Change is in the air at the Vermont Democratic Party, as members figure out the party’s relationship to its new unofficial chief – Gov. Peter Shumlin.
Stalwarts say Shumlin is in essence the head of the party now, and they expect him to shake things up at VDP headquarters. And those changes appear to be under way: Several important positions changed hands at a meeting last weekend.
Robert Dempsey is stepping down as executive director in March after helping to score an accomplishment no other ED had managed to achieve in the last nine years: A gubernatorial win.
Dempsey announced Saturday at the VDP executive committee meeting he would leave after the David W. Curtis Awards Dinner (a major spring party fundraiser), according to Judy Bevans, party chair.
The Ohio native was on the job in Vermont for just over a year. In that short time, he helped to organize support for the five-way Democratic gubernatorial primary, backing for the slate of candidates in the General Election campaign and field resources for local House and Senate races. In addition, Dempsey sorted out the party’s financial mess last year, which he compared to “untangling a spool of Christmas lights.” In the end, the party paid a $5,000 fine to the Federal Election Commission for sloppy bookkeeping records. VDP is required to hire an accountant to ensure the organization is reporting income and outgo properly to the FEC.
Under Dempsey’s brief tenure, the party’s financial fortunes improved dramatically. After several years in which the VDP’s annual budget hovered around $200,000, party coffers are projected to refill with more rapidity post-election. The budget for this year was $365,000; for fiscal year 2011, it’s slated to come in at around $300,000.
Dempsey is a long-timer compared with the recent series of short-stinters. Within a three-year period, from 2007 to 2009, the Dems had four executive directors (including Dempsey): Jon Copans through 2007; Jill Krowinski from 2007 to May of 2008; Kristina Althoff from June of 2008 through January of 2009.
At this point, there’s no word as to who will replace Dempsey, though speculation is running rampant. Several names that have been bandied about include: James Valente (who in the Shumlin era has the Windham County advantage), and Paul Tencher, Shumlin’s inauguration committee executive director, the coordinated campaign manager for the Dems in the last election cycle and Deb Markowitz’s Democratic primary campaign manager. Also mentioned is Jesse Bragg, a University of Vermont grad who served as field manager for the coordinated campaign for the VDP and director for the Vermont Organization for America, President Barack Obama’s re-election organization. The Vermont OFA recently decided to pull out of the state until 2012, the presidential election year, according to a memo from the VDP.
In the short term, it looks like Bragg has a chance to land a lower level staff post. He is being considered for a political director position with the party, Bevans said, though no decision has been made yet. “We’d like to keep him in Vermont,” Bevans said.
As for the scuttlebutt that Judy Bevans is leaving this year (perhaps long before her term is up in November), the 70-something chair of the party says: “I have gotten some interesting calls about my resignation; I have not resigned.”
“I’m planning to do the work that I need to do, and I have some goals, and I have some ideas, and I am planning to see them through, and I always did, whether that goes into next year,” Bevans said. “I have no plans for November (to leave).”
Why so much change now? Shumlin is setting the groundwork for the next election cycle, sources say.
Alex MacLean, the governor’s secretary of civil and military affairs, has been attending recent executive committee meetings. That’s not unusual, as she represents the governor, Bevans says, just like Carolyn Dwyer stands in for Sen. Patrick Leahy and Jon Copans attends VDP meetings for Rep. Peter Welch.
“I think it’s naïve to think he has no input; he certainly does — he was our goal,” Bevans said. “Alex is there because she is the representative of the highest elected official. We’re part of the Democratic family, and we’re going to work toward common goals.”
At the meeting on Saturday, there were also shifts in the VDP’s voluntary personnel on the executive board.
Linda Weiss will be the new treasurer for the board (she replaces Ed Clark), and James Valente, a young lawyer from Brattleboro who is clerking for attorney Tom Costello, is the new secretary. There has been a similar turnover in treasurers: Michael Inners served in that role from 2006 to March 2009; Edward Frey from April to June 2009; and Clark.
