A new advocacy group, Vermonters for Honest Government, has raised $30,000 to pressure lawmakers to support Republican Scott Milne for governor on Jan. 8.
The group, led by Bill Round, a retired U.S. Navy captain who lives in Newport Center, hopes to persuade lawmakers that Gov. Peter Shumlin is not fit to continue in office. Round is running television ads on WPTZ, WCAX and Local 22 over the course of the next few days. He is also organizing 50 volunteers who will be asking constituents to pressure lawmakers to vote for Milne.
Round says legislators should vote against Shumlin because “he’s promised a lot and failed to deliver.” The issues the retired Newport Center resident is most exercised about include “skyrocketing” property taxes, “out of control” education spending and state budget deficits.
He points to the governor’s decision to wait until after the election to announce his decision to abandon a single payer health care system as an example. Round says it was “patently obvious” long before the election that single payer would be financially unsustainable.
“Vermonters for Honest Government is running a television advertisement to support the election of Scott Milne because Vermont can’t afford another two years of Peter Shumlin’s political shenanigans,” Round said in a statement. “We believe if enough Vermonters contact their Representatives and Senators and ask them to vote for Scott Milne on January 8th we can change the direction of Vermont.
Gov. Peter Shumlin, a Democrat, beat Milne by less than 2,400 votes on Election Day. Milne did not concede the race.
Neither Milne nor Gov. Peter Shumlin received more than 50 percent of the vote on Election Day, and under the Vermont Constitution, the Legislature must now decide who will be governor. Lawmakers will cast secret ballots to elect a governor on Jan. 8.
While Shumlin won a plurality of the vote, and traditionally lawmakers support whoever receives the most ballots cast, Milne has said he hopes the overwhelmingly Democratic Legislature will support his bid for governor.
Here is the ad:
