You'd think if politicians got up on a stage or held a press conference to announce their endorsement of a particular presidential politician that they'd back up that support with a donation to the campaign.
But then you'd be wrong, mostly wrong anyway.
Remember when Attorney General Bill Sorrell, state Treasurer Jeb Spaulding and former Democratic gubernatorial candidate and Burlington Mayor Peter Clavelle appeared at Nectar's in Burlington last month to say Barack Obama was their guy?
A check of the latest Federal Election Commission reports shows that only Spaulding put his money where his mouth was, contributing $460 to the Illinois senator. Zippo from Sorrell and Clavelle.
Gets even worse when you check out what, if anything, those nine Democratic lawmakers did for Hillary Clinton after holding a July press conference to announce their endorsement of the New York senator.
Not a penny did Hillary get from Reps. Donna Sweeney, Johannah Donovan, Kathy Keenan, Bill Aswad, Steve Howard, Sonny Audette or Daryl Pillsbury, or from Sens. Sara Kittell and Hinda Miller. Not yet, anyway.
Some of the state's political luminaries did open their wallets for their presidential preferences, the FEC records show.
On the Republican side, Sara Gear, the GOP national committeewoman, gave $250 to Mitt Romney; former state auditor Randy Brock sent $2,300 to John McCain and former GOP Senate candidate Rich Tarrant and his wife both sent Rudy Giuliani $2,300.
On the Democratic side, Chuck Ross, the Dem national committeeman, gave Obama $1,000 and former Dem national committeeman Terje Anderson gave Obama $489. Other than that, the names of high-profile Vermont Dems were noticably absent from the FEC reports.
But, hey, they've got the endorsement gig covered.
-- Sam Hemingway
