Editor’s note: In this special report, Vtdigger.org examines the sources of campaign money for Vermont’s gubernatorial candidates. More than 300 pages of campaign finance report spreadsheets, which are not available in searchable database format on the Secretary of State’s Web site, were analyzed by hand. The information for all six candidates for governor was divided into the following six different categories: in-state donations of $1,000 or more, out-of-state donations, political action committee contributions, Vermont entities (businesses and associations) and out-of-state entities.
Where possible, Vtdigger.org has identified donors who are public figures, are affiliated with large companies, or have notable political affiliations.
The data used for this series came from the Vermont Secretary of State’s office.
Our first report focused on contributions to the sole Republican candidate, Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie; this second article in the series examines donations to the five Democratic candidates, who are engaged in the five-way primary fight set for Aug. 24.
We have broken down the Democratic campaign finance reports by candidate, and in the order of the total amounts they’ve raised in the last two reporting periods – July 15, 2009 and July 15, 2010. The front runner in the race to shake out the most from the political money tree is Markowitz, who is followed by Shumlin, Dunne, Racine and Bartlett.
The next round of campaign finance reports are due Aug. 16.
Businesses hold back; philanthropists, activists and stock market investors fill the ranks
Money talks. Sometimes in ways that are unanticipated. An analysis of Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie’s campaign finances showed that he not only received the most contributions – but also the highest amount from Vermont residents and businesses (more than $600,000). In addition, he has received more money from an array of corporations – pharmaceutical, fuel, manufacturing, construction, insurance and real estate industries, in addition to political action committees — than his five Democratic contenders combined.
Political experts point to two main indicators that show just how much support a candidate has: the total number of small donations (even though they usually don’t add up to large amounts of money, they show a candidate’s breadth of support) and the total amount of donations. On that score, Dubie has handily outpaced the five Democrats – Matt Dunne, Peter Shumlin, Susan Bartlett, Doug Racine and Deb Markowitz — individually.
Dubie has 2,724 contributors of $100 or less, while the Dems have attracted 3,426 small donors.
Together, the five Democrats in the primary have raised $1.4 million – compared with Dubie’s grand total of $943,960.
Though as a unit, the Dems are ahead of Dubie in fund raising, the question is, once voters have chosen a General Election candidate, will a Democrat pick up the money and groundswell of support to defeat Dubie? We’d need the psychic octopus to figure that one out.
And it’s likely we could use the genius cephalopod long before that. Will the cash that flushes through the primary for field staff, mailings and TV ads determine the winner? Are supporters already tapped out? (Some campaigns complain it’s becoming very difficult to raise money.)
Peter Shumlin is using his personal wealth and fundraising savvy to pay for a TV advertising campaign blitz that is already in its fourth week. He has produced four TV spots that have aired on the state’s four main stations, while the other candidates have yet to put up television commercials. Dunne has sent out tweets all weekend trying to raise about $30,000 for ads, and Markowitz has announced that she has produced an ad that will air on her web site and television stations.
Racine’s campaign manager, Amy Shollenberger, says her candidate, who came in with a surprisingly low campaign total, is right on budget. They have produced an ad that they had planned, from the beginning, to run the week before the primary, she said. Racine doesn’t need to spend money on commercials because he already has statewide name recognition, she said, particularly in populous Chittenden County, as a result of his 30 years in state politics. In addition, she says while his rivals have to pay campaign workers to make calls, send out mailings and canvass voters, Racine’s army of 500 volunteers will help to fill the money gap.
Bartlett is running a very cheap campaign. How cheap is it? Her campaign manager John Bauer applied white duct tape to old state senate signs. “I’d rather recycle signs and pay for field staff,” Bauer said. Bartlett doesn’t plan to run television ads.
Though the Democrats like to talk about their economic development plans – and four of the candidates, with the exception of Racine (his is planned for release next week) have issued formal reports outlining their plans for job creation to great fanfare – the fact is very few businesses have put bets on the primary race, though in some cases, proprietors or CEOs have ponied up as individual donors.
The Democrats have the backing of a total of 38 businesses that have shelled out $24,264, compared with the 130 that have come out in support of Dubie to the tune of $128,000.
Will Patten, executive director of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, says this isn’t surprising.
