Vermont Republican Party leaders spoke first of the need for unity at their state convention Saturday. Then the party’s two candidates for governor delivered sizzling attacks on each other.
It started with a campaign flier that arrived in some Vermont Republicans’ mailboxes Saturday. In it, Bruce Lisman linked rival Phil Scott to retiring Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin.
“This is D.C. tactics at its worst,” Scott said from the stage Saturday, holding up a copy of the flier before tossing it to the floor. “I gave Bruce a pass when he did opposition research on me … I can’t give him a pass on this. At least he’s showing me his stripes.”
When Lisman took the stage next, he went after Scott unabated. When people ask him why he’s running for governor, Lisman said, he replies: “Well, Phil … Phil is a nice guy. He has good intentions. Good intentions won’t move us in another direction.”
Lisman, a retired Wall Street banker who has never held elected office, didn’t stop there. “He’s had 15 years to make a difference, to make a mark, and I believe he hasn’t,” Lisman said. Scott served as state senator for 10 years and lieutenant governor for more than five.
The two candidates are competing in the August 9 primary for the Republican nomination for governor.
The 308 Republican state delegates gathered for the state convention at the Sheraton Hotel & Conference Center in South Burlington. Their main duty was to elect delegates to the national presidential convention. Though the state party is split over its support of presumed presidential nominee Donald Trump, leaders emphasized the importance of working together.
“Unity is what we need,” Vermont Republican Party chair David Sunderland told those assembled.
There was no outward dissent over Trump, though Vermont Republicans have been deeply divided. The 13 delegates chosen Saturday, plus the party’s three automatic delegates, already chosen by virtue of party position, will officially be split — eight for Trump and
eight for Ohio Gov. John Kasich, based on Vermont’s March 1 primary totals. But because Kasich has dropped out, all will likely end up supporting Trump at the national convention in July in Cleveland.
Delegate candidates to the national convention didn’t speak at Saturday’s convention, but were chosen by paper ballots that the 308 state delegates cast. Nine of the 13 delegates chosen Saturday had given their commitment to support Trump, said Darcie Johnston, Trump’s state director and a winning delegate.
Scott and Lisman avoided Trump entirely in their speeches. Scott has said he can’t support Trump; Lisman has said he hasn’t determined whether he will.
Within the ranks, sentiment ran strong both for and against Trump.
Rep. Patti Komline (R-Dorset) was among several Republicans who tore Trump and Lisman advertisements off the bottom of their convent
ion name tags. Candidates paid $5,000 to have their logos displayed on name tags.
But Cheryl Donlan of Enosburg Falls, staffing a Trump table where T-shirts, lawn signs and bumper stickers were free for the taking, was all-in for Trump. “I went to a couple of rallies and saw Donald Trump,” she said. “He talked to you, not at you. That was the first time I’d seen that with a regular politician.”
But it was state politics that took center stage Saturday, as some Republicans were hearing from their 2016 candidates for statewide office for the first time.
In his criticism of Lisman, the mild-mannered Scott was as sharp-edged as he’s ever been in a political speech. Scott said he learned of the flier Lisman had sent when he arrived Saturday afternoon at the convention.
The flier shows a photo of Scott applauding Shumlin at a Statehouse joint assembly, the two standing close together at the House podium. “Peter Shumlin and Lieutenant Governor Phil Scott have taken Vermont in the wrong direction,” it says. “Higher taxes. More spending. A worse economy.”
Sen. Dustin Degree (R-Franklin) said he pulled it out of his mailbox Saturday morning before heading to the convention. A Scott supporter, he said he found it offensive. He called it “disingenuous” to link the Republican lieutenant governor to the Democratic governor’s policies. “Trying to tie Phil Scott to Peter Shumlin? It’s an incredible reach.”
