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The five Democratic candidates in the gubernatorial primary have appeared in 60 forums across the state since they began campaigning last fall. About 20 have been held this summer alone — and that’s not including debates with the “down-ticket” Republican and Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor and secretary of state.
Many of the forums focused on specific topics, including: labor issues, early childhood education, economic development, mental and physical disabilities, the public right-to-know law, the state’s budget deficit and Challenges for Change.
There is no substitute for being there – and this year it’s been impossible to catch it all. And yet, watching or listening to a candidate talk about an issue in his or her own words is one of the best ways to get a sense of who they are and what they stand for. This year, that’s more important than ever since there are so many candidates running for statewide office.
Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, you can be there — virtually. In case you missed a forum that might have been of particular interest, we are posting links and YouTube videos here. Sources include: The Burlington Free Press, Vermont Public Radio, WDEV-The Mark Johnson Show and CCTV. YouTube clips from Vtdigger.org are posted at the end. Enjoy!
DEMOCRATIC GUBERNATORIAL FORUMS
The Burlington Free Press debate is posted in four segments: “Challenges for Change,” “Money,” “Openness and Accountability,” and “Heard on the Campaign Trail.”
The Democratic Candidate Forum that was held in Strafford last Wed, Aug. 18th, is now on=line from CATV White
River Junc.
CATV is running the Orange County Democratic Committee debate held in Strafford last week at http://www.catv8.org/
It is free to watch in the “On Demand Video” box under the Channel 10 listings. The next slots are Sun. and Mon. at 9:30 p.m.
CCTV, Gubernatorial debate in Ludlow
CCTV, Gubernatorial forum with the LGBTQ community
CCTV, “Vermont Gubernatorial Candidates Forum at the Green Mountain Club”
VPR, “2010 Democratic Gubernatorial Debate,” Aug. 17, 2010
WDEV, The Mark Johnson Show, “Democratic governors race debate”
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR’S RACE
VPR Debate between Mark Snelling and Sen. Phil Scott, R-Washington
VPR Debate between Democrats Rep. Steve Howard, D-Rutland, and Rep. Chris Bray, D-New Haven
VPR Debate between Progressives Marjorie Power and Boots Wardinski
SECRETARY OF STATE PRIMARY RACE
VPR, “Debate: Republican Secretary of State Candidates”
VPR, “Debate: Democratic Secretary of State Candidates”
A LOOK AT HOW VERMONTERS MIGHT VOTE ON TUESDAY
CCTV, “Chittenden County Votes”
VPR, “Analyst: Democratic Gubernatorial Primary Still ‘Wide Open’”
WDEV, The Mark Johnson Show interview with Eric Davis, political analyst
Part 1, http://blog.markjohnsonshow.net/2010/08/18/81210-eric-davis-pt-1.aspx
Part 2, http://blog.markjohnsonshow.net/2010/08/18/81210-davis-pt-2.aspx
VTDIGGER.ORG FOOTAGE OF THE VERMONT CHAMBER OF COMMERCE “MEET THE CANDIDATES” LUNCHEON
The Vermont Chamber of Commerce held a “Meet the Candidates” luncheon at the Sheraton Hotel in Burlington on Thursday, May 26, as part of its annual business and industry expo.
There were seven candidates present, including Republican Brian Dubie, Vermont’s lieutenant governor, Dennis Steele, who represents the Vermont Second Republic and five Democrats: Sen. Doug Racine, Sen. Susan Bartlett, Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, former state senator and Google executive Matt Dunne and Secretary of State Deb Markowitz.
Chris Graff, former veteran bureau chief and reporter for the Associated Press, posed questions to the candidates that were submitted by members of the Chamber.
Each candidate had 10 minutes to answer the questions, which ranged from “What unique characteristics would you bring to the role of governor?” to “Is Vermont anti-business” to “What is your favorite candy bar?”
Video clips follow, and they are arranged in the order in which the candidates appeared. The first seven are 3-minute or less outtakes. The second set of clips are 10 minutes in length.
In three minutes or less.
The full enchilada.
VTDIGGER.ORG VIDEO FOOTAGE FROM “RACE TO REPLACE VERMONT YANKEE” RALLY
About 40 Vermont college students gathered for a rally dubbed “Race to Replace Vermont Yankee” on the steps of the Statehouse on Friday.
All five Democratic candidates for governor were invited to speak about the Legislature’s initiatives to decommission Vermont Yankee and to talk about the role they envision renewable energy playing in Vermont’s power grid.
Afterward the rally, students rode their bikes 40 miles to Burlington for a gathering to celebrate Vermont’s “clean energy future.”
