vt.Buzz ~ a political blog

Political notes from Free Press staff writers Terri Hallenbeck, Sam Hemingway and Nancy Remsen

1.05.2009

2010 governor's race is on

Doug Racine wants in to the 2010 governor's race. Jeb Spaulding's thinking about it. So, too, are other high-profile Vermont Democrats.

Should they duke it out in a primary and do their masterminding beforehand?

Can one of them beat the others to all the key backers as Peter Welch did in 2006 in the run for Congress? Or are too many of them the key backers in question?

Regardless of how early or which one, can any of them beat Jim Douglas?

- Terri Hallenbeck

posted by vt.Buzz | 6:22 PM |

Comments:

Douglas was vulnerable this year. If they had a candidate, the Dems could have taken him down. And no, Symington does count as a candidate.

Taking Douglas down in 2010 is tough, although not impossible.

Jeb Spaulding is the probably the only Dem who can make it happen. But he better have the political savvy of Shumlin to pull it off.

Racine has boxed himself into the VPIRG/VNRC/Tax the Rich corner that will ensure his rejection by the kingmakers.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 7:14 PM, January 05, 2009

Has Douglas said that he is going to run again?

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 8:29 PM, January 05, 2009

Isn't Douglas's throne reserved for young master Lunderville?

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 8:58 PM, January 05, 2009

" . . . as a result of his incompetence and failed, brain-dead policies . . ."

Ah, yes. Once again blaming the recession on Douglas, in pure dishonest, fraudulent, partisan-hack fashion.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 10:38 PM, January 05, 2009

Sigh. I have a feeling that VT Buzz might not survive til Election Day 2010. The trolls are eating this place alive.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 6:43 AM, January 06, 2009

Racine for governor.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 7:59 AM, January 06, 2009

Who is Latrine?

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 8:11 AM, January 06, 2009

A headstart is the only way to discourage another Pollina candidacy.
Racine a better candidate than Spaulding and both are a vast improvement over the current "leadership."

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 8:58 AM, January 06, 2009

Notice the lack of intelligent criticism on the part of Repubs. No cogent arguments against a candidate. Just superficial juvenile insults. Typical.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 9:01 AM, January 06, 2009

Whenever a few non-lefties ask what it is that Douglas has done to hurt Vermont they are labeled "superficial" and "juvenile", or with a reply such as "Richardson=Douglas"! Must be Douglas is doing something right!

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 10:32 AM, January 06, 2009

I wonder if the Vt Media will look at Jim Douglas' administration with an eye towards what is going on in New Mexico with Bill Richardson.

Jim Douglas often provides lucrative contracts to big donors to his campaign or inaugural.

Here are 2:

Fecteau, Barre, VT was given a no bid and very lucrative contract for those temp buildings in Bennington - and they proved to be full of mold and damage.

Corrections Corp of America gets lucrative business from this administration for taking our prisoners.

Both of these Corps have provided campaign donations to Jim Douglas.

The Douglas administration provides almost $500 million of private services contracts to private companies - I wonder how much of his campaign funds come from all of this?

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 11:09 AM, January 06, 2009

Wow - this is no different than what Bill Richardson was "caught" doing in NM!

I suspected but now believe that Jim Douglas with Neale Lunderville and Dennise Casey are as corrupt as many of the other cases popping up nationwide.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 11:12 AM, January 06, 2009

Does Pike Industries have any State contracts?

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 11:47 AM, January 06, 2009

Cigna gave a chunk of dough to Douglas too. Don't they have a state contract?

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 12:19 PM, January 06, 2009

Pike could be Oldcastle Materials Inc. as well.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 12:24 PM, January 06, 2009

How bout a primary with lots of Democrat candidates? There are already 4 good candidates - show us whatcha got!

