State Auditor Tom Salmon announced to his 3539 friends on Facebook last night that he won’t seek reelection in 2012 — less than two months after he was sworn into a third term.
“I have enjoyed my service to the state but will not seek re-election as state auditor,” Salmon wrote around 9 p.m. “It has been an honor to serve with such a talented team at the SAO (State Auditor’s Office). Thank you all.”
What’s next for Salmon? He’s not sure: Possibly a run for U.S. Senate, or dropping out of politics entirely and seeking a degree in mediation and conflict resolution.
“I will work where I can make a difference. We have transformed the auditors office and I am very proud of the staff and the work . Politics may not be the future,” wrote Salmon in an email to Seven Days.
In response to his Facebook post, several of his supporters are urging him to run for governor in 2012 against Democrat Peter Shumlin. His father, Thomas Salmon, was elected governor as a Democrat in 1972.
Salmon, first elected as a Democrat in 2006, switched parties in 2009 and became a Republican. He won reelection last fall against Doug Hoffer, a Democrat/Progressive.
For almost a year Salmon has mulled a run against U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT. Earlier this year he said he would announce his decision to run against Sanders by March 5.
Salmon told Seven Days via email the move is, “definately a step for transparency.” He said while the move help align him politically to run against Sanders, it could also end up being a “step out” not a step up.
“We have to evaluate very hard as a family at this stage. Members of the Progressive Party and other anonymous parties inflicted a fair amount of pain on the entire clan last year,” said Salmon.
Salmon is referring to the efforts of John Franco, a Burlington attorney and longtime Progressive and close ally of Sanders, who successfully sued to have a videotape of Salmon’s 2009 DUI stop made public. It was released just days before the November election. Franco was also a supporter of Salmon’s challenger, Doug Hoffer.
Salmon believes Sanders could have done more to thwart Franco’s efforts, and told him so in a letter the day after he won reelection last fall. He said Franco’s release of the DUI tape “helped contribute to one of the most negative campaign seasons of recent history.”
“As the highest ranking Progressive in the State of Vermont, it is incumbent upon you to answer whether you were aware of” Franco’s request, Salmon wrote to Sanders in a November 3 letter. “Was he acting on behalf of you? Could you please clarify your relationship with him because it has been reported to me that the two of you have a strong history and continue regular lunches and meetings.”
Sanders failed to respond to Salmon’s letter.
This article appears in Feb 16-22, 2011.
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Facts?You have a really warped perspective. Salmon was punished for his DUI and did what he was ordered to do. Because someone dragged the event through the mud and further embarrassed his family that of course is his fault and indicates he hasn’t learned his lesson? He didn’t learn his lesson because some poltical hungry guy had his hired thug drag out the dirt….hmmmm, Yeah I don’t think so Chief.
Certainly not making excuses for a DUI, but a few points of differentiation are that Franco’s act was deliberate, done with full knowledge of the impact he’d have on Salmon and his family, and he has never apologized for it, even though it did plenty of harm and zero good.BTW I see senior citizens driving around every day that are far more dangerous behind the wheel stone cold sober than a 50 year old man at .086. I guess they’re all scumbags too.
@Murphy: Yes, trying to abuse your power to get out of a speeding ticket is a scumbag move. (Who said it wasn’t?) Though, I think I’d be inclined to call Shumlin sleazy instead of a scumbag for that but that’s my personal semantic choice. What I will say is I think driving drunk is a worse crime than driving 16 mph over the speed limit while sober. Both are illegal and dangerous but one is far worse in my eyes. And the punishments for the respective crimes seem to suggest the law agrees with me. So if we call Shumlin a scumbag, we need to call Salmon a bigger scumbag, in my opinion at least.Oh, and for what it’s worth, on a scale of scumbag-ness, I think both acts are much much worse than using the courts to gain access to a DUI stop. Again, in my opinion.
@ BB:”Driving drunk is a scumbag move. And when you commit a crime, especially one as dangerous as that, every part of that crime should be made public record … especially when you’re running for a public office and serving at the pleasure of the very same people whom you put in danger when you drove drunk in the first place. I don’t call that progressive, I call that responsibility.”Is speeding a scumbag move? Maybe, or maybe not, but it can be just as dangerous as driving at .86. Is “accidentally” pulling out your Senate ID card instead of your license a scumbag move? I’d say so. Is saying, “Hey, maybe you’ll be working for me someday” a scumbag move? I’d say so.
People, tone it down, please.Debate the pros and cons of Tom Salmon’s legacy all you want, but don’t snipe at each other. Thanks.
“Blinded by right wing hatred,” yeah Salmon is practically George W. You crack me up.Salmon has a partial list of accomplishments on his site, go look it up. And next time you accuse someone of “lacking a natural sense of logic,” at least try to apply it to an argument, rather than just randomly throwing it into the middle of a whiny little outburst.
Jimmy -Obviously you lack a natural sense of logic. Either that or you are so blinded by right wing hatred that what little sense of logic you do have escapes you at the moment. Tom Salmon has proven over and over again that he isn’t made out of the same stuff as his father, is not fit to hold public office and needs to find something else to do. If you, Jimmy, can name one thing that Tom Salmon has ever done to further the public interest and not just his own, I’m all ears.
“Salmon had no idea the cuffs were in play”Yeah, I’m sure he didn’t realize that cuffs are involved in an arrest. “I am not going to run away or need handcuffs” was his explanation for the statement, and I have no reason to doubt him.”Make up your mind. Facts or opinion?”Some aspects of this constitute fact, some opinion. As a Hoffer supporter, it’s unsurprising that you’re having difficulty differentiating the two.
I mentioned the burping because it’s a well-known stall tactic used to give yourself more time to register a lower BAC. My apologies for not clarifying that, though, I didn’t realize I would need to spell it out for anyone.And Salmon may have been punished, but he obviously hasn’t learned his lesson if he blames others for embarrassment suffered by his family. He’s the one who brought up the “dead horse” in the first place when he blamed others for the pain his DUI caused his family.
Regardless, Salmon has served the time for his crime. Let’s let stop beating a dead horse here. It’s not as if this article is reporting DUI-2