CNN is reporting Gov. Peter Shumlin has won his bid for re-election against GOP contender Randy Brock, a state senator from Franklin County.
The governor, a Democrat, appears to have secured his second term.
Results are not yet available from the Vermont Secretary of State’s office.
The Burlington Free Press and the Associated Press are calling the race for Shumlin.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., have also won re-election.
Vermont has also overwhelmingly backed Democratic President Barack Obama.
Jake Perkinson, the chair of the Vermont Democratic Party, expects the news organization’s prediction to hold true.
Brock never held a lead over Shumlin even in surveys conducted by the Vermont GOP. Last weekend Wenzel Strategies of Dublin, Ohio, placed Brock 5 points behind the governor.
Darcie Johnston, Brock’s campaign manager, called any results at this point “premature.”
“I’m anxious to see how Vermonters have decided to vote,” said Jack Lindley, state GOP chair. “I’m not very sure about the AP numbers that have come out. They haven’t been verified by anybody. So that’s the fourth estate doing its thing, spinning its story. We’ll wait until the real votes are counted.”
Perkinson also expects Beth Pearce, the state treasurer, to win her seat.
“I didn’t see anything that would diminish the appeal of Beth Pearce,” Perkinson said. “She came out strong, she pointed out deficiencies of the opposition and that went long way to counter the negative attacks she suffered.”
He predicted the auditor’s race between Doug Hoffer and Sen. Vince Illuzzi, which he described as “pretty quiet,” would not be that far apart.
Perkinson said the Democrats’ ground game made the difference. Over the weekend the party made 143,000 get-out-the-vote calls; 52,000 of those were made on Tuesday alone.
The party chair said volunteers put in a cumulative 3,082 hours during the four-day get-out-the-vote period.
Perkinson said Lenore Broughton’s $800,000 in campaign advertising on behalf of the Vermont GOP would be the equivalent of paying the Dem volunteers $266 an hour.
“The ground game is more important,” Perkinson said, than putting spending money on advertising.
