Republican Sen. Randy Brock isn’t the only one challenging Gov. Peter Shumlin for the state’s top job. Progressive Party Chairwoman and perennial candidate Martha Abbott is also gathering signatures to run for governor.
But the Underhill resident, who has run for governor and state auditor before — twice each — says she’s not necessarily in it for the long haul.
“There’s a lot of issues we don’t agree with [Shumlin] on,” she says. “But I’m not saying I’m going to stay in the race. I’m not saying I’m not going to stay in the race.”
Why all the indecision?
Abbott and Progressive Party executive director Morgan Daybell say the party is fielding a candidate for three reasons: One of their statewide candidates has to win five percent of the vote for the party to retain major party status; they want to keep candidates from other parties from hijacking the nomination; and, most importantly, they want to push Shumlin to the left.
According to Daybell, by putting the squeeze on the Democratic governor, they can “sort of hold Shumlin’s feet to the fire on budget, tax and labor issues that the Progressives feel he’s not been doing well on.”
This article appears in May 16-22, 2012.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
Good luck, Ms. Abbott. Maybe you can have debates with other “perennial” candidates for any and every elected office, like Boots Wardinski and Peter Diamondstone and the Marijuana party candidate. By the way, when the voters see the Progressive label next to your name on the statewide ballot, the first thing they will remember is Burlington’s Mayor Bob “Duncecap” Kiss, who stole $17 million from the Burlington taxpayers and then covered up the thievery until after he was reelected and couldn’t keep it a secret any longer.
“The Progs are also planning a write-in campaign to back Doug Hoffer for state auditor, though Hoffer is seeking the Democratic nomination.”
Oh, yeah. I remember when Hoffer got the Vt. Democratc Party endorsement a couple of weekends ago. I remember the State Democratic Party Chair explaining then that the purpose of the endorsement was to make sure that the candidate was a real Democrat, not someone who is trying to hijack the nomination. You know, exactly what Ms. Abbott says she is afraid someone might do to the Progs.
So, Progs like Hoffer can hijack the Democratic Party endorsement, but Progs won’t allow a non-Prog to run as one of them. When you look up the word hypocrite in the dictionary, there’s a picture of the Prog Party logo.
And, by the way, congratulations to the Vt. Democratic Party. You’ve been totally played. Hoffer is 100% Prog, and you gave him your endorsement.
Paul Heintz quotes Martha Abbott as having said (paragraph three):
[…] “But I’m not saying I’m going to stay in the race. I’m not saying I’m not going to stay in the race.”
Huh!?
Then, when neither or otherwise nothing is being said along these lines (and other than having made the announcement in the process of possibly running for a given political office), unless and until one knows for sure what they will be doing at some future moment and point pertaining to whether they will remain in the race or not, why bother saying anything at all?
Dear Progressive Party: perhaps fielding ACTUAL candidates who WIN is a better plan to retain major party status. maybe you don’t deserve major party status if you can’t win an election…
Garnering 5% means that they don’t get re-absorbed into the Democratic party. Not much of a goal, but a goal none the less.
So let me get this straight, the Progs believe in something just enough to NOT have to do anything to achieve that which they believe in. Got it.
This is embarrassing. Someone should tell them that their silly-scar is showing.
“. . . and, most importantly, they want to push Shumlin to the left.”
To where? Outright Socialism? Nationalizing all private business? Confiscating all private property? Forced collectivization of agriculture? A centrally-planned economy? Vermont’s not already socialist enough for ya? Move to Venezuela.