We here at Seven Days know you’ve got better things to do than listen to a 90-minute gubernatorial debate — things like monitoring the state’s foliage report — so we’re here to do it for you.
What’d you miss Tuesday night when four candidates for the state’s top job — the Liberty Union Party’s Peter Diamondstone, Libertarian Dan Feliciano, Republican Scott Milne and Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin — locked horns at Vermont Public Radio’s Colchester studios?
Basically seven things. Here they are:
1. Milne rarely answered the question. When he did, he occasionally gave two answers.
After a weak performance 10 days earlier at the first gubernatorial debate in Tunbridge, Milne needed to accomplish one thing Tuesday night: reverse the solidifying perception that his campaign offers no real ideas.
The Republican nominee failed to do that.
Milne offered up dodgy, waffling answers to questions about health care reform, property taxes, renewable energy, the Vermont Gas pipeline, vaccinations and even marijuana legalization.
“So I have a pretty good idea of what you don’t like: You don’t like single-payer,” co-moderator Bob Kinzel said to Milne early in the debate. “I don’t have a clue, really, of what you do want. You explain the things that you don’t like about Peter Shumlin’s plan. Can you just briefly tell us, are you supporting the status quo?”
“First of all, I wouldn’t go so strong as to say I don’t like single-payer,” Milne responded, surely prompting fellow Republicans to throw their radios against the wall. “I think there’s a possibility way down the road that single-payer could be something that makes sense to look at.”
Milne said that, “it’s a very complex system and people at this table know more about it than I do.” Then he meandered on for a bit, not really answering Kinzel’s question.
2. Milne sounded tired, unprepared and exceedingly awkward.
The Republican managed to sneak bizarre asides into many of his answers, commenting at one point that only he and Diamondstone were answering questions without referring to notes and, at another point, that he had won a straw poll at Sen. Bill Doyle’s (R-Washington) Johnson State College class.
The strangest moment of the debate came when Milne had a chance to pose a question to the incumbent.
“Gov. Shumlin, I enjoyed, appreciated our debate at the Tunbridge Fairgrounds a little over a week ago,” he said. “I’ve heard from four different people that there was some sort of an emergency sort of last-minute meeting Saturday night after that debate with Democratic leaders in Windsor County that you attended. I’m just curious: At that meeting, how many of the folks that were there, I guess to help you sort of regroup after that debate, work for the state directly, or work for nonprofits or advocacy groups that are funded by state dollars primarily?”
Wait, what?
“Scott, I’m totally unaware of what you’re talking about and that doesn’t usually happen to me,” Shumlin replied, explaining that he had made separate trips that Saturday to a Vermont State Employees Association conference in Killington and a Windsor County Democratic Committee meeting in Hartland. “The meeting that you’re referring to did not happen.”
“Okay, my bad,” Milne said. “Thank you.”
“No follow-up question to that?” Kinzel asked.
“Nope,” Milne said.
Um, awkward!
3. Shumlin sounded confident and smooth, and he managed to leave his trademark cockiness at home.
Kinzel and co-moderator Jane Lindholm directed some tough-as-nails questions at the governor, but he managed to answer them without sounding too defensive. Shumlin made effective use of the questions he posed to his opponents.
His first, directed at Feliciano, basically invited the Libertarian to differentiate himself from the Republican. His second, directed at Milne, challenged the Republican to explain which of the Democrat’s policy priorities — universal pre-kindergarten, affordable college tuition, a higher minimum wage, GMO labeling and fighting opiate addiction — he considered “radical” and which he’d try to repeal.
“I think the GMO labeling bill is a good example of a radical, progressive management of a bill by your administration,” Milne said, prompting the governor to ask, “So of all that list, you would repeal GMO labeling?”
“I didn’t say I’d repeal it,” Milne explained. “I’m not even positive I would’ve vetoed the bill if I was in your shoes.”
“So you’re against it, but you’re for it?” Shumlin interjected.
“No, no,” Milne said. “You can do— You know, I can do that flip-flop thing on you. You know, I’m running a debate on ideas. I’m running a campaign of ideas. I’ve got some great ideas. And I’m not doing soundbite, flip-flop stuff.”
Oof.
4. Diamondstone and Feliciano were remarkably consistent.
The former argued that capitalism is “evil,” while the latter answered most questions by saying that the unfettered free market would solve pretty much everything. If you’re into ideological purity, these are your guys.
Feliciano’s libertarian armor cracked just once, when he was pressed by Diamondstone about whether he would legalize all drugs. Noting that he has “small kids” who “ride bikes in the street” and that he wouldn’t want to see them injured by a drug user, Feliciano said he wasn’t so sure and would have to get back to the Liberty Union candidate.
Overall, Feliciano turned in a far stronger performance than Milne.
5. Milne and Feliciano don’t think the government should invest in fighting climate change, while Shumlin is already walking back his support for divestment.
Acknowledging that “climate change is a reality,” Milne said, “We want to be responsible citizens, but the government can’t be sticking its neck out and getting too far overboard on spending money on this.”
Feliciano wouldn’t even go that far.
“I don’t think climate change is as big an issue as we’re actually making it,” he said. “And as small a state as we are, I don’t think anything we can do is really going to impact it as much as we think it’s going to be, so I don’t think it’s really that big of an issue right now.”
As for Shumlin, the governor appears to be retreating from his assertion during an interview on WDEV’s “The Vermont Conversation” last week that divesting state pension funds of fossil fuel investments is “a good idea.” When Feliciano asked about those comments, Shumlin said, “What I said about divestiture is I’m willing to take a look at it. I didn’t say I would call for it.”
