Monthly Archives: August 2012

In advance of a noontime Democratic unity rally in Burlington at which both TJ Donovan and Bill Sorrell will speak, Donovan is convening a press conference in Battery Park. We’ll have updates as they become available.

and it sounds like the 38-year-old challenger will be conceding the race. Mark Johnson is reporting on WDEV that Donovan was to call Bill Sorrell at the top of the hour to concede.

Trailing by about 600 votes with only 14 precincts left to report, it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which Donovan could overcome the deficit. Stay tuned.

It’s hard to call it a victory speech, but Bill Sorrell just told his crowd of supporters that he’ll hold the attorney general’s office tomorrow, and “I’m going to hold it in January too.”

At nearly 10:30, the seven-term incumbent came down from his campaign war room and made his first appearance at his own election party.  

“I can’t tell you how great it is to see so many friendly faces,” Sorrell said. “This has been a really long six months, and I’ve said several times, you know, this is more a marathon than a sprint, and we got about a mile or so more to run, and I’m feeling great.”

Donovan has already said he won’t concede tonight, and, with 600 votes separating him and the challenger, Sorrell wasn’t in any rush to declare victory.

“We’ve made it over the top of Heartbreak Hill, my breathing’s good, my legs are good, no blisters, and we got awhile to wait, but that’s okay,” he said. “Because between being 600 or so votes up and 600 or so votes down, I choose option A.”

The margin will almost certainly stay below 2 percent, meaning Donovan will have the option of demanding a recount. With 94 percent of precincts reporting, according to WCAX, Sorrell wields a 609-vote advantage. Only 16 of the state’s 258 precincts have yet to report.

Sorrell recalled a conversation with Gov. Peter Shumlin at the outset of the campaign.

“I remember six months or so ago talking with a very prominent Democratic politician in this state who said there is nothing worse than a primary,” Sorrell said. “And I believed him then and I sure believe his now.”

Shumlin ultimately won that race by 112 votes, though it wasn’t until days after the primary that he was confirmed as the winner.

That’s the latest from the Sorrell war room. Still anyone’s race, it appears…

In a Democratic primary between two well-known residents of northernBrattleboro, Tristan Toleno narrowly bested Kate O’Connor for a spot on the general election ballot for state representative.

Toleno, local-foods entrepreneur who runs a catering business, won 352 votes to O’Connor’s 323 to win theWindham2-3 district.

O’Connor, a former top aide to Gov. Howard Dean, said she wondered harsh criticism directed at her by a local radio host played a role in the loss. She was pilloried by the deejay for her role in the U.S. Senate campaign of Republican Rich Tarrant.

“I stayed positive, so I don’t know what role that played in this whole thing,” O’Connor said.

Toleno said his commitment to local food systems, business experience and work in area schools resonated with voters.

“It was really a question about whether they wanted to send a citizen legislator who was active in the community, or if they wanted to have Kate, with her executive branch experience, but maybe had spent a little less time in Brattleboro over the last few years.”

John MacGovern has defeated H. Brooke Paige for the right to take on Bernie Sanders in November.

MacGovern was elected four times to the Massachusetts House in the 1980s, and has helped form a number of companies conducting business in China. He currently runs a nonprofit for Dartmouth alumni.

Paige has worked in several industries, topping off his career with his own newsstand service in the Philadelphia area. He was the chairman of the Washington Republican Committee for about 10 years.

Tonight’s contest for attorney general will dominate headlines tomorrow, but, vote-for-vote, the Progressive gubernatorial primary will win far more attention than the battle between the Democratic prosecutors.

A late-race write-in campaign launched on behalf of anti-mountaintop-wind activist Annette Smith might well draw fewer than 1,000 votes. But the outcome could have an outsized impact on gubernatorial politics in November.

Smith, executive director of Vermonters for a Clean Environment, calls herself a reluctant candidate. But supporters of her organization’s platform – she opposes ridgeline wind development, F-35s at the Vermont Air National Guard, and the Public Service Board’s approval of the blockbuster merger of Green Mountain Power and Central Vermont Public Service – say they’ve conscripted the Danby resident for public service.

It’s unclear whether Smith would actually accept the nomination if she wins tonight – we may not know the outcome until tomorrow, since write-ballots take much longer to tally. She’s up against Progressive stalwart Martha Abbott, whose name actually appears on the party’s gubernatorial ballot.

If Smith does win the nod, she’d make for an interesting twist in what has to date been a relatively unremarkable gubernatorial race.

Only 533 Vermonters voted in the 2010 Progressive primary. In 2008, the number was 470. In addition to anti-big-wind folks, the “Stop the F-35” coalition has thrown in for Smith.

The group, which numbers several hundred, fired of an email to its members urging them to pull a Prog ballot and write-in Smith. The same plea appears on the group’s website.

Stephanie Kaplan, the anti-ridgeline-wind activist credited with launching the write-in campaign, said today it’s impossible to predict what kind of response her two-week write-in campaign will generate.

As of right now, the Secretary of State is reporting that Abbott has 17 votes, to 22 for “write-in,” who we presume is Smith.

“We have no way of knowing” how many people will come out for Smith, Kaplan said.

“I feel like we’ve gotten an outpouring of support, but I can’t tell you what that means in terms of votes,” she said.

Abbott hasn’t committed to running in the general election if she wins tonight. She said last week she’ll announce tonight or Wednesday whether she’ll stay in, or withdraw her name from the general-election ballot.