BURLINGTON — Republican Phil Scott sailed back into the lieutenant governor’s office Tuesday night. Early Tuesday evening, the Associated Press called the race for the two-term incumbent.
Scott garnered 62 percent of the vote, according to WCAX, while Dean Corren, his Progressive/Democrat fusion challenger, picked up 36 percent of ballots cast.
The crowd at the Republican Party gathering at the Sheraton Burlington Hotel and Conference Center was upbeat not only for Scott’s victory, but also for the handful of House seats Republicans had picked up early, including that of retiring House Appropriations chair Martha Heath, D-Westford.
Republican Robert Bancroft defeated Democrat Liz Subin 905-728 in Heath’s district. The GOP also swept two Democrats out of office in St. Johnsbury. Incumbent Democratic Rep. Linda Waite-Simpson was defeated by Republican Paul Dame by 31 votes in Chittenden 8-2.
Minority leader Rep. Don Turner, R-Milton, said the party had not enjoyed a net positive gain in House seats since their numbers began slipping in 2001.
“Any seat we pick up is an upset!” Turner said. He said Republican candidates jelled this fall, and he expects the group to form a cohesive front, if still a small one, when the Legislature reconvenes in January.
In the Senate, they’ll have one of the most moderate among them in charge. Scott’s tepid reservations about Gov. Peter Shumlin’s vision for single-payer health care has riled many in his party, who long for a stronger opposition to the Democratic supermajorities in Montpelier.
Scott has held the No. 2 spot, a position that doubles as Senate president and stands in when the governor is out of town, since 2010 when he beat Democrat Steve Howard 49-42 percent in the general election. Scott subsequently defeated Progressive/Democrat Cassandra Gekas, 57-40 percent, in 2012.
Corren was dismissive of the idea that a handful of Senate Democrats endorsing his opponent, hurt his chances of defeating Scott.
“This so-called split in the Democratic party wasn’t much of split,” he said, “How many Democrats holding statewide office endorsed Phil? None,” he said before ticking a few that had endorsed him: Sen. Patrick Leahy, Gov. Peter Shumlin and Rep. Peter Welch.
But harder to dismiss is during the August primary, when Corren won the right to have his name on the Democratic ballot, Scott won half as many Democratic votes via write-ins.
Corren’s being a capital “P” Progressive first and a Democrat second, may have given more conservative Democratic senators the cover they needed to support his opponent.
Rep. Johannah Donovan, D- Burlington, said she considers herself a progressive Democrat, and thinks it’s great to see Progressives and Democrats working on a shared agenda that she said is in the interest of the majority of Vermonters.
She, too, minimized the Democratic support Scott has received from members of the Senate as him being part of an “old boys network.”
“It’s not party politics, it’s friendship,” Donovan said.
State Auditor Doug Hoffer, who ran as a Progressive but also garnered the Democratic nomination, said the same thing happened to him in 2012.
“That’s nothing new,” he said.
But as to whether it hurt Corren’s chances, Hoffer said he wasn’t so sure. A larger challenge for Corren was likely running for statewide office for the first time after a 14-year hiatus from politics, he said.
Compounding the challenge was that his opponent was a popular three-term incumbent
“It was an definitely an uphill battle,” Hoffer said, adding that Corren did well considering he was outspent and didn’t start campaigning until the summer.
Corren qualified for $200,000 in public financing in June but only spent $188,500 — less than half of what his opponent ended up spending.
The $233,000 that Scott spent during this campaign is strong evidence of just how seriously he took the challenge, Corren said.
“For the incumbent to outspend the challenger, that says something,” he said.
The former state rep said he’s proud of the campaign he ran, and has no regrets. To borrow a sports metaphor offered up by VTDigger he agreed, “we did, we left it all on the field.”
If the race was one of the hottest in the state, it’s because “We made it the race to watch,” asserted Corren’s wife, Cindy Wolkin.
A number of Vermonters started Election Day with a text message blast from the Corren campaign, which went out to many more people than the list of supporters it was meant for.
When Corren got in front of a buoyant crowd at Magnolia’s in Burlington, to address his Progressive Party supporters, he said he started the race optimistic about health care reform and action on climate change.
Even after a tough campaign, he said he’s still optimistic that Vermont can lead the way on those issues, Corren said.
“I also want to acknowledge both of my honorable opponents, Marina (Brown) and Phil for running a clean and straight-forward race,” he said.
Corren said it was his understanding that the automated call service his campaign used made a mistake with the contact list, but his campaign staff is still investigating what went wrong.
Vermont Public Radio reported that sending automated text messages to consumers who have not opted to receive them is against federal regulations, according to the Federal Communications Commission.
Corren spent his Election Day making the rounds at polling stations in Chittenden County. By the afternoon Corren and Wolkin has stopped at five or six, and would visit a handful more before the polls closed.
The response from voters was positive, but Corren said he’s been involved in politics for long enough to know not to read too deeply into that.
In one of his first bids for a legislative seat, he became nervous because his opponent was getting a lot of attention outside the polling stations, but Corren emerged from that contest victorious. The lesson stuck with him, he said.
Dean Corren’s speech to supporters.
Correction, Nov. 10, 2014, 11 a.m.: Dean Corren spent $188,500 on his campaign, not $105,000 as was originally reported in this story.