing RGA polling data without declaring it as a contribution to Dubie’s campaign.
Tags: Brian Dubie , Republican Governors Association , Peter Shumlin , Bill Sorrell , Image , Web Only