6. Only in Vermont would all the major gubernatorial candidates signal that they’d sign marijuana legalization into law.
Diamonstone and Feliciano are all-in on marijuana legalization. Shumlin hemmed and hawed a bit, but the gov left the distinct impression that, like his competitors, he would sign a legalization bill.
As for Milne? He managed to take every side of the issue.
“I do not advocate for legalization of marijuana in the short term. I think it’s a bad idea, but I think… one of the three fundamental principles upon which I founded my campaign is: the more locally decisions can be made, the better,” he said. “So if you’re listening and you think marijuana should be legalized, I would encourage you to talk to your legislators. I’m not going to advocate for it. I’m not going to pressure people. If I get a bill, I will sign it. But, on the record, I think it’s a bad idea to rush into it. I think we should have more states go through it. It’s clearly a train that’s coming our way, but no sense jumping on too soon.”
7. Bob Kinzel and Jane Lindholm won the debate.
The two asked smart, tough questions — and sounded infinitely more informed than most of the actual candidates. I made a similar point two years ago, but, man, is it too late to nominate them for governor?
You can listen to the full debate by clicking here.
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Dan Feliciano clearly articulated his positions on Shumlin’s failed VT Health Connect program, property taxes, the Vermont economy, educational choice, & our 2nd amendment rights.
Shumlin still has no plan to pay for health care- not until at least January after the election.
Milne is doing what Shumlin is doing, but “not as radically”.
I listened to the whole thing live. Except when Peter Diamondstone started talking about the red queen. Then I kinda tuned out a bit.
Seems like a pretty clear choice to me.
I’d like a real alternative to Shumlin. I don’t think he’s been, overall, outstanding as a governor of this state. Health care is a mess. Property taxes and educational funding taken together are a mess. Children and Family Services is a mess. I’d love a real alternative but there isn’t one I can support. Milne acts like he hadn’t given any thought to the issues facing Vermont, almost like he’s making up answers on the spot.
Also, it’s not the climate change isn’t an issue for Dan Feliciano. Dan said at the Tunbridge Fair debate that that climate change reporting has been highly politicized by the media which makes climate reporting difficult to trust. Speaking for myself, Vermont is a state a 640,000 people of which manufacturing makes up 11.1% of the states GDP, meaning Vermont’s carbon footprint is insignificant in weighted comparison to an climate change drivers emerging outside Vermont from other states, and other countries. Our state’s climate is mostly impacted by activities outside Vermont. Our carbon footprint is too small to warrant the governor’s 90% 2050 renewable energy goal. That goal bring unnecessary hardship to the majority of working families whose household incomes have either flat-lined or dipped against the backdrop of rising taxes, food costs, energy costs, housing prices, and inflationary spending. Vermonters ought not be forced by policymakers to pay the higher retail prices for renewables at the meter, or by way of tax subsidy through crony Efficiency VT fees to shore up for private renewable energy companies.
This debate excluded me, because I am an independent and did not win the republican primary ( in fact I lost ) I ran republican because of a libertarian/progressive platform. I would not have lost, so badly, had VPR and the press offered similar amounts of free coverage and non-mocking coverage ( something Seven Days, WCAX and VT Digger seem unable to do). Elections belong to the people, not the press, and the extent of digs and jabs that come from the supposedly impartial press is ridiculous. So for the record here are my campaign 3’s:
I’m Emily Peyton, independent for governor,
Merely focusing on lowering costs of treatment of symptoms will not solve our core health issues. Vermont should directly open clinics with salaried doctors and nurses educated at UVM in exchange for service allowing any Vermonter to freely visit them. 84 million a year is enough for that. Encouragement to displace pharmaceutical drugs with other natural healing methods, major reduction of opiate prescriptions and research on legal to grow Cannabis is prudent. Ultra-Fine particulate aluminum and other metals are currently being sprayed into the air from planes causing the huge rise in autism, and Alzheimer’s. Toxins in the air, soil, water, food, financial stress and the medical industry itself are leading causes of poor health disease and death.
As Governor I’ll focus on reducing both costs and root causes. Thank you.
Education
I won’t allow our Students to be treated like mules indebted to the banking empire so I’ll encourage a wide variety of educational methods based on building unilateral confidence for learning, and development of individual purpose, with individual sense of community responsibility and belonging. I’ll direct money for independent schools, homeschooling, add to that high school apprenticeships, and post high school college tuition exchanges with multiple methods for debt-free education.// I’ll build out from Vermont’s understanding of harmony with nature, not follow mandates coming from those completely out of touch with it. That why I’ll prioritize imagination to end compliance with directives that only benefit a dying model of uber-corporatism. Remember, imagination is our direct route to community value and sanity.
Primary Goal:
My primary goal is to serve the needs of future generations giving them economic thriving sustainability. A Vermont branding that puts our products and services on par with German and Swiss standards is the right direction for us. State support for micro businesses, worker-owned cooperatives, a state reserve bank and hemp product research are important means I will use to direct money flow to Vermonters who live now with enforced scarcity. I have proposed policy to give land tax free to those willing to create perma-farms and perma-farming communities for our much needed statewide food independence and security. Instituting these are critical to our State’s wellbeing. In short I’ll direct policy for new money to spurt up bringing with it a fully engaged economy . Good monetary policy will bring a new economy where taxation can be slowly phased out.