Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin declared at his campaign launch Monday night that he has put Vermont on a “progressive path” through a “bold” leadership style and investments in job creation, renewable energy, early childhood education and opiate addiction treatment. Shumlin touted the new GMO labeling law and his single payer health care reform plan as signature Vermont initiatives.
“This election, I am going to be asking Vermonters to continue to say yes to progress and to continue to make bold choices that will lift incomes for middle class Vermonters and keep Vermont moving up,” Shumlin said.
As promised, the governor held off on announcing his candidacy until after Labor Day. In his 15-minute pitch for a third term, the governor sounded familiar themes and took shots at his libertarian and Republican opponents. About 150 people — administration officials, lawmakers, Democratic party officials and lobbyists — attended the hour-long event at Main Street Landing in Burlington. Progressive Party candidate for lieutenant governor Dean Corren was also on hand for the launch.
The governor has been in office for four years and has been under fire for the costly failures of the state’s health care exchange system and economic policies that have not solved the growing gap between state spending and tax receipts.
In his first campaign speech of the election season, he emphasized his triumphs in office.
His administration, he said, “has had our share of tough things” to deal with. Tropical Storm Irene, he said, has been one of the toughest. Irene destroyed 500 miles of roads, hundreds of private homes and businesses and damaged the state office complex in Waterbury. The state is still rebuilding, he said, and in the process has become a national model for flood-resilience programs.
Three years later, Shumlin said he couldn’t imagine in his “wildest dreams,” that he would be presiding over the completion of a new “state of the art” mental health hospital, and the construction of a new green office building for state workers that is “the biggest public project any governor has overseen in the history of this great state of Vermont.”
“We’ve come a long way in rebuilding our state, and we built it better than the way Irene found us,” Shumlin said.
The governor said in the midst of recovery from Irene and the recession, his administration continued to pursue an aggressive agenda. He cited the state’s low unemployment rates, renewable energy related jobs and the new GMO labeling law as examples of his pursuit of initiatives that lead the nation.
His No. 1 priority for a third term in office is a single payer health care system that would “take the burden off the employer and simplify the system for all Vermonters.” The governor has yet to release a plan for financing the $2 billion program.
“I was elected to get tough things done, and this may be the toughest,” Shumlin said. “I will not rest until it’s done.”
Shumlin painted the difference between his leadership style and Republican opponents (past and current) in stark terms. During his predecessor Gov. Jim Douglas’ tenure, he said, “we witnessed what it looked like when the state stood still.”
Four years ago, Shumlin said. Vermonters had a clear choice between a governor that would “continue on a path of timidity and avoided the enormous challenges that our state faces” and a governor who knew that “being bold” was the only way to ensure Vermont’s reputation as the best place in the nation to live, work and raise a family.
That choice, Shumlin said, hasn’t changed.
His main opponents, Republican Scott Milne and Libertarian Dan Feliciano, he said, are “good, well-meaning folks,” but their ideas are “wrong for Vermont and they will take the state backwards.”
“My Republican and Libertarian opponents are against everything you and I are for, that’s the brutal truth,” Shumlin said. “They live in a world of ‘no.’ In the case of my Republican opponent, he has no positions on issues. I sometimes wonder if my Republican opponent has any ideas other than ‘no’ that he’s willing to share with us.
“I give credit to my Libertarian opponent,” Shumlin said. “At least he’s willing to take a position, a clear position, on issues, even though his ideas are far outside the mainstream of Vermonters.”
By contrast, his administration, he said, has “made real progress” on a new energy future based on renewable energy, economic growth and the nation’s first single payer health care system.
