Vermonters First has no qualms about playing favorites — last week’s mass media filings show that the conservative super PAC has shelled out over $172,000 on airtime and mailings for the Republican candidate for state treasurer, Wendy Wilton.
Back in September, Vermonters First made its political advertising debut with two TV ads for about $70,000 — one for Wendy Wilton, the GOP contender for state treasurer, and one for Vince Illuzzi, the Republican candidate for state auditor. Shortly afterward, Illuzzi publicly announced that he would rather do without the Super PAC’s support, and since then, Vermonters First has concentrated on one statewide candidate — Wilton — and GOP state Senate and House races.
Lenore Broughton, the primary funder of Vermonters First, has refused media interviews. Earlier this month members of Vermont Leads, a liberal PAC that supports single payer health care, and other activists held a demonstration and delivered a letter to the reclusive millionaire’s home in Burlington protesting her Super PAC activities.
Expenditures for Vermonters First are fast approaching the $1 million mark — the super PAC has spent over $800,000 this election season, and it won’t be known what its total expenditures are until the next campaign finance reporting deadline on Nov. 15. Vermonters First paid out the bulk of this sum on political mailings and newspaper and TV ads, but recent campaign finance reports also show fees for a public opinion poll ($17,500), consulting ($8,000), robo-calls ($3,137), and voter data ($6,035). As of Oct. 15 (the most recent campaign finance filing deadline), Vermonters First had raised $680,000 in contributions — the vast majority of this from Broughton, Vermont’s most prominent Republican high roller.
Vermonters First has spent a total of $172,907 on mailings and newspaper ads that promote Republican candidates running for state Senate and House. But when it comes to TV time, Wilton is indisputably the super PAC’s darling. In October alone it spent $172,811 on Wilton, a figure which doesn’t include the ad it ran for Wilton in September. The PAC also spent several thousand on robo-calls, conducted in September, encouraging Vermonters to vote for Wilton.
Vermonters First has also aired a duo of ads — one bashing the state’s health care plan and the other claiming that Democrats are hankering to introduce a sales tax on services. Other than the initial ad for Illuzzi, it has not devoted resources to other statewide races. In late September, questions surfaced about possible coordination between Republican gubernatorial candidate Randy Brock and the super PAC when Vermonters First treasurer, Tayt Brooks, denied the fact that he had dined with Brock the night before in an interview with Seven Days reporter Paul Heintz.
Brooks has not returned media calls for several weeks.
Correction: Vermonters First has spent $172,907 on state House and Senate races and $172,811 on Wilton in October, and over $800,000 in total. An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Vermonters First had spent $85,907 on state House and Senate races, approx. $145,000 on Wilton, and approx. $687,000 in total.
