Editor’s note: Trail Mix is an occasional column about Vermont politics.
One of the few revelations from Tuesday’s campaign finance report filings was the slow fundraising start by Republican hopeful Scott Milne.
Milne, who hopes to challenge incumbent Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin in November, reported just under $20,000 in contributions, one-fifth of the amount Shumlin raised in the same period and a tiny fraction of Shumlin’s $1 million-plus war chest.
What’s interesting about Milne’s filing, however, is that $10,000 comes from a single out-of-state family, and that his in-state contributions total only $1,900 — $700 of which came from family members.
Milne, a travel agency owner who is running his first statewide campaign, has promised to run a low-budget race.
His large benefactors are the wealthy family of David Boies III, with whom Milne attended the University of the Redlands in California. Five members of the Boies family donated the maximum of $2,000 each, including David Boies II, father of Boies III and the attorney who represented Al Gore in the Bush v. Gore lawsuit that followed the 2000 presidential election.
Boies II is chairman of the prestigious law firm Boies Schiller & Flexner. He was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2010 and represented the NFL in a 2011 antitrust lawsuit brought by the players’ union. Definitely a family to have on your side.
Milne told Paul Heintz of Seven Days that he asked a few friends for money, like the Boies, and they delivered.
How short was he?
Filings for would-be Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor John Bauer show he came up well short of the threshold needed to qualify for public campaign funding.
Bauer raised $10,972.50 from 462 donors, according to Tuesday’s filing. To qualify for public campaign financing, which would have guaranteed him $200,000 to spend in the primary and general elections, Bauer need to raise at least $17,500 from no fewer than 750 donors in amounts of $50 or less. When he was unable to reach the target by the June 12 deadline, Bauer dropped out of the race.
Dean Corren, the Progressive candidate for lieutenant governor who is also seeking the Democratic Party endorsement, raised $19,283 from 862 donors to qualify for public financing. He will challenging incumbent Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Scott.