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 2:01 PM, January 06, 2009

The "juvenile" comment referred to the "Who is Latrine?" as I'm sure you know, Bubba.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 2:20 PM, January 06, 2009

It would be interesting to track large state contracts in general against the governor's list of contributors and see if there is a consistent correlation.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 2:24 PM, January 06, 2009

Another blog indicates that Deb Markowitz is also interested in running for governor. Where were all these people this last election?

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 2:29 PM, January 06, 2009

Yeah, but the Vt media does not want to "rock the boat" and make Gov Douglas or Dennise Casey mad.

It would be nice if some reporter really did some investigative work.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 2:29 PM, January 06, 2009

It never ceases to amaze me that those that claim liberals/dems/progressives can never point out specifics of the Gov’s failures, calling it "tired rhetoric", can only respond with....

"Racine has boxed himself into the VPIRG/VNRC/Tax the Rich corner that will ensure his rejection by the kingmakers."

"Just WHAT has it been that he has done/not done that has screwed up the state? Do you not realize what VPIRG and CLF and other arms of the dimocrat party have done over the years to stifle new businesses from coming to, or expanding in, Vermont?"

Talk about tired rhetoric! This claim, which repeated over and over and over and over again implies that VPIRG, CLF, and VNRC control the gov't in VT. Really? Three NON-PROFIT organizations control the entire state. Have any of you ever stopped to consider that the people of Vermont like this lifestyle and that's why they vote for who they vote for and support these organizations?

How is it that supposedly we are in such bad shape, it's all the legislatures fault, but we keep electing them over and over again? I guess your answer would be “a grand conspiracy on the magnitude of 9/11 perpetrated by a joint collaborative effort of VPIRG, CLF, and VNRC”. Sounds plausible.

No, the economic downturn is not Douglas' fault. But, it's not the legislatures either. VT is suffering from the federal issues which we are wayyyyyy too small to control.

But look around and you'll see are situation is nowhere nearly as bad as the rest of the country. VT is insulated from the wild ups and downs by our regulatory systems. Act 250 as much as the business community bemoans it has probably saved us from being in an even worse recession. Without Act 250 we would have had a much larger housing boom that only would have crashed that much harder.

As I see it we have a choice. Absolutely gut Act 250 and euphemistically call it "Permit Reform", so we can enjoy the heroine induced highs and suffer the detox or we can stay the course and enjoy the lifestyle we enjoy so much. Just don't kid yourself into believing that we can change how we function and not fundamentally change our way of life. In the real world there is not getting your cake and eating it too!

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 3:03 PM, January 06, 2009

"The lifestyle we enjoy so much" - sounds like a true flatlander trustafarian with no regard or concern for the average Vermont working stiff. Basically what your saying is about the same reason Vermont didn't suffer as much as other states during the depression - they had so little there was nothing to lose!!!

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 3:16 PM, January 06, 2009

Actually, I love Vermont and the Vermont lifestyle.

I was born here. I've worked here my whole life. I make a good living, have a nice house, nice cars, a nice snowmachine, a nice hunting camp.

Lots of folks like to blame the government. Some like to blame flatlanders.

My advice is stop blaming others. Go out and get educated. Work hard. Vermont is a great place to live.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 3:51 PM, January 06, 2009

Or a great place to prosper with a lucrative state contract that you received because of your campaign contributions.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 3:56 PM, January 06, 2009

Could be, but that does not describe my situation.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 3:59 PM, January 06, 2009

Oh please!!! Because someone (ME) likes the lifestyle here I'm automatically a trust fund baby. Get a grip.

You simply can not understand when anyone wants to live differently than you do. I choose to stay in Vermont because I'd rather make a little less money and not deal with disgusting housing developments and malls every where that make it so you can't even tell which state you live in any more.

Tell me what the average Vermonter even means? Not some characture of what a Vermonter was but what we are?

Just to show how out of touch you are, you say "they had so little there was nothing to lose!!!"

We are losing a ton but not nearly as much as others. You make it out like Vermont is some third world state in the US. Give me a break. Work is tough here, no doubt but it isn't like you conservatives/repubs/libertarians like to make it out to be.

