Greg Guma said Friday that he’s running for mayor of Burlington as an independent. “The race is on …” read his email announcement.
The local writer and activist started testing the waters publicly in November, but appeared to back off from the idea. Friday, he told supporters that he had “finally reached the conclusion that my presence in the race was needed, and also that a successful campaign is possible.”
Guma, whose decision comes just ahead of the January 26 filing deadline for candidates, said he’s collected more than the 150 signatures required and plans to submit them Monday.
The candidate count stands at four: Democratic incumbent Miro Weinberger, Progressive Steve Goodkind, Libertarian Loyal Ploof and Guma.
Guma dismissed the suggestion that as another Progressive-minded candidate, he risked taking votes away from Goodkind. “I don’t think those kinds of labels make as much sense as they used to … You can argue that Miro is the Republicrat candidate.”
His campaign slogan is “Preservation and Change,” and his platform includes stopping “fast-track development,” preserving local ownership of Burlington Telecom and opposing the F-35.
Updated 1/24/2015: Guma suggested that Weinberger could be considered a “Republicrat” — a term for a hybrid Democrat-Republican — not a Republican, as originally reported.
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One clarification. I actually said Miro could be called the “Republicrat,” but our phone connection wasn’t the best. In Burlington the Republicrats emerged in the late 50s, when Dems and Republicans joined forces to control commissions and patronage. Mayor Gordon Paquette (71-81) was the leading Republicrat, a Democrat whom Republicans embraced and even chose not to oppose. Sounds familiar. The term was in wide use once, and based on Mayor Weinberger’s approach and policies, might well be resurrected.
Welcome to the narcissistic world of Ralph Nader, who dismissed vote splitting as unworthy of his attention. Mr. Guma apparently labors under the same delusion that he won’t undermine the legitimate challenger, in this case Mr. Goodkind. Who are you kidding?
One almost wonders if Guma is getting money from Weinberger or his stealth supporters? At the very least, Weinberger has to be thrilled Guma has joined the race since Guma will no doubt help dilute the anti-Weinberger vote that would have gone to legitimate candidate Goodkind. Playing the Dan Feliciano or Ralph Nader role to ensure Weinberger’s reelection will not advance the issues Guma pretends to care about. Imagine how different the country would have been had Gore been elected in 2000. He wasn’t perfect but certainly things would have been closer to what Nader espoused on the campaign trail, while ensuring G.W.’s election. . .
Repugnicans and Bushies were elated when Nader refused to get out of the race in 1999 even when the outcome was foretold. As I recall he received a great deal of support from Koch-types, who saw him as the perfect foil for Gore. I never understood how left-leaning Nader voters in key swing states like Ohio and Florida could be so stupid (most of them repented after the election), but the data were very clear that Bush won because of them. Guma is paving the same road if he persists.
I was happy Greg was thinking of running until Goodkind declared. Now I wish Goodkind was the only progressive running, because he could easily win: he actually knows hiw to run the city, having helped to do so for decades. Guma would be a fine protest candidate, like, let’s sat, Bernie for Prez, to get important issues articulated, etc., but in this instance I agree with other posters that this assures Miro W. of an otherwise much less likely win.