Editor’s note: Digger Tidbits is a news analysis column. Kate Robinson contributed to this report.
Since the General Election began on Sept. 10, the gubernatorial candidates have subjected the Vermont public to an unprecedented level of ugliness on the airwaves and campaign trail. One wonders come Nov. 3 – after political operatives Corry Bliss (GOP) and Paul Tencher (Dem) have taken chartered flights or Greyhound bus rides to wherever they came from after the election – what the aftermath will look like. The political wreckage may be insurmountable.
Republican Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie’s impresario, Bliss, has transformed Dubie through ads and press releases from the aw-shucks nice guy Vermonters generally liked into a candidate who has appeared to misrepresent the truth (see “Dubie’s ‘list’ of offenders doesn’t exist”; also, his claim IBM would leave the state if Vermont Yankee closed, despite the corporation’s denials it has such drastic plans.) The campaign’s strategy in forums and debates, through bitter attacks on his opponent more than an explanation of Dubie’s own policy initiatives, has appeared to be a relentless attempt to characterize Democrat Peter Shumlin as untrustworthy and unethical.
Tencher, for his part, who is spearheading the coordinated campaign for the Vermont Democratic Party’s House and Senate races, has tried to keep up with Bliss in e-mail nastygrams to the press. He has served as the bad cop counterweight to Democrat Sen. Peter Shumlin’s good-cop campaign manager, Alexandra MacLean. Shumlin’s tack has been to portray himself as a stronger leader than Dubie and to work the wedge issues in this campaign: abortion, the safety of Vermont Yankee and tax cuts for the “wealthiest 1,400 Vermonters.”
Once it’s all over, real people — rather than ghoulish apparitions on TV — will have to govern. Lawmakers, state bureaucrats, and, yes, even the stars of the new governor’s Fifth Floor offices, will have to carry on for the long haul, attempting to work with one another and make decisions that will affect the lives of Vermonters once the gubernatorial election is over.
Now that the twin genies of negative campaigning – fear and loathing — have been uncorked, it’s difficult to imagine how the damage will be undone.
There is, after all, that rather large budget gap to resolve ($112 million), which neither candidate in the scurry to marshal the dwindling media troops with a constant story shopping and push journalism, has bothered to address in detail, despite the fact that all of the “easy” decisions have already been made – cutting 660 state positions, reducing pay for government employees, negotiating a new pension deal with teachers, implementing the Challenges for Change government restructuring plan.
Now that the twin genies of negative campaigning – fear and loathing — have been uncorked, it’s difficult to imagine how the damage will be undone. Once such toxins have been released into the political atmosphere, they can take a long time to dissipate.
How will Dubie work with Democratic lawmakers and manage to pass meaningful legislation after demonizing his opponent, Sen. Peter Shumlin?
How will Shumlin, who has also characterized his rival as dishonest, make amends to members of the GOP and create a successful political climate for a transition of power?
Here is my pre-election homily. Instead of praying for the candidates to mend their ways, which would be futile at this point, let us reflect on the images that have appeared Disneylike in the communal consciousness.
To recap, on the Dems’ side: Pinocchio has sprung back to life in the form of Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie in a recent advertisement; Tencher equated his Republican candidate’s stance on abortion with “Armageddon” in a press release; and Dubie’s enduring support of Vermont Yankee, the state’s aging nuclear reactor owned by the publicly-traded Entergy Corp., has been called into question in a series of dramatic TV and print ads paid for by the Green Mountain Future, a 527 supported largely by the Democratic Governors Association.
To recap, on the GOP side: An alleged Dubie supporter, sporting an orange jumpsuit and a prominent swastika “tattoo,” paraded about 10 days ago in front of the Democratic office in Bennington in an apparent fit of anti-Semitism (Dubie told WCAX that he “doesn’t support swastikas”); the feathery construct of allegations about Shumlin’s character based on a thin survey published in Seven Days has been used in two advertisements (one sponsored by the Republican Governors Association) and now a Web site to brand the senator as “ethically challenged”; the Dubie campaign made an early push to depict Shumlin as a friend to child pornographers and drug dealers that apparently backfired (they’ve given up the twice daily e-mails on the subject); and GOP operatives have dredged up dirt on Shumlin’s now-infamous voided June speeding ticket – given prominent play in the Burlington Free Press and WCAX, but which in the end cast more blame on the Vermont State Police than Shumlin.