The event, which was organized by Middlebury College students, is the beginning of a campaign to register younger voters through the summer and to pressure candidates to support wind, solar and biomass energy.
Editor’s note: Apologies to Matt Dunne — vtdigger.org arrived late to the rally and only caught a small segment of his speech.
VTDIGGER.ORG VIDEO FOOTAGE FROM THE DEMOCRATIC GUBERNATORIAL DEBATE AT STERLING COLLEGE
Editor’s note: Sterling College in Craftsbury held a forum for the gubernatorial candidates on June 17. The event was moderated by Jon Margolis, a longtime Chicago Tribune political reporter and columnist who now writes for his own online publication: The Vermont News Guy. Two of the candidates in the five-way Democratic primary, Matt Dunne and Deb Markowitz were unable to attend. Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie, the Republican candidate, did not make an appearance.
Margolis: I’m going to start with a couple of semi-parochial questions, and by semi-parochial I mean they are especially but not exclusively particular to the Northeast Kingdom.
So here’s the first one.
Vermont is a relatively prosperous state. We have a low poverty rate and even lower child poverty rate except for up here. In Orleans County, 19.3 percent of everyone under 18 lives in poverty and in Essex, it’s 23.8 percent. Most of the economic development plans we hear from candidates and others have to do with green jobs, health care jobs, high tech jobs. All good jobs, but they all require a college education.
Is there anything in your economic policy, your job programs that will help rural Vermont high school graduates who don’t have the wherewithal … to go to college but would like to stay here and earn a decent living?
Margolis: Another question that has some peculiar importance to the Northeast Kingdom. This question will first go to Susan Bartlett who sponsored a bill to save a famous moose, whose nickname I will not reveal. I don’t want to get into the details of the situation but one aspect of the legislation that was passed and I believe everyone here voted for it, has created a concern for wildlife officials and not just in Vermont. The law didn’t just save this moose. It transferred the ownership of the moose and 200 white-tailed deer living inside the impoundment up here in Irasburg, transferred to title of those animals to the owner of the land and that’s a violation of the public trust doctrine, which goes back to about the Magna Carta, which holds that all animals belong to all the citizens of the state. Again, without rehashing the particulars of this case, would each of you as governor uphold the public trust doctrine in the future and will you support officials who are trying to enforce the laws regarding wild animals?
Margolis: Sen. Racine you’ve had a good couple of weeks you’ve gotten the endorsements of union organizations and that gives you a big advantage in the primary, but in the general election, the republicans are sure to accuse you of being in the pockets of big spending liberal Democratic constituencies. They’ll say your hands will be tied when it comes to the kind of budget cuts that may be needed. It’ll sort of provide the ammunition they need. The question is, how would you fight back against that line of attack? And then I’d like to hear comments from the other two.
Margolis: Sens. Bartlett and Racine do you call yourselves fiscal conservatives?
Margolis: From a Vermont perspective, we have pretty good schools. They’re also expensive and one of the reasons is we have one of the lowest teacher to pupil ratios in the country because we have a lot of small schools. One of the issues in the legislature was whether we should consolidate school districts. In general, how would you hold down the rising cost of public education without degrading the quality of our schools? And, specifically, do you think some sort of consolidation is necessary or don’t you think this per pupil ratio is really that big of a problem.
Audience question: What specifically would the three candidates do to improve health care in Vermont?
Sterling College President Will Wootton: Would you each give us one self-identified characteristic that you think will lend strength to your leadership and one characteristic you think you’re going to have to watch out for in the governorship?
MENTAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES FORUM
What follows is a list of questions and video clips of the candidates’ statements.
Question: Given the state’s financial crisis, can you please provide two examples that reflect the values you will use to balance the budget particularly as it affects families with members who have developmental disabilities mental illness and substance abuse issues?
John Everett: What’s your long-term thinking about how we move forward to ensure mental health services are available for young people?
Erica Nestor: My daughter is 6 years old and very disabled. We, and when I say we, I mean a lot of people in the community, take care of her. She does go to school, but she is also at home and my husband and I have every intention of her staying at home so we very much don’t see an institution in her future and that’s part of what’s great about being in Vermont the community-based care she receives. They closed the Brandon Training School and there was a promise then that you would meet the needs of consumers in this community. So my question is, what commitment are you willing to make as governor to the families that have seen their services reduced?
Connie: I’m from Burlington and I have a family member who was recently admitted to Vermont State Hospital. My question for all of you is do you support the plan put forward by the mental health commissioner and his proposal to fund it with federal Medicaid money? And if you don’t support that and the funding mechanism, how would do you replace the beds, how would you pay for it and how would you get this done?
EDUCATION FORUM AT UVM
VERMONT LEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS FORUM
Should Vermont Yankee be shut down in 2012? The candidates say yes
The sound bites
Racine: “Entergy has given me no confidence that they are operating Yankee safely and that’s a bottom line issue for me.”
Shumlin: “How many people have been told that we need this cheap power. If it’s so cheap, why won’t they tell us what the price will be?”
Dunne: “Every day goes by that we are not clear about what we’re going to do about Vermont Yankee is simply irresponsible.”
Markowitz: “Vermont Yankee is not part of our energy future. Our future rests with local renewable energy and efficiency.”
Bartlett: “Our future is in renewable energy. Every year Vermonters send out of state $1 billion. That’s basically the size of our General Fund budget, just think if we kept half that — $500 million a year in state.”
Answers to questions about Act 250, the Vermont Housing and Conservation Trust Board and water pollution follow.
Does Act 250 need to be changed?
The sound bites
Dunne: “We need to make sure that important laws like Act 250 are not the scapegoats for the fact that we have not had an economic development plan in this state for the last eight years. That doesn’t mean we can’t make changes to Act 250 to make it better.” Dunne is calling for a more predictable and transparent permitting process. He would make redevelopment of brownfields a priority.
Markowitz: “What I’ve heard is that it isn’t the standards aren’t the problem with Act 250, it’s really the process. Folks want a thumbs up or thumbs down. We have to look at the bureaucracy of the Agency of Natural Resources.” Markowitz says ANR has “lost its way.”
Racine: “Act 250 works. Are there shortcomings? Yes. Can we make it better? Yes. But to me it’s about management, it’s about having a governor who’s committed to a clean environment and who is committed to making the system work and who is committed to not letting flaws in the system become excuses to diminish our environmental protections.”
Bartlett: “What’s wrong with the permit process? It’s too long, it’s too difficult for citizens to be involved. The fundamental flaw in attempts at permit reform has been the failure to integrate the 40-50 permits ANR issues. Act 250 needs to be simple, fast and affordable.”
Shumlin: “Act 250 has served us well, and the reason we don’t have the problems of Las Vegas and Miami and the rest is because we don’t speculate here. We have a process that allows us to plan.” The Douglas administration, George Crombie and the rest have almost single-handedly destroyed environmental protection in this state.”
Would you continue to fund the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board?
The sound bites
Markowitz: “These are investments that pay back in our communities. We can think of it as our permanent stimulus fund.”
Bartlett: “It’s great economic development.” Bartlett says she would use bonded dollars to fund VHCB investments.
Racine: “We would have to go to the Capital Bill to fund it. Businesses make investments even when times are tough. It’s only at their peril that they ignore making investments. And the state is no different.”
Shumlin: “The Douglas administration will propose not to do conservation in tough economic times.” Shumlin says land conservation is even more important than ever with the onset of global warming.
Dunne: “It’s important to stay focused on this longterm goal.” Dunne’s father helped to found the Vermont Land Trust.
How would you protect Vermont’s waterways from stormwater pollution?
The sound bites
Bartlett: “We have failed to implement this (stormwater) policy for at least the last 10 years. … There are inexpensive easy ways to mitigate stormwater.”
Racine: “I would start by enforcing our existing laws. I would address suburban sprawl and work with communities that are addressing make sure taking maximum advantage of visionary laws and programs with downtowns and growth centers as a way of targeting development.”
Dunne: “Developers who are trying to cutting corners and adding to pollution (should) pay for it.”
Markowitz: “One of the major contributors to pollution is government.”
Shumlin: “The tension between dairy farmers and businesses has to end. Farmers don’t want to be polluting the resources precious to Vermont, so the question is, how do we give them the tools to make sure they’re not polluting the streams.”
The candidate’s pitches
The sound bites
Markowitz: We’ve been offered a false choice by Jim Douglas and the Republicans that every time we choose the environment, we’re doing it at the expense of the economy.
Bartlett: “This election is going to be about government learning how to restructure itself, how we offer as government the services people need in a better, faster, more efficient manner.”
Racine: “Climate change is the biggest threat to the human race and our planet since the dawn of the nuclear age. Vermont can take the lead, has taken the lead and should continue to lead.”
Shumlin: “As we as a society get off our addiction to oil and move to renewable energy technology, there’s going to be a huge economic boom created. This transformation is going to affect everything that we do, how we move around, how we produce our food, how we build our homes.”
Dunne: “In order to turn this economic corner and to be a leader in the country in terms of green jobs, we must be a leader in the environmental movement.”
