Updated at 9:38 p.m.
A day after he nearly lost his job, Gov. Peter Shumlin said Wednesday he was “humbled” by the outcome of his third campaign for governor.
“Vermonters sent a message last night and I heard it. I heard it loud and clear,” Shumlin said during an afternoon press conference in Burlington’s City Hall Park. “We have faced our share of setbacks in the past couple of years, and I know that people are disappointed in how I’ve handled some issues. I recognize that I have work to do to regain the confidence of many Vermonters.”
According to an Associated Press count of all 275 polling places, Shumlin led Republican Scott Milne by just 2,088 votes out of 193,603 cast.
The Pomfret businessman indicated early Wednesday that he was likely to concede the race, but later reversed course and pledged to wait “to see the totals” before making a final decision.
“What is clear is that the majority of Vermonters do not agree with the path that we are on,” Milne said in a written statement. “We are going to wait for the final numbers.”
Shumlin left little doubt in his remarks that, despite the close tally, he believed he had bested Milne.
“I’m personally humbled by last night’s results and I’m also proud that we won,” the governor said. “I’m disappointed that I didn’t receive a wider margin, but I’m grateful that we received the most votes cast.”
According to the AP’s latest tally, Shumlin led Milne 89,883 votes to 87,788, or 46.4 percent to 45.3 percent. Libertarian Dan Feliciano trailed with 8,468 votes, or 4.4 percent.
Since no candidate won an outright majority, the winner will be chosen in January by the Democratic legislature. Twenty-three previous races have been settled in that manner, according to the AP, and only three times has the legislature reversed the will of the voters.
Shumlin said he had not yet heard from Milne, and he declined to weigh in on whether his challenger should concede.
“Obviously Scott Milne has to make his own decisions about what he thinks the next move is,” the governor said. “I’m grateful that we got a couple thousand more votes than any of the other candidates.”
Already, the governor seemed to be preparing for a policy course correction. He pledged to “assess our upcoming legislative agenda to ensure that it reflects the will of the Vermont voters.”
Whether that means backing down from his pledge to institute a universal, publicly financed health care system in 2017 wasn’t quite clear. He said he still believes Vermonters want their government to address fast-rising health care costs.
“Now, having said that, I have taken a lesson from this election. I have listened to the voters,” he said. “And I am obviously going to, on all the major priorities of my administration, reflect, talk to folks, be inclusive, make sure we’re doing it right.”
Does that mean single-payer is dead?
“I’m going to ask you to give us the time that we’re going to need,” he answered. “You know, I didn’t sleep much last night, and we’re not going to do much on the fly. What I can tell you is that the message was loud and clear. We need to work even harder to ensure that we’re making all the right decisions for Vermont.”
Asked if the drubbing he received signaled the beginning of a premature end to his political career, Shumlin said it did not.
“I take elections election by election — but I would say definitely not,” he said. “We won’t focus too much on 2016. What I’m going to focus on is the job that I’ve just been rehired to do.”
Shumlin’s press conference capped a long and uncertain day with little word from either camp.
Reporters converged upon South Burlington’s Sheraton Hotel mid-morning after Milne indicated he would hold a press conference there. He later recanted and issued a statement instead.
Reporters camped out at the hotel until 2 p.m., when the Republican candidate’s daughter, Elise Milne, said her father had departed without a word.
“My dad’s actually left the hotel, so we’ll get back to you guys,” she said, declining to elaborate.
Instead of answers, she provided reporters with several boxes of pizza.
Click here for more on Tuesday’s results.
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Looks like Shummy took it by a nose.
Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
The debate is not over until January and it will depend upon Washington and the next Mitch McConnell horror show where he stars as the Slasher.
There will be a no confidence Vote from Washington for Shummy, how many daggers will Bernie shove in his old friends back as he scrambles to hold onto what shred of power he has.. And Leahy will he just slink off into a corner clutching a camera rolling around in his wheel chair with a pant load of old kodachrome a ever the omniscient observer?
Shumlin is getting ready for the castration party by the tea party it aint over till its over which senator is going to roll over to cover their own a$$ when the punch bowl is taken away form Vermont’s welfare state or the education promises they cant keep?
This is a resounding failure of Shumlin’s own making, had he stuck with the knitting done his job and made Obama out to look like a genius by creating a winning health exchange this would all be moot. Never mind his lies about the unemployment numbers and his rosy economic numbers that had to be a lie. We all woke up to VPR telling us how 25% of all Vermonters are on food assistance and living with food insecurity.
It is one thing to be a liar like but an incompetent liar that pisses in his own party’s soup…. Shumlin smells like bus meat to me.
The question is which of the two candidates for Governor can bring home the most bacon with the GOP firmly in control of the purse?
The current govener of Vermont SUCKS, set off Milne is the right choose for Vermont! Remember $100.000.000
Wastesed on Vermont Health Connect, if he stays in office he planned on wasting more on this failed experiment. And what about his dirty side line dealing, strealing land from a poor man that didn’t have proper understanding of the law and he was asks to keep it hash , hash. Now is that what’s best for Vermont
P.S.
Since when in Vermont history has any of our govener’s had a private State plane?? Never why because the military has always flown him wherever they need to go, so why was ours trying to get us to buy a new plane for the State of Vermont, ? Well let’s see he’s a license pilot, I wonder if their were plans for private vacation?
Either way, Shap Smith is now in charge. Vermont Legislators can no longer blame the Governor (whomever he is) going forward. Congratulations, Shap. I expect you will use your authority well.
James,
Unfortunately Shap can not control the federal budget. Mitch McConnell is driving that bus. Vermont is heavily dependent on the federal dole. We spent years receiving 1.10 for every dollar we sent to Washington when Jim Jeffords was in office. This level of funding is dropping under Sanders.
The Republicans who get elected have zero reason to compromise or fund our state which is clearly the bluest of blue . We dont show up on their radar for the 2016 elections. The Republicans have proven to be vindictive and petty.
Expect Vermont to be starved of funds for the next two years as Sanders and Leahy have been castrated.
The blame rests on Shumlin’s shoulders he was so cavalier with the health exchange, the collective failure of the Democratic Governors to coalesc and share the best ideas and deliver Obama care pushed the party out of power.The choice is between dumb and dumber but who will be able to convince Washington to send the money for our schools social welfare programs much needed infrastructure t Sanders promise of maybe 2 billion for our roads is a no go.
good luck, but Shap isnt calling the shots.
a bigger nose than win for sure.
Looks like Mr.Shumlim people have been up here reading all the thought’s of the Vermont people and cant take the turth! I’m seeing a lot diskes… Hum the same amount on almost every comment! Don’t go away mad ! Just do the right thing and go away!!!! And let Mr. Milne get on with it already. 😀
The 2006 recount of the State Auditors race between Randy Brock and Tom Salmon cost $80,000. There were 70,000 more votes cast in that race than in the Shumlin-Milne contest. The official tally had Brock ahead by 137 votes. I worked on that recount, there was a problem in the layout of the ballot such that many votes for Salmon were mistakenly given to Liberty Union candidate Jerry Levy in towns that hand count. Unless the certified results are far closer than the current unofficial 2436 vote margin Scott Milne would do well to accept the will of the plurality.
In 2002 Jim Douglas was elected with a lower percentage than Shumlin has in this election, only 44.9% of the vote.