[B]ARRE — Minutes after he officially became the Republican party’s gubernatorial nominee Tuesday night — netting roughly 60 percent of the primary vote — Lt. Gov. Phil Scott offered a general election vision of compassionate conservatism while indicting the aggressive tactics of his primary rival, Bruce Lisman. The Wall Street mogul from Shelburne ran a negative campaign against Scott, who is one of the most well-liked politicians under the Golden Dome.
“My biggest fear wasn’t me losing this election, for me it was about the message a loss could send,” Scott told VTDigger minutes before his victory speech. “And that would be that you would have to have a lot of money and you would have to go negative in order to win an election. And I think that would have had a ripple effect across the political spectrum here in Vermont for a number of years. That’s what I really feared. It went beyond me.”
Scott said he thought that Lisman’s challenge had made him “stronger” for the general election matchup against Democrat Sue Minter, who also won Tuesday in a three-race primary race. Still, he said that Lisman’s spate of accusatory ads hurt him personally, and were inappropriate in Vermont, which prides itself on polite campaigns.
“When somebody questions your integrity and questions some of the things you’ve done and built over your whole life, (questions) the respect that I think I have gained, it’s disheartening,” he said.
When Scott walked onstage minutes later to a few dozen cheering fans at the Barre Granite Museum, the lieutenant governor publicly declared that “tonight we can say with certainty that this campaign settles an important debate: negative campaigns don’t work in Vermont, no matter who you are or how much money you spend.”
(Rich Tarrant spent roughly $86 per vote in his unsuccessful bid for U.S. Senate in 2006. If you divide the $1.86 million in currently reported Lisman campaign expenditures with the roughly 18,000 votes he earned, you get $103.)
At roughly the same time as Scott’s address, Lisman gave a concession speech in Burlington at the Hilton’s Lake Champlain Conference Room. While the former Wall Street executive endorsed Scott for the general election in his remarks, he remained a bit skeptical of the lieutenant governor, telling his supporters “hopefully as governor he’ll make our state a better place.”
In his Barre speech, Scott thanked Lisman for the hard fought primary challenge before shifting his focus to the general election, which he promised would focus on ideas, not attacks.
Scott portrayed himself as a man of moderate views. He said he was a pro-choice environmental steward, a business ally and a leader capable of reining in out-of-control budget spending.
He promised “a government that is by your side, not on your back,” and he frequently turned to his blue collar background as co-owner of DuBois Construction. A campaign banner above him read “Common man. Uncommon results.”
“I wake up at 4:45 a.m. almost every day,” Scott said. “I’m not sure they’ll let me mop the floors at the end of the day like I do at my business, but when I’m governor I’ll find a way, every day, to see our daily tasks through to completion, the way I do in my own business.”
While Scott has frequently mentioned his business background as a point of pride throughout his political career, one of Lisman’s sharpest primary ads hit Scott for the roughly $3 million his company has made in state contracts throughout his time in Montpelier.
Last week, as Scott also drew heat from Democrats on the matter, he said he was working with a law firm to set up a “blind trust” that would put a “firewall” between him and his company.
Lisman’s ad blitz, which began in February, mostly featured ads that tied Scott to Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin. Lisman bankrolled the ads — and his campaign — with more than $1.5 million of his own cash.
In addition to his loans, the former Wall Street executive received roughly $120,000 in out-of-state donations, often in large amounts from friends and former colleagues from the financial world.
The money Lisman spent on his run included efforts to create a state-of-the-art data-driven machine that could propel an effective get-out-the-vote effort. In his concession speech Tuesday, Lisman claimed “at one point [in the campaign] we pulled to almost even.”
Scott received about half as much outside money as Lisman in the primary, roughly $60,000. He raised more than $730,000 from inside Vermont, with his most generous supporters including Vermont business interests.
Scott received the maximum allowed donations of $4,000 from a number of entities, including the Vermont Auto Dealers Association, real estate developer Patrick Malone, and RAI Services Company, a subsidiary of tobacco company Reynolds American.
He receives thousands more from fellow contracting companies including Barrett Trucking, Benoit Electric and Green Mountain Paving & Sealcoating.
While Lisman’s spending was more vigorous than Scott during the primary, Vermonters are likely to see outside money from national political committees of both parties during the general election. Shortly after Scott was declared the primary victor, the Republican Governors Association, a frequent source of out-of-state funds, issued an email blast in support of Scott.
“With Phil Scott as governor, the people of Vermont know they will have a leader who can restore trust in state government and solve the challenges facing their families,” said RGA Chair Gov. Susana Martinez. Phil has a bold plan to revitalize Vermont’s economy, encourage innovation in education and get Vermont back on track for everyone. The RGA is proud to support Phil Scott to be the next governor of Vermont.”
Amid the drinking and eating at the victory party were chairs, tablecloths, stickers and balloons all bearing the green and white colors of Scott’s campaign. The attendees included establishment members of the Vermont Republican Party, including Jeff Bartley, the executive director of the party. Asked why he hadn’t attended the Lisman party, Bartley said he was “in the neighborhood” of Barre and decided to swing by.
Reflecting on Scott’s positive poll numbers, a number of leaders in the Vermont Republican Party said they feel heartened that Scott is their best shot at retaking the executive office after five years.
Senate Minority Leader Joe Benning was an early backer of Scott, and he was irked by Lisman’s tenor of the campaign in the closing weeks.
“I’ve been thoroughly disappointed that he has spent so much time and money disparaging a fellow Republican as opposed to running on his own strengths or talking about why the present administration is a problem,” Benning said.
Benning specifically took issue with Lisman’s work to criticize Scott’s bipartisan overtures o Democrats, including his participation in Gov. Shumlin’s cabinet.
“Vermonters expect us all to work with each other,” he said. “Our varying viewpoints bring about legislation that is intelligent for Vermont. If you can’t be a part of that process you are just clogging the process.”
While Lisman did not rule out a future go at politics in his Tuesday speech, Benning promised to oppose him more vigorously should he run a future campaign with similar tactics.
“It wouldn’t surprise me to see him come back again,” Benning said. “But if he approaches the race the way he approached this one, I could not support whatever he’s doing.”