by Taylor Dobbs | June 5, 2012 vtdigger.org Representative Lucy Leriche, House majority leader, wonâ t seek a fifth term.Leriche, who represents Hardwick and has been part of the Democratic leadership team since 2009, said she couldnâ t afford to stay in the Legislature.
Her husband, she said, had subsidized her political career.
â It was starting to feel really wrong,’Leriche said. â I wasnâ t contributing enough to the household; I needed to pull my own weight on the home front.â
Leriche served on House Speaker Shap Smithâ s leadership team for four years: two sessions as assistant majority leader and the last two as majority leader for the Democrats.
Smith described Leriche as an incredibly talented person. He said itâ s â a real bummer’she couldnâ t stay.
â Sheâ s a great person, a great leader and sheâ s a good friend, but I think she needs to make some money and thatâ s a reality we have to face with a citizen legislature,’Smith said. â Itâ s too bad because weâ re losing a talented person, but I couldnâ t persuade her to stay.â
RepresentativeWillem Jewett, D-Ripton, the assistant majority leader of the House, is her most likely successor.
Leriche, the former executive director of the Lamoille Housing Partnership, said she is proudest of two pieces that she supported as a lawmaker ‘the groundbreaking gay marriage law and Catamount Health, a program that extended government-subsidized health care to uninsured Vermonters.
â I think one of the things Iâ m most proud of was being one of people responsible for creating Catamount Health,’Leriche said. â As I walk around this district I encounter a lot of people taking advantage of the program who really need it.â
Leriche fought hard to obtain her seat in 2004 in a hotly contested race with former incumbent Hardwick representative Dave Brown, a Republican. That year, she won by a narrow majority of ballots. Before Brown, Hardwick was represented by Paul Cillo, who also became majority leader and went on to found Public Assets Institute.
Leriche says she misses the Legislature already ‘though perhaps not the 14-hour days.
â I miss the idea of it,’Leriche said. â I donâ t really think that Iâ m who I am without that job. I definitely put myself into it. It was a bottomless pit of job. I gave every ounce to it to the exclusion of everything else in my life. I donâ t regret it at all, but that kind of effort is not sustainable.â
Leriche is passing her baton to Democratic candidate Kristina Michelsen, a Hardwick attorney.
~Anne Galloway
Zuckerman in the ring for Millerâ s seat
Former Burlington representative David Zuckerman announced his bid for Senate today after a two-year break from the Statehouse. The Progressive is running in the Democratic primary against Burlington City Councilor Ed Adrian for a chance at the Chittenden County Senate seat vacated by retiring Sen. Hinda Miller.
â I wasnâ t chomping at the bit to take on incumbents, necessarily,’Zuckerman said, â because a lot of them were doing a good job.’Now that thereâ s an empty seat and Zuckerman and his wife have finished moving their organic farm to Hinesburg, he says itâ s time to get back to Montpelier to work on some of his pet issues.
Former Rep. David Zuckerman, P-Burlington
Whatâ s been lingering in the Statehouse for two-plus years in his view? Marijuana reform, health-care reform and Death with Dignity, to name a few. Zuckermanâ s Progressive views on these issues are known to his constituents from the House, but he hopes to take them to the Senate to give that body a push in the left direction.
Zuckerman thinks marijuana should be legalized and taxed, so that commercial sales of the drug could generate state revenue that would help pay to treat addictions to other drugs such as the opiates that were such a hot issue in the last session.
â I was sort of an original legislator at least in contemporary times to bring up marijuana policy as a whole,’Zuckerman said in an interview.
A champion of the Death with Dignity legislation thatâ s been up for debate in the Statehouse for years, Zuckerman says the debate has been helpful to the issue.
â I think every single time itâ s discussed, it moves forward,’he said.
Zuckerman said his philosophy on taxation aligns with that of Sen. Bernie Sanders. He says the state didnâ t tax wealthy Vermonters enough in the wake of the recent economic downturn, and he hopes to push these policy ideas in the Senate.
â Rather than cutting programs,’he said, â I would have done at least a temporary income tax surcharge on the wealthier Vermonters.â
Thetford selectman to run for Orange County Senate seat
Thetford Selectman Tig Tillinghast declared his run against fellow Democrat Mark MacDonald for the Orange County Senate seat last week.
Tillinghast, a longtime select board member, said his experience in local government gives him a unique insight into how lawmakers can better meet the peopleâ s needs. While his issues arenâ t necessarily new ‘he wants universal statewide broadband, more jobs, protection for working landscapes, and improved vitality for small and medium-sized villages ‘Tillinghast says he will take a fresh approach to the issues.
As a member of Thetfordâ s Select Board he said he has helped to facilitate conversations.
â I would say that weâ ve done a boatload of really cool things ‘some of them unprecedented ‘here in Thetford in the last five years,’Tillinghast said in an interview, â and one of the things Iâ m proud of is that very few of those were my idea.â
Tillinghast said one fault of the Senate, which had its issues this year, is a disconnectedness from both constituencies and stakeholders in legislation.
