Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rebecca Holcombe revived an attack on Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman over his past stance on vaccinations, during a debate Tuesday.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit in March, Holcombe, a former Vermont education secretary, has repeatedly criticized Zuckerman for his opposition to legislation in 2015 that removed the philosophical exemption that allowed parents to avoid vaccines for their children that are required to attend public schools.
On Tuesday, Holcombe released a television advertisement in which she stated that the lieutenant governor “questioned the science behind vaccines” and that those opposed to vaccines “call him their hero.”
The debate, hosted by Vermont Public Radio and Vermont PBS, featured the four Democrats running for governor: Holcombe, Zuckerman, Bennington attorney Patrick Winburn and activist Ralph Corbo. The primary is on Aug. 11.
At the debate, Holcombe said that when Zuckerman was a state senator, he “cast doubt and fed fears about the safety of long-proven vaccines.”
“Are you ready to take responsibility for the fact that your history on this issue actually undermines the public health of Vermonters?” she asked Zuckerman.
Zuckerman replied that Holcombe has consistently misrepresented his position.
“I support vaccines, and I will follow medical professionals’ advice on making Covid-19 vaccine mandatory,” Zuckerman said.
He said that in that 2015 vote, he along with one third of the 30-member Senate voted against a “last minute amendment” that would have removed philosophical exemptions.
Zuckerman also offered his own amendment to keep the exemptions in state statute. But under his amendment, they would only stay in place until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found there was “a reliable DNA swab test” to check for genetic predisposition to vaccine allergies.
During discussion on the Senate floor in 2015, Zuckerman said the science of whether vaccinations are safe is “disputed” and raised concerns about the government mandating medical treatment, according to Seven Days.
But when efforts to preserve the exemption failed, Zuckerman ultimately supported the legislation to remove it.
“I want to clarify that I voted for removing the philosophical exemption, even though in your representation, you’ve distorted my views,” Zuckerman said.
During the hour-long debate on Tuesday, candidates also discussed their plans to address climate change, racial equity and the economy during the Covid-19 crisis.
Zuckerman said that he would support an increase in the tax rate on the wealthiest Vermonters to help fill Vermont’s struggling state coffers, “so that working people don’t get thrown to the curb.”
He added that he wants to pressure the federal government to extend employment benefits and provide aid to Vermont to help fill its budget gap.
Holcombe said that the government needs to ensure it makes each dollar it spends on the crisis “do double duty.”
She recommended, for example, setting up partnerships between child care facilities and schools “to bring down the costs of child care at their overhead by over 30%.”
Winburn said that he would avoid making budget cuts and instead invest in infrastructure and government programs.
“We need a lot of programs, we don’t need austerity budgeting and we need to give the people of Vermont a new New Deal,” Winburn said.
Winburn later added that he believed investments in infrastructure and workforce development could be paid for by taxing marijuana and/or an additional tax on high income residents.
“You know the wealthy benefited in the good times and I think that, you know, they can pay their fair share during the hard times that we’re undergoing now,” he said.
Corbo, an activist who is best known for protesting and interrupting Gov. Phil Scott’s inaugural address in 2019, said he too favored a tax on the wealthy to help raise revenue during the Covid-19 crisis.
On racial equity, Holcombe said she would work to make state government more diverse, bolster implicit bias training for all state employees and improve race data collection across government “to make sure that truly we are sharing opportunity in an equitable way.”
Zuckerman said that he would expand Vermont’s Office of Racial Equity, which currently has only one employee, and include more diverse voices in state government and policy debates.
“We need to include far more people at the table, from the very beginning, as I’ve done for 20 years on numerous policies, to make sure voices are represented at the beginning of the conversation, not just at the end,” he said.
During the debate, Zuckerman pushed Holcombe on campaign finance, asking whether she would support state reforms to make it “more equitable” for people to be able to run for office.
At first, she suggested that she only believed reforms were necessary at the federal level: she said that she would appoint a Democratic successor to Congress if U.S. Sens. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, or Bernie Sanders, an independent, resigned while she was in office.
“We need reform, we need it at the federal level, we know that politics doesn’t serve the interests of people right now,” Holcombe said.
But when pressed by Zuckerman about whether she would support reforms at the state level — particularly around public financing for campaigns — she said she would.
Public financing involves using taxpayer dollars to help more candidates from diverse backgrounds seek public office.
“I do strongly support public financing for first-time candidates,” Holcombe said. “We know that we will not be a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, until we make sure that all voices including our historically marginalized voices have a chance to run.”
Clarification: This story was updated to include a fuller description of an amendment that David Zuckerman had offered during the debate over a philosophical exemption to vaccination requirements.
On climate change, Zuckerman briefly discussed his plan for a Green Mountain New Deal.
He has said this plan involves reaping $100 million in taxes from the top 5% of earners in the state to pay for initiatives including the expansion of home weatherization and broadband — which he says would help Vermonters cut down on commuting.
Holcombe said she saw Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s recent pledge to invest $2 trillion in green energy “as a fantastic opportunity to help Vermont develop energy independence.”
Corbo asked Holcombe if she would respond to the concerns of residents in Chittenden County who are worried about declining property values, and “environmental degradation in the skies” stemming from the F-35 jets that have been newly based in South Burlington.
Holcombe, who recently heard the jets flying for the first time, said she would work with Vermont’s federal delegation to ensure that local communities “aren’t disrupted any more than they absolutely have to be.”
At the end of the debate, candidates were asked why they were best-qualified to serve as governor.
Holcome pointed to her experience as education secretary.
“I’m the only candidate in this race who has strong state level executive experience, who can actually get the job done,” she said.
Zuckerman pointed to his 20 years serving in the Statehouse and as lieutenant governor, and his efforts to increase the state’s minimum wage, expand affordable housing and pass legislation mandating food containing genetically modified products.
He also spoke of his experience as a farmer — he owns Full Moon Farm in Hinesburg.
“As a farmer, small business owner, operator, I know what it means, day to day, to get things done, and to build for the future.”
Corbo said that he didn’t necessarily think voters should choose him in the primary.
“What I would hope they would do is choose a candidate who would, in a sense, vote for their best interests,” he said. He said voters should choose someone who would push to rein in military spending at the federal level.
Winburn spoke of his four decades of experience as a trial attorney. Earlier in the debate, he said that in his job, he represents “the powerless against the powerful.”
“And I do think that I have an understanding of what the average person feels, because I think I am an average person,” he said.