“I think businesses are going to wait until the Democratioc field is winnowed down,” Patten said. “I don’t think you could conclude from the numbers today that businesses are more supportive of Dubie than the Democratic candidates. The per candidate contribution is less, but the aggregate is more. You’ll find businesses getting more involved, once there is a single Democratic candidate.”
Patten said whoever is elected is going to make decisions that are going to have a lasting impact on every Vermonter, and “this election is going to determine how they’re made.”
“I truly believe that business is paying more attention to this election than ever before,” Patten said.
The majority of big donors to the Dems so far are law firms, Wall Street investors and philanthropists.
There was very little direct donor crossover. Bill Stetson, a prominent donor to state and national candidates (he was a major contributor to Barack Obama), selected three out of the five: Shumlin ($2,000), Racine ($2,000) and Dunne ($1,500). Another frequent contributor, Prentiss Smith, gave money to Markowitz ($1,500), Dunne ($1,000) and Racine ($1,000).
What follows is an analysis, by candidate, of Democratic fundraising efforts from the July 15, 2009 to July 15, 2010 reporting period.
DEB MARKOWITZ
The Secretary of State brought in $333,209 in the last 12 months. All told, Markowitz has raised $523,946 in her bid for governor.
Twenty percent of the funding for the secretary of state’s bid for governor comes from large, in-state donations of more than $1,000. Five contributors gave $2,000 each; Dubie has 82 $2kers on his list.
Markowitz received 260 donations from out-of-state contributors, who gave her a total of about $60,000, or about 18 percent of her total fund-raising efforts this year. Most of these contributions are in the $100 to $200 range. About $18,000 is from donors who have given $1,000 to $2,000.
About 10 percent of the money Markowitz generated in the last 12 months is from the 1,070 small donors who have contributed a total of $33,282 to her campaign.
Her support from 11 Vermont businesses totals $2,670 (largely from law firms and several lobbyists), and she’s raised $700 from out-of-state companies. Her business donations total about 1 percent.
In-state political action committees account for $900; her only out-of-state PAC funding is from Emily’s List, which contributed $3,000.
Together, they represent less than 1 percent of her funding in the current reporting year.
A large proportion of Markowitz’s donors are Vermonters who gave between $100 to $1,000, but because candidates are not required to submit reports to the Secretary of State’s Office in spreadsheet format, it was not possible to calculate the total.
Like one of her contenders, Matt Dunne, Markowitz made a personal donation to her campaign of $1,121, and her husband Paul gave $335.
What follows is a sampling of the givers, broken down by category.
National Democratic VIPs
Sen. Tom Daschle, $2,000, and his wife, Linda Daschle, $1,000.
Lis Hannan, $1,000. Executive for Weight Watchers and major national Democratic Party donor, Farmington Hills, Mich.
Barbara Lee, $2,000. Philanthropist, major national Democratic Party donor, Cambridge, Mass.
Greg Jobin-Leeds, $1,500. Co-founder of Partnership for Democracy and Education, major national Democratic Party contributor, Cambridge, Mass.
Maria Jobin-Leeds, $1,500. Co-founder and managing partner of Partnership for Democracy and Education, major national Democratic Party donor, Cambridge, Mass.
Vermont Democratic VIPs
Billi Gosh, $250. Delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
Gov. Madeleine Kunin, $250.
In-state companies and entities
Cota & Cota, Inc., $500. fuel dealer, plus $1,000 from Sean Cota, CEO.
Green Living Journal, $100.
Vermont Optometric Association, $100.
G. Housen and Company, $100. Beer and wine distributor based in Brattleboro.
Large in-state donations from individuals
Tim Volk, $902. President of the marketing firm, Kelliher Samets Volk.
Yoram Samets, $1,500. Co-founder of Kelliher Samets Volk.
Mike Kanarick, $1,125. President of Jvillage Network.
Elke Pinn, $1,500. Anesthesiologist.
Sheila Hollender, $1,700. Philanthropist and wife of Jeffrey Hollender, founder and CEO of Seventh Generation.
Jan Blittersdorf, $2,000. Philanthropist and wife of David Blittersdorf, founder of NRG systems, a wind generation manufacturer in Charlotte.
Sydney Lea, $1,125. Poet and professor.
