Vermont Dems and GOP trade punches over Shumlin’s Caribbean vacation, jobs record

by Anne Galloway vtdigger.org In an email blast Monday, the Vermont GOP blamed manufacturing layoffs on Gov. Peter Shumlin and tied the pink slips at Plasan and IBM to the governor’s jaunt to the Caribbean this week. The Republicans say Shumlin is responsible for 700 job losses.
David Sunderland, the new chair of the Vermont Republican Party, says the governor isn’t focused on creating jobs for Vermonters, instead he says Shumlin is more interested in “jetsetting around the nation raising millions of dollars so he and other politicians can keep their jobs or setting sail to the Caribbean island where he owns property.”
The Vermont Democratic Party struck back hours later with an attack on Sunderland. The counter jab message? Julia Barnes, the executive director of the VDP wrote, “The Vermont GOP is fighting for failure in the most cynical way possible. They want Vermont to do worse just to improve their own electoral prospects.” Barnes claims Vermont’s economy has grown stronger under Shumlin and “it is ranked first in solar job creation and is home to one of the most promising tech hubs in the country.”
Barnes, et al, point out that Vermont’s unemployment rate is 4 percent — the fifth-lowest in the country.
Welcome to the 2014 campaign season. The Vermont GOP doesn’t have a candidate for governor yet, but the party is preparing the ground for whoever the challenger may be. Meanwhile, the Dems just hired Ben Sarle, former editor of Thread Magazine, to crank out retaliatory press releases.
Perhaps the governor’s absence was an opportune time for the salvos, but then the governor is often away on official business for the Democratic Governors Association.
As head of the association, Shumlin spends four to five days a month out of state raising money for fellow governors, meeting with the president, making speeches on behalf of candidates, etc.
Gov. Peter Shumlin is away again this week, this time on vacation in Dominica, a small Caribbean island where he owns a three-quarter acre parcel that locals use to grow bananas. His last vacation was in August. He went to Cape Breton, where he also owns property.
The governor is due back in Vermont on Thursday.
Lt. Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, is acting governor in Shumlin’s absence. Scott canceled an appearance at the National Lieutenant Governors Association Federal-State Relations Meeting in Washington, DC, on Wednesday in order to fill in for the governor.