Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman, who last week secured the Democratic nomination for governor, is expecting victory for his write-in campaign on the Progressive ballot.
Though final results won’t be certified until Tuesday, Zuckerman’s 273 write-in votes as of Monday was 19 votes ahead of his closest competitor, Cris Ericson, a perennial candidate whose views have been denounced by the party’s leaders.
“It does appear as though I’m going to win,” Zuckerman said. “I have run with the Progressive label many times before and I really appreciate the endorsements of Progressive voters.”
Among candidates whose names appeared on the ballot, Ericson squeaked out a victory over Boots Wardinski, the other gubernatorial candidate on the Progressive ballot, 254 votes to 237. There were also 345 write-in votes (42 of which went to Gov. Phil Scott).
Josh Wronski, the Progressive Party’s executive director, has described Ericson as having racist points of view, and said the party in no way supports her candidacy for any office.
Ericson filed to run for every statewide primary on the Progressive ballot, which was made easier amid Covid-19 when the Legislature waived a rule requiring candidates to gather 500 signatures to run for statewide office.
In an email to Secretary of State Jim Condos, which was filled with invectives against the Zuckerman, Ericson said she intends to be a Progressive candidate on the general election ballot for the races she won; attorney general, auditor of accounts, treasurer and secretary of state.
Ericson starts the email writing that the lieutenant governor “would stoop so low as to be on the search for more ballots to try to prove he got more votes than me in the Progressive Primary.”
“For each office I clearly won in the primary, I should be on the ballot as a Progressive to teach that slimy spoiled brat Zuckerman that he is nothing but a low-life flatlander,” she adds.
Ericson also asks in the email to Condos, “When and how do I file for a vote recount, and do you have a standard form?” And she says she wants to run as an independent in the general election for any statewide race she lost in the Progressive primary.
Ericson declined an interview request from VTDigger, explaining that she “quit doing interviews and questionnaires” in 2018 when she was refused a spot on a candidate debate broadcast statewide. “Mass media can go to hell,” she added.
In response to specific questions about her electoral plans, Ericson forwarded an email she sent to the secretary of state’s office, which is largely a nativist attack against Zuckerman, who was born in Massachusetts, and first moved to Vermont for college.
Asked about Ericson’s comments, Zuckerman said Friday: “I’ve been saying throughout this campaign that I think everybody should be welcome here whether it’s those that are indigenous or those that were born here to those that moved here.”
“If we want to be a thriving state that attracts people, especially young people, to move here,” he added, “I hope we would encourage people to come rather than discourage them.”
Ericson’s near run of statewide races on the Progressive ballot could have put the Progressive’s “major party” status in jeopardy, if no candidate receives at least 5% of the votes in a statewide race. Wronski, the party director, predicted that Ericson might cross that line in some races, from loyal, if somewhat uninformed, Progressive voters.
With the outgoing lieutenant governor winning the Progressive nomination, the party should easily cross the 5% threshold in a statewide race, however steep Zuckerman’s uphill battle against Scott might be.
Vermont’s Republican governor was already popular before the state became an example of success in fighting the coronavirus. An overwhelming 83% of Vermonters approve of his handling of the coronavirus, according to one recent poll.