Carolyn Chaudoir, $2,346. Therapist.
Lisa Lorimer, $2,000. Former CEO of Vermont Bread Co.
Dan Cox, $1,000. Coffee analyst.
Jean Szilva, $1,175. UVM associate provost.
Allison Caldwell, $1,500. River Rock School co-director.
Marion Kellogg, $1,150. Large donor to the national Democratic party.
Real estate, construction and development
Philip Taylor, $1,500. Builder and frequent contributor to the Democratic Party.
Robin Shield, $1,000. Chairman of Norwich Partners, LLC, a hotel development company.
Larry Williams, $1,000. Partner in Redstone, a property management and development firm.
The financial industry
Sanjay Sathe, $1,000. Financial adviser and frequent Dem donor.
Gene Richards, $1,000. Founder of Spruce Mortgage.
Michel Guite, $1,000. Wall Street financier, (he also sent $7,000 to Dubie, $5,000 of which was returned because it exceeded the maximum allowed for an individual donation).
Prentiss Smith, $1,500. Brattleboro investor, (he gave $2,000 to Democratic candidate Peter Shumlin as well).
Notable Vermont contributors
Edwin Colodny, former airline executive; Don Vickers, CEO of Vermont Student Assistance Corp.; Bill Dalton, deputy Secretary of State; Sandra Levine, lawyer for Conservation Law Foundation; Ken Squier, owner of WDEV and Thunder Road; Rep. Tim Jerman; Deborah K. Ramsdell, former representative from Charlotte; Katherine Paterson, children’s book author; Laura Moore, state Senate candidate for Washington County.
Vemont lobbyists
Kimbell Sherman Ellis, $300; Sirotkin and Necrason, $250.
Vermont lawyers
Crispe and Crispe, $100; Kramer Law Offices, $250; Shillen & Mackall Law Office, $100; Diamond & Robinson, $670; Nichols and Associates, $100; Beth Danon, $1,000; Keith Kasper, $2,000, and his wife, Fran Pomerantz, $2,000; Leslie Cadwell, $1,000; David Chipman, $1,150; and Robin Barone, $1,425.
Out-of-state companies
TMG Public Relations, $500, New York City,;
Capitol City Group, Providence, R.I., $100
Large out-of-state donations
Josh Bekenstein, $1,000. Managing director of Bain Capital.
Leonard Fox, $2,000. Rare book purveyor, New York City.
Felicia Lipson, $1,000. Marketing professional, New York City.
Lauren Mitchell, $2,000. Theater producer, New York City.
Richard Borisoff, $1,000. Lawyer, Hastings on Hudson, N.Y.
Stanley Chesley, $1,000. Lawyer, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Vermont Political Action Committees
Patient Choices Vermont Victory Fund, $300.
Committee to Elect Ed Adrian, $100.
PETER SHUMLIN
In seven months, the Senate President Pro Tem brought in $418,490 – though $155,000 of that came out of his own pocket.
In addition to lending himself a large wad of cash, his brother, Jeffrey Shumlin, contributed $7,300; Shumlin for Senate donated $6,670; Shumlin’s wife, Deb, made an in-kind contribution of $1,785 for event food; Kitty, his mother, donated $1,500; and his father, George, gave $800. All told, the Shumlin clan contribution is $173,055, or 41 percent of the total the President Pro Tem has raised. (Immediate family members are allowed under the law to give unlimited amounts to candidates.)
Unlike Markowitz, Shumlin has not found a ready source of support from small contributors so far. His total number of under $100 donors is 390, while Markowitz has well over 1,000 small-time supporters and Dubie’s total is more than 2,700. Shumlin has brought in 2.5 percent, or $20,752 in small donations.
Eighteen percent of his contributions, or $77,000, comes from big in-state donors. Of his core group of 44 large Vermont contributors, 11 are in the $2ker club.
Shumlin, who led the effort to shut down the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, has also garnered the financial support of alternative energy entrepreneurs and anti-nuke advocacy groups. His push for gay marriage legislation also attracted contributions from members of the lesbian and gay community from around the country.
His business backing comes in at $14,601, or about 3 percent of the total, compared with Markowitz, who has $3,370 in company support. Dubie has received $128,000 from businesses.
