Video: Dan Feliciano seeks GOP write-in support.
WATERBURY — Libertarian candidate for governor Dan Feliciano fell 120 signatures shy of qualifying to appear on the Republican ballot. Now he is appealing to GOP voters to write him in at the polls on primary election day Aug. 26.
Feliciano on Thursday criticized the Shumlin administration’s policies on several issues and faulted the GOP’s preferred candidate, Scott Milne, for having no policies at all. He also sought to distance himself from some of the Libertarian party’s controversial platform positions, which has irritated some of his supporters.
“The other announced candidate (Milne) has little or no idea where the incumbent governor has gone wrong or just what they would do to guide Vermont to a better future,” Feliciano said at a gathering in a park near his employer, Keurig Green Mountain.
Feliciano, 51, of Essex Junction blasted Gov. Peter Shumlin’s rollout of Vermont Health Connect and vowed to oppose any attempts to implement a single payer health care plan.
“Replace him now and give me a two-year head start in straightening out the mess his people are making,” he said. “I think we can get rid of single payer spending and open up the exchange to outside insurance vendors … open the exchange to other competitors and have them compete on the premium side.”
He also criticized the governor for leading the effort to close the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant and what he called Shumlin’s “desperate” efforts to keep IBM in the state.
Feliciano’s write-in campaign points to a wider schism in the state Republican Party, and perhaps within the Libertarian Party.
Feliciano’s effort is championed by GOP stalwart Darcie Johnston, who directed Randy Brock’s unsuccessful campaign for governor in 2012 against Democratic incumbent Gov. Peter Shumlin.
Johnston, who runs the anti-single payer group Vermonters for Health Care Freedom, said she has helped raise $12,000 for Republican House and Senate candidates and will do whatever she can to support Feliciano, not Milne.
“We need the best candidate with the most experience to take it to Shumlin (in the campaign),” she said.
When Brock announced his decision not to run again on June 8, five days before the filing deadline for candidates to appear on the primary and general election ballots, Feliciano said a group of Republicans attempted to gain the 500 signatures needed. They obtained 380 before running out of time, he said.
Vermont GOP chairman Dave Sunderland said Feliciano’s small-government stance would have been welcomed by many Republicans had he attempted to gain the party’s support. While Sunderland said the party has not endorsed any candidate in the primary, Milne is seen to have the party’s tacit approval over the other GOP entries – Emily Peyton and Steve Berry.
Despite that ex poste facto invitation, Sunderland sent out a news release warning of the “extreme views” on freeing nonviolent drug offenders and other issues espoused in the Libertarian platform, hours before Feliciano’s write-in announcement.
“Vermont Libertarians believe in amnesty — yes, complete amnesty — for all ‘non-violent’ drug dealers,” Sunderland said in the release.
Feliciano, who said he has always been a Libertarian and is vice chairman of the state party, sought Thursday to distance himself from some planks of that platform.
“I support the decriminalization and legalization of marijuana,” Feliciano said, adding that he does not subscribe to amnesty for those convicted of possessing or selling hard drugs, such as heroin and cocaine.
Feliciano later Thursday followed up on Sunderland’s criticism of the Libertarian platform in a statement, and insisted that he would not step aside and support the GOP nominee if his write-in campaign failed.
“As a candidate for Governor, I do not support all of the positions embraced in past years by libertarians more doctrinaire than I,” Feliciano wrote. “I have every intention of campaigning through November 4, unless your party’s candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor suddenly inhale a large dose of pro-liberty, limited government, low tax, high opportunity Libertarianism.”
Libertarian Party chairman Jeremy Ryan said he was aware that a group of Republicans had been encouraging Feliciano to conduct a write-in campaign and the party had discussed it with him. Still, Ryan said Thursday that Feliciano’s decision “has kind of been a surprise to us.”
“We didn’t agree with him seeking the Republican nomination,” Ryan said. Feliciano has the party’s support, for now, Ryan said, but that could change if the candidate continues to move away from the platform.
“I remind everyone that Libertarian principles do not waver,” Ryan wrote on the party’s website. “It is great when other parties find agreement with our positions and support our candidates, but I personally oppose Libertarian candidates seeking outside party nominations, and so do the majority of our state committee.”
GOP chairman Sunderland said Milne, who has been meeting with editorial boards and traveling around the state recently, is still working with his advisers to prepare his positions on statewide issues.
“I welcome the opportunity for more choice for voters,” Milne said of Feliciano’s bid. “I believe Darcie Johnston and Dan Feliciano are doing me a favor by highlighting the common sense approach I will bring to the Governor’s office for all Vermont families — and how different my promise is from the Shumlin record — and their rhetoric.”