â I think that sometimes the culture of the Senate can be one where once people are in session theyâ re kind of focused on themselves,’he said.
Solid waste legislation that went through the Legislature this year came dangerously close to striking a fatal blow against the permitted but unopened landfill in Windsor County.
â No one consulted the Greater Upper Valley Solid Waste District on the solid waste bill,’Tillinghast said, despite the legislationâ s direct impact on the district. Such disconnects are unacceptable in Tillinghastâ s view, and his work at the local level, taking calls from citizens about all sorts of issues, he says, will help close this gap.
â As a senator for these 11 towns, it would worry me that all of this legislation thatâ s going through affects, in some cases uniquely, these towns â ¦ Iâ d want to know how. Because I could affect the legislation much better if I knew that ahead of time,’he said.
Tillinghast hopes to keep an open dialog with constituents and stakeholders about legislation in the works.
Many of his views align with MacDonaldâ s, he said, though his approach would be different.
â Iâ m not running so much against Mark, who in many, many, many positions probably comes down exactly as I would, but I think that as a method of seeking input and what I would do with that input, I think I would operate differently because I have had to operate in the very local political stew that is a select board,’he said.
One of Tillinghastâ s stated goals is a familiar one: â Providing broadband Internet service availability to all homes and businesses.’Gov. Peter Shumlin promised this would happen by 2013 during his 2010 campaign for governor, and maintains the state is on track to meet that goal.
â Itâ s not gonna happen,’Tillinghast says. The state, according to Tillinghast, is taking a flawed approach to the problem by using middle-mile connections as the primary marker of success. Middle-mile connections are high-speed connections at places such as libraries or schools, whereas last-mile connections is service to homes and businesses.
â The state should have been concentrating on last mile over middle mile,’Tillinghast said. â We now have some nice middle mile infrastructure, but I believe we are unlikely to see complete coverage of last mile by the 2013 timeframe originally promised.â
Beyond that, the stateâ s efforts appear to Tillinghast only loosely coordinated, further hindering the stateâ s progress.
â You have kind of an alphabet soup of these different groups that have been partially responsible for bringing Internet, and they all mean well â ¦ but no one person there is responsible for it really happening.â
Statewide Internet isnâ t an end in itself, but a means to an end, Tillinghast says. Local businesses in Thetford are stuck, unable to expand into e-commerce or to innovate online. Bringing high-speed Internet to every home and business in the state would allow businesses to thrive where they are, and would draw young Vermonters into jobs that match their education level instead of driving them out of state to look for work after college, Tillinghast said.
Sorrell endorsed by former Chittenden County stateâ s attorneys
Attorney General Bill Sorrell said he could â play the endorsement game’at his campaign launch, and heâ s made the latest move in the volley of endorsements between he and challenger TJ Donovan.
Monday, the Sorrell campaign announced that four of seven living former Chittenden County stateâ s attorneys endorsed him in the Democratic primary for the office.
Chittenden County State's Attorney TJ Donovan gives a speech at the launch of his campaign for Attorney General. VTD Photo/Taylor Dobbs
Tuesday, the campaign issued a correction. There are eight living former Chittenden County stateâ s attorneys, and five of them endorse Sorrell. The fifth: Mark Keller, who served in the office from 1979 to 1983.
Lauren Bowerman, Scot Kline, Francis Murray and Bob Simpson also endorsed Sorrell, who worked with the Sorrell throughout his career. Sorrell worked under Francis Murray while Murray was stateâ s attorney, and Simpson worked as an assistant attorney general under Sorrell. He worked with the others as Chittenden County atateâ s attorney during his two separate tenures in the office. He served after Gov. Richard Snelling appointed him to the position in 1977; he served again from 1989 to 1992.
The endorsements are a testament to his work from people â who understand from their own history what itâ s like being a criminal prosecutor and for several of them to work in other areas of the law that are relevant to what the Attorney General does.â
Donovan, who is challenging Sorrell from his current role as Chittenden County stateâ s attorney, said he wasnâ t fazed by the endorsement.
â I saw that endorsement and I know all four of them and I think highly of all of them,’he said, â but what Iâ m talking about is how do we address the challenges weâ re facing today, and how do we move forward so we really have a 21st century criminal justice system.â
The candidates so far have run positive campaigns, mostly talking themselves up without attacking each other, but thereâ s a distinct pull in the campaign between past and present. While Sorrell constantly refers to the lawsuit he took action on â four weeks to the day after taking office’in 1997 (the big tobacco settlement) and the money that suitâ s settlement still brings into the state. Donovan, on the other hand, has plans to implement rapid intervention court programs statewide and increase the attorney generalâ s influence in the Statehouse, something he says has been lacking under Sorrell.
The candidates have identified different priorities. Donovan hopes to take on prescription drug abuse, while Sorrell warns of the dangers of the Internet.
Child pornography, identity theft, scams and personal privacy breaches are all made easier online, Sorrell said in an interview. These dangers must be addressed as more and more Vermonters go online, he said.
