Updated: LOL! Happy April Fool’s Day!

Just three months into his second term, Gov. Peter Shumlin is facing an unprecedented exodus of senior staff members and cabinet officials, Seven Days has learned.

Chief of staff Elizabeth Miller, deputy chief of staff and spokeswoman Sue Allen and legislative liaison Louis Porter all plan to leave the governor’s office by the end of the month, administration officials confirmed late Sunday.

Meanwhile, two top cabinet members — Agency of Human Services Secretary Doug Racine and Commerce Secretary Lawrence Miller — are also planning their departures.

It’s unclear whether the changes on the fifth floor of the Pavilion State Office Building are the result of a house-cleaning, a staff insurrection, or are mere coincidence. Just last week, the architect of Shumlin’s single-payer health care plan, Anya Rader Wallack, announced she will step down in September as chairwoman of the Green Mountain Care Board.

Elizabeth Miller, a Burlington lawyer who served as Shumlin’s secretary of public service before taking over as chief of staff in January, plans to join Green Mountain Power as vice president of a new solar division. She’ll be tasked with implementing the company’s ambitious plan to build an 18-megawatt solar farm on state land on the southern and western slopes of Camel’s Hump.

“We’re excited to be joined by such a talented and dynamic leader,” said GMP spokeswoman Dotty Schnure, who confirmed the hire. “Plus, it’s been about 10 months since we’ve hired someone out of state government.”

Though Allen and Porter will no longer be working for the governor, they’ll continue to work together. Both are rejoining their alma mater: the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus.

Allen, who previously served as the paper’s top editor, will take that role again, according to Times Argus publisher Thom Lauzon. Allen will be charged with coordinating the merger of the Times Argus and its sister paper, the Rutland Herald, with Vermont Public Radio, the Burlington Free Press and VTDigger.org. The combined entity is tentatively being called the VermontPressHeraldArgus.org.

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Paul Heintz was part of the Seven Days news team from 2012 to 2020. He served as political editor and wrote the "Fair Game" political column before becoming a staff writer.

7 replies on “Shumlin Administration Facing Staff Exodus”

  3. God..if only this were true. It would be truly excellent news, especially the Racine part. He’d be more at home at the Chamber, April Fool’s or not.

  7. This blog post may be a joke, but so is David Zuckerman’s holier-than-thou stand on campaign finance reform in the Vermont Senate as reported in this week’s Fair Game:
    “What’s so funny about banning corporate contributions to political candidates? That’s what Sen. Dave Zuckerman (P/D-Chittenden) was wondering last Thursday night when several colleagues began to chuckle during a roll call vote on a tough new campaign-finance rule.”
    This is the same guy who admitted a couple of years ago to taking state meals and travel allowances for his service in the Legislature to which he wasn’t entitled?
    What’s so funny indeed.

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