Who won and lost the week in Vermont news and politics?
The Vermont Air National Guard, obvz. But who else?
Read on and you’ll find out — in the Scoreboard for the week of Friday, December 6:
Winners:
The Vermont Air National Guard — You mighta heard: They’re gettin’ a few new planes. Runner-up winner: Sen. Patrick Leahy, who invested a tremendous amount of political capital into bringing the F-35 to Vermont. Second runner-up winner: Vermont’s business community, which organized the “grassroots,” pro-F-35 movement (led by Greater Burlington Industrial Corporation president Frank Cioffi and funded, in part, by real estate magnate Tony Ernie Pomerleau) Leahy referred to at Tuesday’s announcement. Third runner-up winner: WPTZ-TV, the first media outlet to confirm and report the F-35 news.
Peter Shumlin — The governor said this week he’s planning to run for a third term next year, and he’s already banking cash from Vermont’s business and, um, Republican bigwigs. That’s good news for him and terrible news for his nonexistent opponents. Runner-up loser: The Vermont media, which, despite Shummy’s admission that he’s running, will almost certainly allow him to avoid engaging with his (nonexistent) opponent through Labor Day, as it did last year.
Vermont Public Radio — VPR’s capital bureau picked up the best print reporter in the Statehouse this week. Runner-up loser: The Rutland Herald and Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, both of which have relied on Peter Hirschfeld to prop up their ever-diminishing news teams. Look for them to rely more and more on their partnership with VPR, through which they’ll be able to print stories reported by… Peter Hirschfeld.
Phish (point of personal privilege) — They officially turned 30 this week. And they’re still the shit. Just sayin’.
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