byEmma LambertonVermont WatchdogA prominent Republicanconsultant and local columnist is allegingthatGovernorPhilScott’s administration sought to prevent herfrom writingabout GOP dissent overtheRepublican governor’s immigration policies.
In recent years, Meg Hansen has earned areputation as aconservative consultant to theVermont House Republican Caucus. She also writes a conservative column that appears in the Eagle Times, the Rutland Herald and the Times Argus.
Long atarget of left-wing opposition, on February19 Hansen said she began taking flakfrom an unexpected source: the office of GovernorPhil Scott. Hansen claims that’s when she received a text message from House Minority Leader Don Turner, R-Milton, requesting thatshe not write aboutGOP dissent over the governor’s policy prohibitinglocal officials from helping feds enforce USimmigration law.
According to Hansen's text, Turner made the request on behalf of the Scott administration:
“Hi Meg, the Governor’s staff is concerned about your plan to write a column expressing frustration felt by long time GOP supporters with the Governor. They asked that I contact you to see if you would consider not doing this column. Please let me know what you decide to do. Thank you!”
Hansen told Watchdog the message amountsto intimidation coming from the highest levels of state government.
“This is a problem in two ways: They are trying to kill the story, and they’ve crossed ethical lines. … I reached out to their office as a private citizen,” Hansen said.
“I never saw this coming.Not like this,” she added.
Hansen, who began writing hercolumn in July 2016,has written two opinion columnscriticizing Scott. The first,“Vermont’s absurd crusade against ‘big bad’ Trump,” published onFebruary18and challenged Scott’s opposition to President Donald Trump’s immigration executive orders. Turner’s messagecame as she was preparing to write a secondcolumnabout the governor causingdissent within the Republican Party.
As Watchdog reported, many Republicans argue that S.79stands to make Vermont a sanctuary state— a claim the governor repeatedly has denied.As passed by the House last week, S.79 bars Vermontofficials from passing along residents’ “personally identifying information” with federal officials. Thatinformation includes a person’s immigration status, national origin, religion, race and color—dataessential for identifying and potentially detaining illegal immigrants.
Turner told Watchdog his request was not an attempt to silence Hansen.
“Jason Gibbs (the governor’s chief of staff) did contact me … but he was really making sure where I was. We do that all the time,” Turner said.
Unshaken by Turner, Hansen published her second column, “Vermont’s sanctuary status appalls Republicans.” Days later,a caller criticized hercolumnduringaVPR special on immigrationwhere Turner was one of the panel experts. At the program’s19:30mark, the caller asks Turner a questionaboutHansen:
“I’m really concerned about the rise of the alt-right, and you have to call it out when you see it, especially in Vermont. My question is for Don Turner. Your caucus has spent a lot of money on employing this woman Meg Hansen who wrote a column that is really critical of this immigration bill and governor Scott. She’s gone on Twitter, and she writes a lot of really false and inflammatory things against LGBT people, refugees, and it’s really concerning. My question is, do you guys still work with Ms. Hansen, and has this hatred and these views she’s espoused made your relationship with Governor Scott difficult?”
Turner’s reply appears to contradicthis communications with Hansen of February19:“She helps with writing, messaging and op-eds, and things like that, but what she does personally is her own business. She is a columnist. I do not get involved in what she writes for herself and for her columns.”
Hansen told Watchdog shethinksthe caller’s question wasplanted.“I wouldn’t expect a person on the street to know my employment connections,” she said.
Hansen says she has repeatedly been targeted by what she describes as ultra-left political blogs since she began her column. She says her social media posts have been vehemently attacked and even censored by Vermont legislators.
“[I’ve been called] the KKK and a white supremacist. I’m Indian. How can I be a white supremacist?” she told Watchdog.
Hansen was born in Indiabut came to the USat a young age. She later graduated from medical school in India before pursuing her dream as a writer. She graduated from Dartmouth College with a Master’s in Liberal Studies, and now works as a writer and communications consultant.
Hansen says name-calling and personal attacksare becoming widespread.
“This is what the left does, and it is part of the bullying pattern I’ve seen from the Scott administration,” she said, adding that she’s surprised bythe administration, especially sincesome prominent Republican lawmakers have spoken out abouttheir opposition to the governor’s immigration agenda.
Speaking about Scott’s immigration stance, state Rep. Thomas Terenzini, R-Rutland, told Watchdog he regrets supporting the governor.
“I worked my butt off for Phil Scott’s campaign when he ran for lieutenant governor and then governor. It’s all been for naught. I backed the wrong horse,” Terenzinisaid.
“Governor Scott has disappointed me since he took office. He’s acting more like a socialist Democrat than a Republican. … He’s not a Republican. I don’t know of any other Republican governors that go around criticizing our president,” he added.
Rebecca Kelley, Scott’s communications director, told Watchdog that the effort to reach out to Hansenmay have involved“misinterpretation.”
“There has been communication to multiple stakeholders within the party to ensure that things are conveyed accurately.I do not believe there was ever a directive for anyone to not write,” she said.“If there was an interpretation of any communication [from the governor’s office] that anyone was asking a reporter to not write a story, that would have been [our]effort to stress the conveyance of accurate information.There would not have been an effort to get an individual to stop writing.”
March 21, 2017.Emma Lamberton is Vermont Watchdog’s health care and Rutland area reporter. Contact her at[email protected]or @EmmaBeth9.