The out-of-state donations, large and small, are $92,000, or 11 percent of Shumlin’s funds.
What follows is a sampling of individuals and entities that have contributed to the state senator’s bid for governor.
National Democratic VIPs
Chad Leat, $2,000. An investor for Citigroup in New York, a “bundler” who raised $50,000 for Barack Obama in 2008 through friends and acquaintances, according to opensecrets.org.
Vermont Democratic VIPs
Bill Stetson, $2,000. Private investor and large donor to the Democratic Party (his wife, Jane, is a member of the Obama administration). He also gave $1,500 to Dunne and $2,000 to Racine.
Peter Galbraith, $1,000. Former ambassador to Croatia.
Rep. Paul Poirier, $1,000. Former majority leader of the Vermont Statehouse.
Former Speaker of the House Tim O’Connor, $1,000.
Large in-state donations
Ann Raynolds, psychologist, $1,723.
Arthur Berndt, private investor, $2,000, and his wife, Anne Berndt, $2,000.
Beth Robinson, $1,000. Attorney in the landmark case Baker v. Vermont.
Ellen Oxfeld, $1,900. Professor of anthropology at Middlebury College.
John Bernstein, $1,000. Democratic party donor.
John Burt, $2,000. New York theater producer.
John McKenzie, $2,000. President of the McKenzie Family Charitable Trust.
Sheri Momaney, $1,000. Democratic Party donor.
Steve Kimbell, $1,000. Retired lobbyist.
Tim Cowles, $1,000. Artist.
William Lintilhac, $1,000. Philanthropist.
In-state businesses
Stanley “Pal” Borofsky, $1,000. Owner of Sam’s Outdoor Outfitters. His wife, Donna, also gave $1,000.
Elizabeth Smith, $2,000. Graphic designer in Brattleboro.
Hugh Davis, $1,000. Guild Construction in Putney.
Pamar Importing Company, $500. Greek shipping business.
James Powers, $1,000. CPA in Montpelier.
Jeffrey Hollender, $1,000. CEO of Seventh Generation.
Robert Johnson, $1,000. President of Omega Optical, a scientific instrument manufacturer in Brattleboro.
The Relics Fine Guitar Collection, $2,000.
Retrovest Companies, $1,101. Development company in lieu of office rent.
Energy
John Warshow, $1,000. Alternative energy developer. Plus $1,000 from his wife, Jenny.
Jeffrey Wolfe, $750. Founder of groSolar, a residential solar installation company based in Strafford.
David Blittersdorf, $2,000 personal donation, plus three other entities in which he is an owner: $2,000 from Earth NRG Systems, $2,000 from Earth Turbines and $2,000 from Vermont Dragonfly.
Large out-of-state donations
Financiers/investors
Doug Sacks, $1,000. Investment banker with The Goldman Sachs Group in New York City.
Seth Hamot, $2,000. Investor based in Brookline, Mass.
Claire Walton, $1,000; founding partner at Liberty Square Asset Management in Boston.
LGBT activists
Carol Master, $2,000, Massachusetts resident. According to the Los Angeles Times, Master gave $12,000 to oppose California’s Proposition 8, a ban on gay marriage.
Charles R. Williams, $1,000, California philanthropist who gave $2.5 million to launch the Williams Institute at the UCLA Law School, which is dedicated to gay and lesbian studies.
John Stryker, $2,000. President of the Arcus Foundation, which funds gay and lesbian rights groups.
Tom Bombardier, $2,000, and John Fowler, $2,000. National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce supporters.
Real estate agents, development, contractors
Charles Yedlin, $1,050. Contractor and developer from Princeton, NJ.
Daniel Rose, $1,000. Real estate developer with a Madison Avenue address in New York City. Plus, $1,000 from his wife, philanthropist Joanna Rose.
Jane Greenburg, $2,000. New York real estate agent.
Ronald Ansin, $2,000. Massachusetts developer.
Other large out-of-state donors
Esmond Harmsworth, $1,000. Founder of a literary agency in Boston.
Eve Waterfall, $1,000. Partners in HealthCare a health care provider conglomerate in Boston.
Gerald Friedman, $1,000. Large donor to Democratic party.
Henry Van Amerigen, $2,000. President of the Amerigen Foundation.