Both campaigns and their surrogates have spent oodles of money – about $3 million, not including the $2 million in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, according to campaign finance reports filed on Oct. 15. Outside money – more than $1 million – has been funneled by the Democratic Governors Association and the Republican Governors Association into ads, opposition research, polling and other activities on behalf of the two campaigns.
The DGA has plowed a half-million dollars into Green Mountain Future, a 527 nonprofit group, which has launched a steady stream of ads playing on Vermonters’ apprehensions about Vermont Yankee. The advertisements attack Dubie for his support of the state’s 38-year-old nuclear power plant in Vernon, which has been plagued by safety issues.
Vermont’s political pundits, meanwhile, have been witnessing the goings-on with increasing disgust.
Garrison Nelson, a professor of political science at the University of Vermont, accuses Bliss, Dubie’s campaign manager, of running a “straight Karl Rove” campaign. “The prison stuff,” he says, is “pure Lee Atwater,” the GOP operative who was the brains behind the Willie Horton ad, which helped George H.W. Bush beat Michael Dukakis in 1998. That commercial, like the “Peter Shumlin can’t be trusted” ad, paid for by the Republican Governors Association in this election cycle, was parlayed as an “independent” expenditure, Nelson said. “Wink, wink, wink, like you don’t know what the hell is going on,” he said.
There’s more.
Last week, the Vermont Democratic Party filed a formal complaint against the Friends of Dubie and the RGA, alleging that the two organizations shared polling information and hence coordinated efforts, which is against state campaign finance laws. The limit on contributions is $6,000 per election cycle.
Nelson: “They hit and run on us, and we’re left with consequences after they’re done polluting the political waters.”
Nelson says Bliss’ assertion that there has been no coordination between the Republican Governors Association and the Dubie campaign is cynical and patronizing. “How stupid do you think we are?” Nelson asks. “You bash the opposition with independent expenditures, nobody knows where the money comes from, and you pretend you have no contact. I think (William) Sorrell (the Attorney General) is correct to look into it, but by time he gets the results, Corry Bliss will be gone the next morning. They hit and run on us, and we’re left with consequences after they’re done polluting the political waters.”
Chris Graff, the former bureau chief of the Associated Press who now is an executive with National Life Insurance Co. in Montpelier, said the recriminations from each side about who started the fracas is pointless.
“It doesn’t matter who started it,” Graff said. What matters, he says, is both campaigns are in “this swirl of septic.” “If you talk to voters … they’re upset with both of them.”
In the early video footage of Dubie and Shumlin campaigning together, they were “falling all over themselves,” Graff says, to get along and even display a filial kinship. Not anymore.
“The two candidates had a lot of differences in style and policy and philosophy and approach, and yet they’re both brought it down to the issue of character,” Graff said. “I have to wonder at times if they both regret it.”
Twitter as Mudsling
Though both campaigns have been engaged in tit-for-tat negativity on the press release front, Team Dubie has been the most aggressive. The standard is three attacks a day from Kate Duffy, Dubie’s campaign communicator, or Bliss.
Last week they took the extraordinary step of taking their case public directly through a Web site “documenting” what they call “Peter Shumlin’s Top Eleven Ethical Lapses.” Up to now, the public has only seen some of the Dubie campaign’s allegations against Shumlin in the form of stories in the press and published releases (VTdigger.org has posted most releases from the campaigns). As of Thursday, however, Team Dubie began a social networking campaign, using Twitter and Facebook, to get the word out to younger voters that Shumlin is “ethically challenged.”
On Friday, Duffy demanded that Shumlin “prove which items on the website www.shumlinsethics.com are incorrect, pledging to remove any of the items that he proves to be wrong.”
On Friday, Duffy demanded that Shumlin “prove which items on the website www.shumlinsethics.com are incorrect, pledging to remove any of the items that he proves to be wrong.”
The charges sound serious. Chief among Shumlin’s “lapses”? A speeding ticket he joked about in June at the time he received it. WCAX obtained a dashcam video of the exchange between Shumlin and the Vermont State Police officer. Shumlin flashed his Senate ID instead of his drivers’ license and said in the exchange with the trooper: “Hoping to have you drive me in a few months.” The Free Press reported that the officer who stopped Shumlin “offered to have the ticket waived, but the senator said he thought the trooper was joking.” Shumlin paid the $152 fine within four days of the ticket being issued, according to the Burlington Free Press. The case was trumpeted by the Dubie campaign as a capital offense – eventually concluding with a belated confession from Mike O’Neil, head of the state trooper’s union, which endorsed Shumlin on Sept. 22, that he later voided the ticket without the senator’s knowledge.
