[R]epublican leaders said they were not surprised to learn that Gov. Peter Shumlin will step aside after his third term, and party officials were quick to issue scathing indictments of his tenure.
The national Republican Governors Association issued a statement Monday afternoon saying Shumlin, the former chair of the Democratic Governors Association, “is finally admitting he has failed to be an effective leader for Vermont.”
The association said Vermont “deserves new leadership — a Republican governor who will be able to jumpstart the state’s economy and remind Vermonters what it’s like to live in a well-run state.”
Vermont Republican Party Executive Director Jeff Bartley agreed, calling the announcement “one decision for which [Shumlin] deserves praise.” Bartley said that “no amount of spin, however, can obscure the reasons for this decision.”
Bartley blamed Shumlin and the Democrats’ leadership since 2010 for Vermonters allegedly dropping out of the workforce in droves, seeking work in other states or watching their wages fall.
GOP lawmakers were more tempered in describing what they consider five years of fiscal mismanagement in state government. They were mostly shocked that Shumlin made the announcement so early.
Their former leader, Gov. Jim Douglas, decided in August 2009 he wouldn’t seek re-election after unsuccessfully vetoing same-sex marriage. Shumlin’s announcement came seven weeks earlier.
Senate Minority Leader Sen. Joe Benning, R-Caledonia, said the timing was a surprise, but the decision was not.
“The state is fiscally having many problems and I point to many programs that he tried to get the state to take on that I never thought were going to work,” he said.
Benning, who became a senator in 2010 when Shumlin became governor, said Vermont lawmakers have been “trying to do too much for too many for too long with too little” for the past five years. “I think, to put it succinctly, the state is in a mess, and he knows he can’t dig his way out of it,” Benning said.
House Minority Leader Rep. Don Turner, R-Milton, has been in the Vermont House of Representatives for 10 years, and has been a party leader for five. Turner said the state’s budget deficit continued to grow under Shumlin’s administration.
“He put forward a budget and a tax package that would’ve made it even more difficult for Vermonters to afford to live here,” Turner said. “We are going to be looking at going into the next year at another budget gap that’s projected to be well over $70 million.”
Turner said the governor should be able to balance a budget, even if the state loses federal revenue. Education funding formulas should be revamped every 10 to 12 years, he said, but the Act 60 and Act 68 funding plans have been in place for going on two decades.
“The teacher’s strike bill was one big step in that direction, which the governor said he was a big supporter, but when it came down to actually using his influence to get it passed, he was not there,” he said.
A self-described moderate, Turner said the next governor should be “someone that can stand up and make a decision, who can address this unsustainable cost of living in Vermont, rein in state spending in a way that we can afford our state government.”
He called on leaders to “address the economic development crisis” in Vermont. “The governor has been saying for years what a great job he’s done in economic development, but if you talk to business people, that’s just not true,” Turner said.
Rep. Heidi Scheuermann, R-Stowe, put out feelers in 2014 to run for the top office but instead opted for cofounding a bipartisan, pro-economic growth political action committee.
“When I was thinking of running for governor, I was absolutely convinced that the governor was vulnerable,” Scheuermann said. She pointed to Republican newcomer Scott Milne’s near-upset as proof that the governor was vulnerable against any contender.
“I just felt there was a feeling of wanting something different out there — that there was a desire on the part of Vermonters to have a different direction and a different vision for the state of Vermont,” Scheuermann said. “But it wasn’t my time.”
Turner said he knew from Republican polling data in 2014 that Shumlin was “vulnerable in a number of regions around the state,” and he heard it from Vermonters on the campaign trail.
“I know that wherever I traveled with candidates and recruiting and so on, he was not popular,” Turner said. “People were not happy.”
Benning pointed to Shumlin’s last-minute push against the Legislature in May to cut spending instead of increase taxes as “a reach for desperation” that made the governor look “as if he was contributing to the problem that we were all facing.”
Milne said Monday that Shumlin’s decision was “a smart move” given that “he and his administration have been a failure.”
