[T]wo months after Gov. Peter Shumlin won the popular vote by a razor thin margin, the governor was officially re-elected to a third term by the Legislature on Thursday morning.
But the political victory over Republican Scott Milne was fleeting.
By afternoon, Shumlin again lost ground.
The governor said the day after the election that he had heard voters’ concerns and that he was humbled by his near loss.
But his inaugural address, which he will give in two parts, was remarkable for what he didn’t say. Shumlin didn’t address the No. 1 issue lawmakers believe motivated Vermonters to support Milne: low wages and the high cost of living in Vermont, exacerbated by increases in statewide property taxes and spiraling health care costs.
Shumlin put off talking about his plans for education, the budget and health care until his budget address next week.
Some observers say that may have been a tactical error.
Instead of galvanizing the public with a vision for how to rejuvenate the economy, the governor chose to talk about important environmental initiatives that are largely already underway, such as creating a renewable portfolio standard and cleaning up Lake Champlain.
The goals are not visionary. They are on the state’s must-do list. Renewable energy policy changes were inevitable this year because the statute that allows the sale of renewable credits sunsets in 2017. And the state must make a concerted effort to clean up Lake Champlain or face spending hundreds of millions of dollars on new wastewater treatment plants under the Clean Water Act.
That isn’t to say there were no new ideas here. Shumlin wants to create 1,000 new jobs in the renewable and energy efficiency sectors. He also announced that Keurig Green Mountain is seeding a Clean Water Fund with a $5 million gift to the state for lake cleanup. Farmers will finally be penalized financially if they don’t change manure-spreading practices that are feeding toxic blue-green algae blooms in the lake.
Many voters who are part of the governor’s liberal base will find these ideas refreshing.
But some observers, liberals and conservatives alike, say the speech didn’t address the issue most voters are concerned about: affordability. Many Vermonters are worried about their jobs, their children’s futures and their ability to pay their bills. Wages have remained stagnant while the cost of living continues to go up.
The governor didn’t talk about job creation across all sectors and support for businesses that need to adapt to new technology and globalization. And he didn’t assuage the concerns of voters who believe the state’s education system is bloated and doesn’t give students the kind of jumpstart they need as adults in a rapidly changing economy.
And he didn’t rally Democratic, Progressive, Republican and independent lawmakers who want to tackle structural reforms in education, health care and state government this year.
Two of his colleagues, meanwhile, did address those issues. Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Scott held an economy pitch in at the Capitol Plaza on Tuesday, and House Speaker Shap Smith, a Democrat, has made property tax and education spending reform his top priorities.
After hearing the governor’s speech, one lawmaker who cast a ballot for Shumlin said he wished he could change his vote.
It wasn’t that lawmakers opposed the substance of the speech. They were stunned that Shumlin, after two months of uncertainty about whether he would be elected by the Legislature, didn’t seize the opportunity to offer what Vermonters want: Leadership in troubled economic times.
Shumlin wasn’t helped by disruptions from obstreperous protesters who demanded that the governor and the Legislature move forward with a single payer health care plan. They sang, chanted, shouted demands and unfurled banners in the middle of the inaugural ceremony. Even lawmakers who say they support single payer say the demonstrators may have damaged their own cause by going too far.
While some lawmakers were incensed by their behavior, several said the protesters were justly indignant about the governor’s willingness to use his liberal base to get elected three times and then after four years of delays, scrap single payer plan without letting a proposal move forward in the Legislature.
The protestors achieved one goal: They marred the inaugural enough to make it difficult for Shumlin, who was already in a politically fragile state, to claim a re-election victory from the jaws of defeat on Thursday.
Typically, notable visitors, Supreme Court justices, senators and the governor are given rounds of applause as their departure is announced by the Senate president and they leave the inaugural ceremony through the front entrance of the House Chamber.
Instead, Shumlin and other dignitaries were escorted out of the chamber through the back exit, to the sound of protesters singing in the background.
Lawmakers streamed out of the chamber like a herd of deer in the headlights, scattering to their committee rooms.
It was an inauspicious day at the beginning of what will be an interesting biennium.