Jack Rieley, $2,000. Music producer who worked with the Beach Boys, Kool & the Gang and Prince.
John Jakobson, $2,000. John Jakobson Foundation, 830 Park Ave., New York, New York.
Joseph Falk, $1,000. Miami-based, national law firm. Major Democratic party donor.
Shelby White, $2,000. Antiquities collector in New York.
Stephanie Cabot, $1,000. New York literary agent.
Stephen King, $2,000. Author
Author John Irving, $1,000, and his wife, Janet, $1,000.
Christiaan Bunce Design, $500, interior design firm in NY.
Dirk Van Dall, $1,000. Digital video expert based in New York.
Wendy Belzberg, $1,000. Former television producer
Lobbyists under $500
Stannard Associates (representing Citizens Action Network, an anti-Vermont Yankee group), Sirotkin & Necrason
In-state political action committees/associations
Clean Green Vermont Alliance, $2,000, anti-nuke group that has called for the shutdown of Vermont Yankee.
Patient Choices of Vermont Victory Fund, $300.
Vermont Soft Drink Association, $1,000. Represented by MacLean, Meehan & Rice.
Notable Vermont Contributors
Barbara Carris, wife of Sen. Bill Carris; Rep. David Deen; former state auditor Liz Ready; author Deborah Lee Luskin; Gwendolyn Hallsmith, executive director of Global Community Initiative, and former Montpelier planning director; Richard Saudek, former commissioner of the Department of Public Service; painter Wolf Kahn.
MATT DUNNE
If there is a hare in this race for cold, hard cash it’s Matt Dunne. He went the furthest – raking in $267,860 in just seven and a half months — the fastest. Dunne beat out all but one contender in the money game – Markowitz, who had five more months than he did to collect Franklins.
Dunne accomplished this feat thanks to a little help from his out-of-state friends. Dunne has monied contacts from Washington, D.C., where he served as head of Americorps VISTA, and from Silicon Valley via his current employer – the Internet search engine giant Google.
Dunne raised roughly $119,000, or 44.5 percent, of his money from more than 200 acquaintances who for the most part live in New Hampshire, which borders his hometown of Hartland, or on the East and West Coasts.
The next highest category is in-state donations from large donors. Dunne held his own, with about 45 donations of $1,000 to $2,000, totaling $50,000, or 18.6 percent — though only three $2kers were in the mix.
He amassed $43,997, or 16.4 percent, in small donations of $100 or less from 722 individuals.
His business donations totaled $2,562, equaling less than 1 percent of the total. He has also received donations from individuals who work for or own important entities in Vermont, such as Gardener’s Supply, Eating Well Magazine and King Arthur Flour.
Like Markowitz, Dunne gave himself a donation of $2,000.
What follows is a sampling of individuals and entities that have contributed to Dunne’s campaign.
Large individual in-state donors
Valerie Graham, $1,275. Major national Democratic Party donor. Husband, William Graham $1,050.
Gail Holmes, $1,060. Cheesemaker, major national Democratic Party donor.
Lisa Cashdan, $1,000. Philanthropic advisor.
John Reese, $1,000. Advertising consultant. His wife, Deborah, gave $1,000.
Larry Levitsky, $1,000. Business consultant.
Warren and Barry King, $1,000. Philanthropists.
Frank Sands, $1,000. President of King Arthur Flour.
Dr. Stephen Plume, $1,000. Cardiologist.
Kevin Bowie, $1,000. General manager of Shearer Honda.
Jay Canning, $1,000. Courtyard by Marriott Burlington Harbor, hotel developer.
Helene Langevin, $1,000. Internist, acupuncturist and research associate professor of neurology and orthopedics at the University of Vermont.
Large individual out-of-state donors
Bernard Schwartz, $2,000. Aerospace mogul, Loral Space and Communications.
Laurene Powell Jobs, $1,000. A co-founder of Terravera, a chain of natural food stores, and the wife of Steve Jobs, founder of Apple.
Scott Fairchild, $1,000. Chief of staff for Congressman Patrick Murphy, Democrat from Pennsylvania.
Kala Stroup, $1,000. Kansas-based founder of American Humanics, a nonprofit training group.
