Election Day is still a week away, but Cassandra Gekas says she has already lined up a new job if her bid for lieutenant governor falls short.
The Progressive and Democratic candidate said Monday she’s been offered a job as legislative coordinator — or chief lobbyist — for the Vermont State Employees Association, which represents 5200 state workers.
“I’ve had an interview with them and they’ve said they want to bring me on, so now it’s sitting there until after the election,” Gekas said.
Gekas said she reached out to VSEA executive director Mark Mitchell last week upon learning that the union was hiring. During a job interview last Thursday, according to Gekas, “He said it’s yours if you want it.”
She added, “I don’t know what their processes are like, but I can’t do anything official because I want to see where the race turns out. That’s where my energies are focused.”
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I.e., she was a lobbyist during the process, and wanted to get a position in government. I thought good leftists didn’t like the lobbyist/political office revolving door .
Move on, PLEASE…
“Since Scott is CLEARLY eying the Governor’s office, knocking him out now is the best thing that the Dems could do for Vermont.”
1. Really? When did he say, or even hint at, that?
2. No, knocking out someone who is qualified to run the state if Shumlin dies, and replacing him with someone who clearly is not qualified to run the state, is NOT the best thing that the Dems could do for Vermont. In fact, it would be harmful to the state.
1. It seems that the only reason to rah-trah for Gekas is that she suports single payer. So what? Even if you favor single-payer, do we need the Lt. Gov. to be on the bandwagon when we’ve got the Gov. and both chambers of the Legislature already on it? How does she add to the issue? She doesn’t.
2. The real issue is that the Lt. Gov. could end up being governor if Shumlin dies or is incapacitated. Is Gekas actually qualified to be Governor of Vermont, given that she is 30 years old and hasn’t held a single elective office — even town selectboard or school board? Clearly not.
Speaking as someone coming from the left, Phil Scott’s politics are highly problematic for me and while it is not “absolutely necessary” that the Dems and Progressives have a candidate to run against him, if someone as dedicated as Gekas is willing to run, I definitely want her to do so. If you don’t think she’s qualified, don’t vote for her. I do and I will.
As for her motivation for running, I think she’s been pretty straight forward about why she is running. She’s been part of the health care reform process and wants to see it through to implementation. The current Lt. Governor is hostile to the reform effort so unseating him A) removes someone who opposes reform and B) gives her a better platform to promote it. I don’t see any reason to question her motivation.
Left or right is not the issue. You seem to be suggesting that it is absolutely necessary that both (or all) parties run a candidate, any candidate, for every available office, and that voters on the left absolutely have to support that candidate even if they don’t think she’s qualified and have concerns about her motiviations. That makes no sense, and puts partisanship over citizenship.
I wouldn’t say so. If she wins, she’ll obviously be sympathetic to VSEA but if you’ve been following her campaign you know that her positions and theirs have always been closely aligned. That’s probably why they’re interested in hiring her.
That’s doesn’t really contradict my point, friend.
I said that didn’t need the campaign to get a job because she already had one. You said launching her campaign burned bridges with VPIRG. It may or may not be true that VPIRG wouldn’t re-hire her, but it doesn’t change the fact she had that job when she launched her campaign and would still have it if she hadn’t decided to run for office.
If VSEA was impressed by her passion and her positions (both of which I like too) and wants to hire her if she doesn’t end up as Lt. Gov. more power to them.
Out of curiosity, where are you coming from politically? If you’re on the left I don’t see how you could possibly take issue with someone who sacrificed to take on a race that no one else was willing to run in. If you’re on the right, I can see why you’d disagree with her. Either way, most of your comments are little more than unfounded character assassination and I’m not sure why anyone would take that seriously.
The last thing I could be considered is a progressive. That said, I see nothing wrong with this, in fact this is just plain smart. Look, she knows she is a long shot to win and a job comes along… so she lines it up as a back up plan. If she turned it down it would be the dumbest thing she could do… of course she would then win the election since she would fit right in with the rest of the clowns in Montpelier.
It appears she has entirely too much common sense to be a politician.
Now vote for Scott !!