Libertarian Dan Feliciano on Wednesday dismissed the notion that he was a spoiler in the race for governor.
Feliciano finished third in the race, receiving 8,468 votes. That led many people to wonder if those votes would have gone to Republican Scott Milne had Feliciano not been on the ballot. If they had, Milne might well have defeated Gov. Peter Shumlin, who leads Milne by just under 2,100 votes.
“My only regret is not starting my campaign earlier,” Feliciano said Wednesday. “If Republicans feel burned by me, I can say that a lot of people in the GOP told me I was a better candidate than Scott (Milne).”
Feliciano had an uneven relationship with the Vermont Republican Party, with which Libertarians are most often aligned ideologically. He launched an unsuccessful write-in campaign against Milne in the GOP primary, which drew the support of two top VTGOP officials, but also led party chairman David Sunderland to warn voters of Libertarian extremism. After losing the primary, Feliciano soldiered on as the Libertarian candidate and ignored GOP concerns that his campaign would siphon votes away from Milne.
Last month, Senate Minority Leader Joe Benning, R-Caledonia, asked Feliciano to withdraw from the race and support Milne, but Feliciano refused.
Feliciano said he couldn’t support Milne because the Republican “didn’t have a plan” to address health care reform.
Feliciano made it clear Wednesday that Vermonters may not have heard the last of him.
“I am not out for the count,” he said. “In two years the time might be right again for a more robust platform on the issues. I will be keeping a very close eye on policy in Montpelier of the next two years.”
He said he was disappointed not to have achieved the 5 percent threshold needed to give the Libertarians major party status in the next election, but said he was pleased with his campaign’s overall performance.
“I thought we highlighted the problems and offered solutions,” he said. “I think we created a broader conversation and a more focused conversation for voters.”
Feliciano also suggested that the Republican takeover of both houses of Congress could affect Shumlin’s march toward single payer health care, the primary issue against which Feliciano ran for governor.
“The imaginary funds used to prop up single payer could dry up,” he said.
