Gov. Phil Scott faced criticism Wednesday from his Republican primary opponents, who challenged the incumbent’s record on gun control, his handling of the Covid-19 crisis and other issues during a debate hosted by Vermont Public Radio and Vermont PBS.
Throughout the debate, Scott argued that his continued leadership is necessary to shepherd Vermont through the pandemic, and oversee its economic recovery from the crisis.
Republicans including John Klar, an attorney and farmer from Brookfield, and Bernard Peters, a retired Agency of Transportation worker from Irasburg, Emily Peyton, the owner of a hemp business in Putney, questioned policies Scott implemented early in the pandemic.
They targeted Scott’s decision to close down certain businesses, but not others, and his policy of asking out-of-state visitors to voluntarily quarantine when entering the state.
Klar criticized the governor’s decision to temporarily keep farmers markets closed. He also said that initially, gun shops didn’t receive enough guidance about how to remain open during the crisis.
The Agency of Commerce and Community Development released guidance for how gun stores could remain open for business in early April.
“I stood up when gun stores were not told whether they could operate or not — some of them were closed down while other businesses were allowed to open,” Klar said.
“Many local businesses were closed while Walmart and other large chains and McDonald’s were thriving.”
Peters said that the governor’s order for out-of-state residents to quarantine for two weeks lacked any enforcement mechanism and that he saw visitors out in public.
“If you’re going to protect the Vermont people, we’re not anti people coming here, we’re anti people coming here to make our people sick,” Peters said.
“There should be a way to check on them to make sure they were going by what they were supposed to do.”
Overall, Scott, who is a popular incumbent, has received bipartisan praise for his handling of the Covid-19 crisis.
A recent poll from several universities found that as of late June, more than 70% of Vermonters approved of his management of the pandemic.
Under his leadership, Vermont has maintained one of the lowest rates of Covid-19 infections in the country.
“Every decision I’ve made has been in the best interest of Vermonters, your health, your safety and the economic future,” Scott said of his leadership during the crisis.
“Vemont needs a strong, steady and measured hand at the wheel to weather this storm and emerge stronger as a state.”
Scott also said that he is “one of the only backstops” the Vermont Republican Party has in state government. Scott is the only Republican statewide office holder in Vermont, and the Republican minority in the Legislature has continued to shrink in recent years.
“So, again, I’m like the last person standing at this point in time between common sense and some of what we’re seeing in the legislative process,” the governor said.
In May, when he first announced he would seek reelection, Scott said that he wouldn’t formally campaign while the state grapples with a state of emergency. Initially, he would not guarantee whether he would participate in debates, which angered his Republican opponents.
But he told Seven Days earlier this month that he would participate in some debates this year.
Klar, Scott’s most organized primary challenger, has said he is running for office because he believes Scott has moved too far to the left, and abandoned many Republicans in the state.
He has also organized about 30 Republican candidates who are running for a variety of offices — from lieutenant governor and state auditor, to legislative seats in the Statehouse.
Klar said he and the candidates share a “common discouragement” with the governor and are “trying to fashion a conservative message, a fiscally responsible message for all Vermonters.”
“I’m running because I have watched our gun rights thrown away, I watched an abortion bill signed that was very unfair to a whole sector of Vermonters,” Klar said.
Scott signed a sweeping package of gun restrictions in 2018 after what police described as a potential mass school shooting was averted in Fair Haven, a decision many Second Amendment activists viewed as an act of betrayal. In 2019, Scott signed some of the most expansive abortion rights protections in the country into law.
Scott defended his decision to sign the gun bills when Peters asked him about it on Wednesday. Scott said that when the state came close to “unimaginable tragedy,” he chose “action over inaction.”
“I signed what I believe were commonsense reforms, which were supported by the overwhelming majority of Vermonters including a majority of Republicans,” the governor said. “If I thought these laws infringed on our constitutional rights, I wouldn’t have signed them.”
Douglas Cavett, another Republican challenging Scott, was questioned by the debate’s host, Bob Kinzel, over his 2010 conviction of aggravated assault of a minor.
Kinzel said that when a VPR reporter asked Cavett about the charge, Cavett said, ‘There is no validation of these charges and or so-called convictions.” The Burlington Free Press reported on Cavett’s convictions in 2015.
In response, Cavett did not address the charges and said that voters deserve an explanation of “the criminal financial system, and the coercion and terrorist tactics that the courts use in order to get people to plea deal 99% of the time.” He said that he was “sucked into” the criminal justice system as a “naive bystander.”
Klar pressed the governor on legislation he signed into law in 2018 that aims to address systemic racism in Vermont, and established a new position, a statewide executive director of racial equity.
“You have pointed to the Kiah Morris case and other instances of individual racism in our state to advocate for legislation that labels our state ‘a white supremacist culture,'” Klar said, referring to former Rep. Kiah Morris, who declined seek reelection in 2018 after facing racial harassment.
The law itself does not label Vermont as “white supremacist,'” but seeks to eradicate systemic racism from state government.
“And I would ask you, do you believe that Vermont is systemically racist and could you define what that is for us?” Klar added.
The governor said that systemic racism exists throughout the country and in Vermont.
“For 250 years I don’t think any of us can say that Blacks have been treated equally in this country,” Scott said. “So we have to take the time to listen to Black Americans.”
Scott asked Klar about whether he believes vaccinations are “essential to public health.” He noted that “one of the frontrunners on the Democratic side has questioned the science of vaccines,” referring to Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman, a Progressive Democrat running for governor.
Zuckerman has come under fire from his opponent, former education secretary Rebecca Holcombe, for initially opposing a bill in 2015 that expanded mandatory vaccines in Vermont by removing philosophical exemptions.
Klar said that he’s not opposed to vaccinations, but does not support the government making them mandatory.
“No, I’m not anti-vax, but I am anti mandatory vax without an extraordinarily compelling case,” Klar said. “That’s our Constitution.”