The winning 13 delegates chosen for the national convention in order of vote tallies are: Suzanne Butterfield, Deb Billado, Wendy Wilton, Jace Laquerre, Chet Greenwood, Rick Cochran, Paul Dame, Janssen Willhoit, Darcie Johnston, Pam Ackerson, Laura Benner, Bob Bouchard and Sharon Greenwood. The three automatic delegates are Sunderland, GOP national committeeman Jay Shepard and national committeewoman Susie Hudson.
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Hi Barbara,
Your assessment is incorrect. VTDigger wrote a piece about the Syrian refugee resettlement to which the mayor of Rutland agreed without the public or the legislative body, wherein the the two Republican candidates for governor give their opinions. In that article, Phil Scott flip flops on his former position and supports the mayor’s decision to accept Syrian and Iraqi refugees. Bruce Lisman sticks to his position to hold until the FBI is able to feel the refugee group can be substantially vetted for security concerns due to the threat of ISIS infiltration. The Democratic Party and its candidates are fully supportive of accepting the refugees without getting concerns:
http://vtdigger.org/2016/04/26/rutland-say…
Leaving aside the question of whether Rutland is capable of supporting a refugee resettlement, the FBI concern has been validated recently by Germany and Lebanon who have found ISIS among the refugees from Syria. At least 14 states have recently ended their resettlement programs with the Feds due to these concerns, the latest to do so were Kansas and New Jersey.
If you support accepting the refugees, despite the FBI’s worry, then you have all three Democratic candidates for governor and Phil Scott as your possible choices.
Lisman will be Governor of Vermont when pigs fly. He is a caricature of the worst possible candidate for a Vermont Gov. (of course, I actually said that about Shumlin too.)
That same flyer, which I just got in the mail, claims, without attribution, that Vermont has the 49th worst economy in America. Jeez, America is doing a WHOLE lot better than I would have thought if that is the case. But it isn’t. Liars and the lying liars who sell lies. Ain internet search revealed the likely source of this claim, an organization called ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, a free market think tank. There are many other such assessments, Vermont comes out pretty well, as high as 4th in an Atlantic analysis.
Single-party power, right or left, is really bad, but Lisman is much worse.
I respect Bruce Lisman, but his decision to release this campaign flyer is deeply troubling. As someone who has worked on an almost daily basis with Phil Scott during the legislative session, the idea that he has in any way assisted Peter Shumlin or acquiesced in his policies is absolutely absurd. To “make a difference” one needs to have legislative votes. Anyone on the Republican side of the legislative aisle knows Phil has worked tirelessly with extremely limited resources, and across the aisle when possible, to inject common sense into government. This flyer ignores the fact that Phil has been a member of a minority party his entire political career. It only further divides a party that hasn’t been able to stop unsustainable spending or advance economic initiatives because it doesn’t have enough legislative votes to do so. Vermonters aren’t attracted to either candidates or parties who engage in these negative, circular firing squad tactics. No Republican will “make a difference” if they engage in this behavior. Vermonters want, and in my humble opinion desperately need, balance in Montpelier. Balance will only come when the Republican Party and Republican candidates convince Vermonters they are bringing positive ideas to the table.
I’m afraid I have to disagree with Phil Scott’s assessment that Lisman’s flyer represents DC tactics at their worst. I think it probably represents DC tactics at their best. But still, the characterization may be unfair as Lisman made the fortune that’s funding his gubernatorial candidacy on Wall Street, far from Washington. Which is why investment bankers need to hire so many lobbyists! Lisman must have a vast reservoir of cunning and shrewd maneuvering to survive for so many years amongst the finance sharks and morally bankrupt brokers of Wall Street. Yes Lisman’s firm Bear Stearns collapsed, but Lisman was clever enough to leave in 2008 with his fortune intact. Bruce Lisman can help manage Vermont’s finances just like he helped manage Bear Stearns! I don’t understand why there’s so much prejudice against Wall Street investment bankers just because they bankrupted their shareholders, impoverished millions of homeowners, and caused worldwide financial collapse. We all make mistakes.
The government made bankers lend money to under qualified borrowers, you can’t blame everything on the banks, the government is complicit and equally responsible.