The Senate Democrats had done their voting on the pro tem Monday afternoon, had decided to put off a decision on majority leader, and thought they were just about ready to leave the conference room at the Gifford Medical Center nursing home when Sen. Bobby Starr spoke up.

Starr, the truck driving Democrat from the Kingdom, was none too pleased with what he called a negative mailing from the Chittenden County Senate Fund that targeted Sen. George Coppenrath of Caledonia County. A negative ad from Chittenden County has a way of backfiring in the Northeast Kindgom, Starr said. As in, voters in Caledonia County don’t want anybody from Burlington telling them how to do anything.

The fund, which doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with Chittenden County, spent $3,224 on a mailing criticizing Coppenrath, a Republican, who was seeking his first election to the seat after being appointed last year. Coppenrath ended up winning.

As Starr spoke, the rest of the senators in the room alternated between denying they had anything to do with the ads and desperately wanting Starr to hush up. They clearly didn’t want any dirty laundry aired in front of the media. Nobody wanted to discuss whether Starr had a valid point or admit that some of them complain when others target them with negative ads.

Jennifer Leathers, the campaign aide who worked for Senate Democrats this election, finally defended the ads: "What we did was talk about people’s voting records. We held people’s feet to the fire."

Starr responded: "I hope you don’t ever come to Orleans County to help Bobby Starr."

There were rumblings about changing the name of the Chittenden County Senate PAC.

- Terri Hallenbeck