It took you a few tries, but y'all finally came up with some worthwhile questions. Nice work.
While you were doing that, two of our election combatants have been going at it today. Gov. Jim Douglas used the setting of a new development at Severance Corners in Colchester to point out the ways in which he believes Democrat Gaye Symington is anti-business.
Then she pointed out that he's been governor for six years, so if business isn't booming in Vermont, he ought to take the blame.
Douglas, in his comments, didn't mention independent (Progressive) Anthony Pollina a single time, but he quite pointedly used Symington's name about a dozen times. Odd, I thought. Usually an incumbent doesn't want to help a challenger with name recognition.
On the scene for Douglas' event were former Rep. Malcolm Severance and his wife, Gladys. The field where he used to grow corn is now sprouting condos. Quite a change, he acknowledged.
He's hoping, though, that the project will become a modern-day version of the old New England village. Holding onto prime land smack in the middle of the area Colchester designated for growth wasn't an option either, he said.
Severance, who's been out of the leggie for a term now, had some observations about that scene too. Things are better when the House and Senate are controlled by different parties, he said. He doesn't see that happening in 2009, though, and he conceded his Republican Party could lose a few seats.
- Terri Hallenbeck