Another on the list? A glib joke Shumlin made about a shoe bomb at Burlington Airport and quickly apologized for.
Another, a charge of conflict of interest, boiled down to this in a press release: “Peter Shumlin appointed his largest campaign donor to a state board, who used his position to secure millions of dollars in tax breaks for himself.”
The basic facts of this incident: Shumlin appointed David Blittersdorf, CEO of AllEarth Renewables, to the state’s Clean Energy Development Fund board, and Blittersdorf did eventually receive $4.3 million in state tax credits for his firm after a bidding process. He also gave $8,000 to Shumlin and $20,000 in contributions to Green Mountain Future, a 527 nonprofit that has been running ads attacking Dubie’s pro-Yankee stance. There is no evidence, however, of a quid pro quo or overt corruption, as Bliss has alleged. Shumlin hadn’t received donations before he appointed Blittersdorf to the board – at that point he hadn’t decided whether he would run — and when the conflict became apparent, Shumlin asked Blittersdorf in a publicly released letter to resign from the board, which he did.
No. 5 on the Dubie campaign’s list of Shumlin “lapses”: “Peter Shumlin dishonestly claimed he wanted to discuss health care policy with Lt. Gov. Dubie when he ambushed the Dubie campaign headquarters to stage a photo op 45 minutes before a scheduled debate.”
The Bliss press release’s parting shot, with the election 11 days away: “Peter Shumlin has shown time and again that he cannot be trusted to tell the truth. We ask that he come forward in the name of transparency to reveal the whole truth about his speeding ticket and the communication with the state trooper responsible for voiding it. Let’s clear the air so we can move on and discuss the issues that matter to voters.”
The dirt machine
Paul Tencher, 30, who is heading the Vermont Democratic Party’s election efforts this campaign season, has taken on the role of party bouncer. He has filed complaints with the Attorney General’s office over allegations that the Dubie campaign has coordinated efforts with the Republican Governors Association (see related story), and he is the primary source of press releases attacking Dubie on his pro-life stance.
In a fund-raising appeal with the subject line “An Armageddon for Reproductive Rights,” Tencher writes:
Fortunately, a woman’s right to choose is a federal issue and was settled by Roe v. Wade, right? Not really. Brian Dubie and his right wing friends have a new strategy to roll back Roe. They have begun an all out assault on the state level. In fact, 18 states have signed bills restricting a woman’s right to choose in the last year.
Brian Dubie knows what the plan is. Yet just yesterday he had the audacity to say the chance of abortion rights being restricted were about the same as Vermont being hit by an asteroid. Really Brian? An asteroid? That statement was demeaning to Vermonters, especially to women.
Tencher got his political chops in New Jersey and he described himself to The Hill newspaper as a bulldog. During his stint as campaign manager for Vermont Secretary of State Deb Markowitz’s primary bid for the Democratic nomination for governor, Tencher developed a reputation for being antagonistic toward reporters.
Before he took the helm of Markowitz’s campaign in October 2009, he served as communications director for U.S. Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy, D-Ohio, starting in January 2009. (According to his LinkedIn profile, he is still working for Kilroy while he holds down his VDP day job.) Before that, he was the spokesman for Judy Baker, a Missouri congressional contender, who lost to Republican Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer. In his home state of Rhode Island, Tencher held the position of chief of staff under Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts for 17 months in 2007 and 2008. He has held 12 jobs, mostly political, all in communications, since 2002. (Tencher left his job with Roberts under a cloud – the Providence Journal reported that the lieutenant governor’s spokeswoman Larkin Barker denied that his departure was related to an e-mail invitation for a fund-raising event that was sent from the Roberts’ office. Public officials are not supposed to use their public offices for campaign-related business.
When he ran Baker’s campaign in 2008, he was no stranger to personal attacks. Here is a sampling from Baker’s Web site:
http://judybakerforcongress.com/?s=tencher
Blaine Luetkemeyer will say anything and break any law to get elected. He is part of the old politics that just hurts Missouri families by dividing us. These violations are serious because they are laws created specifically to let voters know Mr. Luetkemeyer is responsible for the negative campaign tactics he has used to distort Judy’s record and distract voters from the real issues. If he is so proud of his gutter advertising he should follow the law and put his name on them.
Sound familiar?
Or how about this from Alex MacLean, Shumlin’s campaign manager?