Lee Halprin, $1,000. A top national Democratic Party donor in 2010.
John Wagner, $2,000. Owner of Wagner Rehab, New Hampshire-based medical management company that serves disabled patients.
Stratton Taylor, $1,000. Oklahoma lawmaker.
Julie Chaiken, $1,000. Designer, Chaiken Clothing. Major Democratic Party donor.
Nancy Lublin, $2,000. Founder of DoSomething.org
Peter Burling, $2,000. Former New Hampshire state senator. His wife, Hilary Burling, gave $1,000.
Douglas McAlinden, $1,000. Chief financial officer of New York-based McAlinden Associates.
Samantha Skey, $1,000. Executive vice president of strategic marketing for Alloy Media + Marketing.
Don Munce, $1,000. CEO of National Research Center for College University Admission.
Vermont financiers/business consultants
Charles Kireker, $500. Founder of Fresh Tracks Capital, and his wife, Marie, $1,000.
Jill Michaels, $1,250. Economic development consultant.
Leo McKenna, $1,000. Financial adviser.
Prentiss Smith, $1,000. Investor.
Grant Davies, $1,000. Business consultant.
Ned Coffin, $1,040. Retired businessman.
Out-of-state financiers/business advisers
Christopher Brousseau, $2,000. Industry consultant with Accenture.
David Baltaxe, $1,000. Current Analysis, business consulting firm.
Whitney Tilson, $1,000. Wall Street investor.
Trevor Loy, $1,000. Flywheel Ventures, venture capital firm.
Kevin T. Ferro, $1,000. Founder of Ferro Capital, a New York-based hedge fund.
Lawyers
David Lashway, $1,000. D.C.-based environmental lawyer.
Gerald Farano, $2,000. D.C.-based corporate attorney.
Michael Pacht, $1,000. Taftsville, Vt., lawyer.
High tech donors
Reid Hoffman, $2,000. Co-founder of LinkedIn, a social networking platform.
Everett Harper, $1,000. Macerate Ventures.
Urs Hoelzle, $2,000. Senior vice president of operations at Google.
John Burchett, $1,500. Google state policy counsel.
Alfred Spector, $1,000. Google vice president of research.
Craig Powell, $1,200. CEO of Connectedu
Notable Vermont contributors
Bruce Lisman, Wall Street financier and Dubie supporter; Sen. Hinda Miller, founder of JogBra; John Bloch, board president of Onion River Cable Access; Margaret and Louis Kannenstine; Jill Tane, a donor to Markowitz and Emily’s List; Robert Costanza, head of the Gund Institute at the University of Vermont; Laura Carlsmith of Eating Well Magazine.
Vermont Lobbyists
Sirotkin & Necrason and Kimbell Sherman Ellis.
DOUG RACINE
CORRECTION: Cynthia Metcalf was misidentified in this section. She has served as chair of the Vermont Democratic Party, and she worked for Doug Racine when he was lieutenant governor. She donated $1,000 to Racine’s campaign. We apologize for the error.
Doug Racine’s fourth place finish in the campaign “fundrace” came as a surprise to political observers because until July 15, the longtime state senator and former lieutenant governor had been buoyed by a round of endorsements from four major statewide groups – three of which, Vermont-NEA, the AFL-CIO, the Vermont State Employees Association, are unions. (Racine also received the unqualified backing of the Vermont League of Conservation Voters.)
Racine was the first to announce his bid for governor in January 2009, and so has had more time than any other candidate to amass money, but he has been unable to capitalize on that early start in the way Markowitz has. In the first reporting period, he brought in $102,415, and in the second he raised $107,742. Secretary of State Markowitz, who was the second of the five Democrats to launch a campaign, brought in more than $200,000 in the first year, and doubled her money in the second reporting period.
Large donors who have contributed between $1,000 and $2,000 make up about 31.5 percent or $33,000 of his funding (he has eight $2kers in the mix).
About $32,000 or 30 percent of his donations are from small contributors who have given $100 or less.
Racine has loaned himself $10,817 in mileage expenses, and his parents, Willy and Annette Racine, gave him $4,035. In all, his personal support is $14,852 or 13.7 percent of the total he has raised in the last year.
Roughly 8 percent, or $9,500, came from Vermont political action committees.
