Endorsing Shumlin, Barre's Republican Mayor Spanks Brock

So here’s the thing about endorsement press conferences: They’re usually totes boring — but there’s always potential. What’s the potential? That some zany mayor from Barre might go off-script and tell us how he really feels.

That’s what happened Monday morning when the mayors of seven Vermont cities gathered on the steps of the Statehouse to endorse Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin’s bid for a second term. That Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger (who worked for Shumlin in the ’90s) and Montpelier Mayor John Hollar (a prominent Democratic lobbyist) support the gov’s reelect ain’t no thang.

But then there’s Barre Mayor Thom Lauzon, an outspoken Republican who said during the 2010 gubernatorial campaign that Shumlin’s corrections plan would put, um, murderers and rapists on the streets. But who then hinted to Seven Days this May that he might endorse Shumlin this time around. But who then, with his wife, gave Shumlin’s opponent, Sen. Randy Brock (R-Franklin), a $4000 campaign contribution. But who then organized Monday’s mayoral endorsement-a-thon.

Which made us reporters go all, like, what’s the deal with that, bro?

“Listen, one thing you can always count on me to do is tell you the truth,” Lauzon began.

And then he told us the truth.