â I say that across a broad spectrum of issues within the authority of the attorney general from the criminal justice arena to the consumer protection arena, personal privacy arena, the online world presents great opportunities but great challenges also,’Sorrell said.
Donovan, in an interview, addressed the discrepancy in the candidates’priorities: â It says to me that Iâ m talking to the people like me who are on the ground, working in the courts, working in city halls, working on the street, the police in the cruiser, the clinician working at the social service agency with the walk-in clients. Iâ m talking to the people who are in the trenches. Thatâ s what that says to me, and I think [my] endorsements underscore that point.â
Sorrell said his priorities come from the office itself.
â Itâ s not like somebody told me itâ s the online world thatâ s the problem,’Sorrell said, â itâ s just that doing the day-in, day-out work of the attorney general, itâ s become clear to me.â
Gubernatorial contenders disclose tax forms
As election season heats up, candidates are beginning to release their tax information to the public. Gov. Peter Shumlin and his challenger, Sen. Randy Brock, both released tax returns last week.
The governorâ s adjusted gross income last year was $502,253, a 31 percent drop from the previous yearâ s $732,445. Shumlin filed jointly with his wife, Deborah Holway, and claimed the separated coupleâ s two daughters as dependents. Much of the drop was in real estate holdings, which brought in less than half of the income from 2010.
The page of the returns dealing with such holdings was not present in the governorâ s initial release, and when asked, Shumlin said there wasnâ t much to see on that sheet.
â Itâ s mostly losses,’he said.
Sen. Randy Brock submitted his petition to get on the ballot as a gubernatorial candidate. VTD Photo/Taylor Dobbs
Brockâ s release, filed jointly with his wife, Andrea, showed $268,014 in adjusted gross income, which included almost $112,000 in taxable interest on the coupleâ s investments. A financial statement released by Brock listed the coupleâ s assets and investments as of Jan. 1 of this year, with about $6 million in net worth. The couple owns $3.033 million in rental properties in Naples and North Naples, Fla., and investments of more than $10,000 in Apple, Exxon Mobil, IBM and various other companies.
Shumlinâ s tax withholding and tax credits covered his owed federal taxes with $77,021 to spare and his state taxes with $12,098, which he put toward next yearâ s taxes. Brock ended the tax year owing $13,351 federally. Brock did not release his Vermont state return.
Candidate filings pile up
As the Secretary of Stateâ s office winds down after the first week of accepting petitions from candidates running for office, many statewide races are still blank. There are not yet petitions filed for Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Treasurer or Auditor. With the exception of Auditor Tom Salmon, all incumbents in those offices have said they will run again.
As of about 3 p.m. Friday, petitions had come in from 24 candidates. See Below.
Kate Oâ Connor, a longtime political operative who worked behind the scenes for Howard Dean as governor and during his presidential campaign, is hoping to enter politics herself as she runs for the seat Rep. Sarah Edwards, P-Brattleboro, is vacating.http://vtdigger.org/2012/06/05/oconnor-runs-for-brattleboro-house-seat/
The filing deadline for candidates is June 14, and Secretary of State Jim Condos said he would have his petition in sometime next week.
Name
Party
Running for
Peta Lindsay
Socialism & Liberation
U.S. President
Randy Brock
Republican
Governor
Cris Ericson
United States Marijuana
Governor, U.S. Senator
William Sorrell
Democratic
Attorney General
H. Brook Paige
Republican
U.S. Senate
Bernie Sanders
Independent
U.S. Senate
James â Sam’Desrochers
Independent
U.S. Representative
David Dill
Republican
Vt. Senate (Caledonia)
Richard â Terry’Jeroloman
Progressive
Vt. Senate (Chittenden)
Shelley Palmer
Republican, Tea Party (Independent)
Vt. Senate (Chittenden)
Bill Carris
Democratic
Vt. Senate (Rutland)
Peter Galbraith
Democratic
Vt. Senate (Windham)
Dave Sharpe
Democratic
Vt. Rep. (Addison-4)
Bill Frank
Democratic
Vt. Rep. (Chittenden 3)
Ed Stone
Republican
Vt. Rep. (Chittenden 4-1)
Carolyn Whitney Branagan
Republican
Vt. Rep. (Franklin-1)
John I. Mitchell
Republican
Vt. Rep. (Franklin-2)
Paul L. Monette
Independent
Vt. Rep (Orleans-2)
Tom Koch
Republican
Vt. Rep. (Washington-2)
Francis â Topper’McFaun
Republican
Vt. Rep. (Washington-2)
Adam Greshin
Independent
Vt. Rep. (Washington-7)
Kate Oâ Connor
Democratic
Vt. Rep. (Windham 2-3)
Alice M. Emmons
Democratic
Vt. Rep. (Windsor 3-2)
Paul Keane
Independent
Vt. Rep. (Windsor 4-2)
by Taylor Dobbs | June 5, 2012 vtdigger.org