Of the five candidates, he has received the least amount from out-of-state donors: $1,600, or 1.4 percent. Even Bartlett, who is about $30,000 behind Racine, has taken $7,970 from donors outside Vermont. Of the Democrats, Dunne has received the largest amount $119,000 in contributions from out-of-staters, followed by Shumlin ($77,000) and Markowitz ($60,000).
Only two Vermont businesses supported him – Flamingo Flats and Vermont Solar Farm for a total of $1,000, less than 1 percent of his overall fundraising. Bartlett, by comparison, raised about $3,500 from local companies. Dunne scored poorly with companies, drawing about $2,500 in donations.
One out-of-state company, Halkeen Management, based in Norwood, Mass., has made an in-kind contribution of $1,000 for his office space.
What follows is a sampling of individuals and entities that have contributed to Racine’s campaign.
In-state groups and political action committees
Vermont Conservation PAC, $3,000.
Vermont-NEA Fund for Children, $2,000.
Kate Webb for Vermont House, $200.
Northeast Kingdom Labor Council (AFL-CIO), $1,000.
Vermont Political Awareness Committee (Vermont State Employees Association), $3,000.
Patient Choices Vermont Victory Fund, $300.
Out of state PAC
Local 1996 PAC Fund, Augusta, Maine. $500.
Large in-state donors
Gov. Phil Hoff, $1,500.
Dorothy Hines, $1,000. Large national Democratic Party contributor.
Juliann Moenter, $2,000. Veterinarian.
Lucinda Senning, $1,998, in-kind donation. Senning is an officer of the Emily Post Institute. Her husband, John, gave $2,000.
Thomas Gray, $1,500. American Wind Energy Association. Wife, Linda Gray, $1,019.
Prentiss Smith, $1,000. Investor.
Kent Smith, $1,000. Retired attorney, major national Democratic Party donor.
Elizabeth Skarie, $2,000. Wife of Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream.
Lisa Steele, $2,000. Member of the Bancroft family, former owners of the Dow Jones Company.
Bill Stetson, $2,000. Investor and large donor to the Democratic Party (his wife, Jane, is a member of the Obama administration). He also gave $1,500 to Dunne and $2,000 to Shumlin.
Lola Van Wagenen, $1,000. Ex-wife of actor Robert Redford.
John Walz, $1,000. Systems analyst.
Notable Vermont contributors
Steve Terry, retired senior vice president for corporate and legal affairs for Green Mountain Power; Dexter Randall, former Progressive Party representative from the Northeast Kingdom; John Treadwell, lawyer; Timothy Searles, the recently retired executive director of the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity; Con Hogan, former secretary of the Agency of Human Services (disclosure: Hogan is also a member of the vtdigger.org advisory board); William Mathis, an associate professor at the University of Vermont who frequently opines on education finance; Christopher Curtis, staff attorney for Vermont Legal Aid; Rep. Susan Hasazi; Dan Smith, Montpelier attorney; Rep. George Till, a gynecologist and obstetrician in Jericho.
Vermont Lobbyist
Kimbell, Sherman and Ellis.
SUSAN BARTLETT
Sen. Susan Bartlett came in last in the fund-raising race. On July 15, she reported a total of $70,919 – about 7 percent of Dubie’s kitty and 13 percent of Markowitz’s total.
That said, she scored comparatively well on the small donor scale – attracting 232 contributors of $100 or less. Shumlin, who raised about $250,000, had only 390 small contributors.
Bartlett put $11,709 left over from her Senate campaign into her gubernatorial bid. She raised $7,970 from out-of-state donors; $2,000 from the Wilshire Corp. based in Clifton Park, N.Y.; $14,500 from large in-state donors; and $3,500 from Vermont businesses. One Vermont lobbying firm, Sirotkin & Necrason, gave the former Senate Appropriations Committee Chair $250. Her sole PAC is the anonymous Patient Choices Vermont Victory Fund.
Notable Vermont contributors
Frank Cioffi, executive director of the Greater Burlington Industrial Corp.; Robert Young, retiring CEO of Central Vermont Public Service Corp.; David Yacovone, director of state legislative affairs for the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems; John Warshow, alternative energy developer; and Sen. Bill Carris and his wife, Barbara.
