Four years ago presidential politics was a growth industry in Vermont, thanks to former Gov. Howard Dean's surge to the front in the months leading up to the election year primaries, when the Dean train went off the tracks.
This year, we're back to being a backwater when it comes to the presidential sweepstakes. Our primary is in March as usual, but because so many other states have moved their primaries to February, whatever happens here will be entirely irrelevant.
So far, what whisps of on-the-ground activity there are in Vermont amount to a grassroots operation by supporters of Democrat Barack Obama. They're planning on sending canvassers to New Hampshire this weekend. Tonight, they're staging a fundraiser at the Burlington home of Sarah Muyskens and Michael Green, with Obama' New England finance chairman, Alan Solomont, as the prime atttraction.
As for presidential candidate campaign visits, we're about to get our first. On May 23, Republican Rudy Giuliani will speak at 7:30 a.m. at the Hotel Coolidge in White River. It's a breakfast fundraiser for GOP committees in Orange and Windsor County in Vermont and Grafton County in New Hampshire. ΒΆ
Hey, maybe if enough people complain about the time, Rudy will pull a Peter Welch and move the time to later in the morning so more can attend.
Not.
-- Sam Hemingway