One can always tell when someone is wrong. they have zero facts and rely only the same old rhetoric.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 5:05 PM, January 06, 2009

companies with state contracts (or who are vying for one) give money to whichever candidate is most likely to maintain/gain power. in fact, many groups often give money to all viable candidates in a close race, to curry favor with whomever happens to win. it's not really a douglas conspiracy. if it was a democrat in power, you can bet they'd be reaping the contributions too.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 7:04 PM, January 06, 2009

Deb Markowitz is running, Jeb Spaulding and Doug Racine - bring it on!!!!

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 7:05 PM, January 06, 2009

I'm not sure it's a healthy thing for our state that a political campaign for the state's highest elected office has to start before winner of the last election has been inaugurated.

I don't blame Racine for doing it; if he doesn't get in ahead of Pollina the Democrats run the risk of repeating 2008.

But maybe it really is time to think about four-year terms for the statewide offices. Perhaps even the Senate.

When the campaigns start before the governing does, it's hard to see how the public interest is served.

A four-year term would give Vermont at least two, maybe three years of governing before the campaign started. And allow policy decisions that require short-term pain for long-term benefit to be made without fearing the next election cycle.

# Posted by:

Independent Vermonter | 10:16 PM, January 06, 2009

Forget Racine - go Markowitz!

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 7:36 AM, January 07, 2009

No more Montpelier insiders,please.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 8:24 AM, January 07, 2009

Hey, talk about starting a campaign early - not sure about this year, but Jim Douglas has ALWAYS started campaign fundraising within the month of the last election.

Jim Douglas is fundraising non-stop!

Legislators do not have that luxury.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 8:27 AM, January 07, 2009

Racine must have seen Chrysler's 53percent plunge this week and decided that maybe it's time to start thinking about new employment.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 8:52 AM, January 07, 2009

Once again, lil' fella, remind me what the stock market was on the day the dims took over congress. Or the need for bailouts before the dims started forcing Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac (Frank Raines and Barney Frank's "wife") to make home loans to people that could never pay them back!

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 1:20 PM, January 07, 2009

This is Douglas' last term, He's screwed up enough now that he's established a record that conflicts with popular public opinion. Interestingly both Markowitz and Spaulding will be talk directly about what is wrong with Douglas policy...and probably with more knowledge than Douglas. The Dems have viable candidates and none of them have easliy leveraged "Clavelle-ish" faults. All are fairly well liked. The only thing left is a fairly aggressive campaign to uncover Douglas for what he is.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 2:30 PM, January 07, 2009

Independent Vermonter said...

I'm not sure it's a healthy thing for our state that a political campaign for the state's highest elected office has to start before winner of the last election has been inaugurated.

I don't blame Racine for doing it; if he doesn't get in ahead of Pollina the Democrats run the risk of repeating 2008.

But maybe it really is time to think about four-year terms for the statewide offices. Perhaps even the Senate.

When the campaigns start before the governing does, it's hard to see how the public interest is served.

A four-year term would give Vermont at least two, maybe three years of governing before the campaign started. And allow policy decisions that require short-term pain for long-term benefit to be made without fearing the next election cycle.

This assumes that there is actually governing going on and not just politics. At least with a two year election cycles we can call a spade a spade. Not only that bit we get decide more reularly who want to "lead"us. Do you really think with a four year term its not just the same game but with candidates that hard to identify?

I'd rather dance with the devil I know.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 3:14 PM, January 07, 2009

Maybe you would, but I'll take my chances every two years with these career hacks.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 3:34 PM, January 07, 2009

The Gov. should have a 4 year term. The feds and virtually every other state have the pattern of a 4-year executuve and 2-year legislators.

The Vt. Leg. might never accept it unless you throw them the bone of giving the Senate 4 year terms, so I'd reluctantly go along with that, but only if absolutely necessary.

ok, jw, it's your turn to respond with some barrage of insults and sarcasm, now.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 7:51 AM, January 11, 2009