“Brian Dubie’s new ad is more of the same: same mistruths about Peter Shumlin’s record, same negative tone that Vermonters reject, and same misrepresentations of Dubie’s positions. He has gone from spreading outrageous mistruths to simply making things up. This is not the Vermont way. Despite his opportunity to clean up his campaign and talk honestly about the issues facing Vermonters, Brian Dubie has chosen to double down on mistruths.”
Bliss gets help from GOP operatives
Frontal attack mode is standard operating procedure for Bliss, who cut his teeth on Thelma Drake’s campaign in 2008. The Republican incumbent lost in her race against Kent Nye for Virginia’s 2nd district U.S. House seat.
Drake is a conservative Republican who served three terms in Congress and had a 100 percent National Right to Life rating. She voted to prohibit the transportation of minors across state lines for abortion; she also opposed stem cell research. During her campaign, there was a dust-up over an appearance Karl Rove made at one of her events. According to Politics Daily Blog, Virginia Democrats asked Drake to cancel a fund-raiser at a local steak house with Rove, who was billed as the guest of honor, because the advisor to George W. Bush had defied a congressional subpoena. Bliss responded with the following: “Instead of working on a comprehensive solution to the energy crisis… Democrats would rather engage in partisan political issues on inside-the-Beltway issues than address high gas and food prices.”
Bliss assailed Nye’s character with small-time issues he blew up into large-scale attacks. The Virginian-Pilot newspaper reported that Bliss accused Nye of failing to vote in 2007. The newspaper determined through a public records request that Nye had, in fact, voted by absentee ballot from Iraq in 2007 while he worked as a contractor for the State Department.
Bliss also made much of a homestead deduction Nye and his brother claimed for a house he lived in and partially rented out while he was in Iraq. Nye kept his belongings in the house during his absence and stayed there while he was on break from Iraq. According to the Virginia Office of Tax and Revenue, renting part of a house that is claimed as a homestead is allowable.
Bliss’ response to the Virginian-Pilot? “Three full days into this scandal, Mr. Nye suddenly discovers a loophole in the law which would allow him to claim the homestead exemption if he and his brother only partially rented the home. They expect us to believe that they rented the house for between $20,000 and $65,000 over the past two years while simultaneously keeping a separate bedroom and access to the kitchen.”
Sound familiar?
For the Dubie campaign, Bliss has enlisted the help of two political operatives who are part of the national GOP nexus: Raj Shah and Brady Toensing.
Shah made the public records request for the “shoe bomb” incident at the Burlington International Airport. Shumlin joked about a woman’s high heeled shoe concealing a bomb as he was waiting in security. A Transportation Security Administration official didn’t think the wisecrack was funny and called in the Burlington Police Department to interview Shumlin. The senator was questioned and released.
In his letter to the BPD, which he sent from Norwalk, Conn., he listed himself as a “private citizen.” In actuality, Shah is a GOP operative. He has bounced from one Republican campaign to the next this year, first working as the communications director for U.S. Senate candidate Rob Simmons (who lost in the GOP primary on Aug. 10). Then he took a turn with Republican Susana Martinez’s campaign for governor of New Mexico. On July 12, Shah was arrested for aggravated DWI and was immediately fired, according to the Albuquerque Journal. Shah made the records request regarding Shumlin on Sept. 15.
Brady Toensing, who outed O’Neil in the Troopergate incident, has deep connections to Washington, D.C.-based GOP politics. Toensing, a Georgetown University Law School grad who works in D.C., and New Hampshire, now lives in Charlotte. He is president and CEO of TriadMedServ, a medical billing service based in Hanover, N.H., and he is a partner in diGenova & Toensing, a prominent D.C., law firm run by his mother and stepfather, Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova. Victoria Toensing was a deputy assistant attorney general for Ronald Reagan and served as special counsel to Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz. In 1998, she and diGenova were quoted more than 300 times in news stories shortly after the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke, according to Washington Post columnist Howard Kurtz. In 2005, Victoria Toensing claimed in front of a congressional committee that Valerie Plame — a covert CIA agent who was exposed after her husband Joseph C. Wilson, IV, a Foreign Service diplomat criticized the war in Iraq in 2003 New York Times op-ed — didn’t have a “cover to blow.” On CNN and ABC, Victoria Toensing defended Karl Rove, who allegedly leaked Plame’s identity.
Details:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/couple022798.htm
http://mediamatters.org/research/200507120005
Brady Toensing has dipped into Vermont politics before. He requested copies of state senator Matt Dunne’s public schedule when he ran against Dubie, the incumbent lieutenant governor, in 2006, according to Shay Totten of Seven Days.
