Tag Archives: Phil Scott

Vt. GOP struggle: Go moderate? Or stay the course of conservative?

Posted on April 17, 2013 by | 3 Comments
Phill Scott

Phil Scott

They’ve descended to super-minority status in both the House and Senate, and lay claim to just one of Vermont’s six statewide offices.

By the numbers at least, the once-dominant Vermont Republicans have reached a new low in their years-long fall from grace. Their fight for the future, however, is being waged not with the Democrats that so embarrassed them in the last two election cycles, but among fellow Republicans vying against each other for control of the party’s organizational apparatus.

The emergence of two factions — one led by Vermont Republican Party Chairman Jack Lindley, the other by Lt. Gov. Phil Scott — has pitted the old-guard GOP against a cadre of upstart reformists looking to put some distance between themselves and the Republican National Committee.

As a group led by Scott pieces together a statewide re-branding strategy aimed at picking up the centrists and Independents he says have been turned off by the party in recent years, Lindley and others are beginning to push back against a plan that would, in Lindley’s words, “turn its back on the national party.”

“I’m not about to go down the road of trying to have a party in Vermont that’s Democrat-lite,” Lindley said in an interview last week.
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Posted in Elections, Politics, State House

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Phil Scott sworn in to second term

Posted on January 10, 2013 by | Comments Off

The lone Republican elected to statewide office in November took his oath of office in the Senate this morning. Lt. Gov. Phil Scott, the Barre-born race car driver now in his second term, lamented a brain drain that has, according to the U.S. Census, seen the population of people aged 25-44 in Vermont shrink by 30 percent over the past decade.

“That’s 28,000 Vermonters who left our state and took with them their buying power, their innovation and their children,” Scott said. “Many of our classrooms echo with their absence.”

Scott said the loss of people in their prime earning years contributed to a fiscal erosion that saw state revenues suffer year-over-year declines between 2008 and 2011.

“We can reduce expenses by cutting staff and programs, and we can increase revenues by raising taxes and fees,” Scott said. “And for better or worse, we’ve already done a lot of both.”

But like the state’s Democratic governor, Scott said, he believes Vermonters are “tapped out an taxed out.”

Scott said Vermont needs to grow its way out of the problem, thereby solving “both sides of the balance sheet at the same time.”

He offered no specific plans for sparking the number of jobs or the wages they pay.

“If we can work with businesses both small and large … progress and prosperity will come,” he said. “If we can entice young professionals to move here, our classrooms will fill up again and so will our vacant storefronts and government coffers.”

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Senate waits with bated breath for 2013 committee assignments

Posted on January 8, 2013 by | Comments Off

The palace intrigue continues today in the Senate, where a rumored shake-up in some key committee chairwomanships has set off a wave of speculation about who will end up where.

Sen. Dick Mazza, one of three members on the powerful ” Committee on Committees,” said he, Senate Pro Tem John Campbell and Lt. Gov. Phil Scott are hoping to ink a final roster by Thursday. They’ll probably announce the decisions to members on Friday morning – “so they have assignments before they go home for the weekend,” Mazza said.

The Friday news drop serves another key function: giving spurned senators 72 hours to ice their brusied egos before returning to Montpelier for the first full week of the session.

“There are going to be some happy folks and some unhappy folks,” Mazza said this morning. “But you deal with it and within a week or so people usually move on.”

Mazza, Campbell and Scott – the lite guv always gets a spot on the committee on committees – have been working for weeks on a roster of committee assignments. Sen. Ginny Lyons, longtime chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources, is rumored to be on the chopping block – she had earlier this year pondered a run against Campbell for pro tem.

Sen. Ann Cummings won’t continue as chairwoman of Senate Finance – she requested last month to be pulled from the plum assignment, something that likely would have happened anyway given her very public dressing-down of Campbell at a Senate caucus last month.

Vince Illuzzi’s departure fom the body opens up another chairmanship in the Committee on Economic Development, House and General Affairs.

The Committee on Committees has done a pretty good job keeping people guessing – some of the senators who will be most directly impacted by its chioces still don’t know what’s coming. It’s the kind of inside baseball that no one who works outside Montpelier will probably care much about, but the committee compositions will signal changes in the Senate’s evolving power dynamic, and could have an effect on prospects for some key pieces of legislation.

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Posted in Politics, State Senate

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Scott retains the key Republican stronghold seat

Posted on November 6, 2012 by | Comments Off

Shortly after 11 p.m., Lt. Gov. Phil Scott said he accepted Gekas’ concession in the race.
“We were a well-oiled machine,” he said, calling his campaign creative, positive and issues-driven.
He said although he was successful and other Republican candidates weren’t, they should hold their heads high as they left the building.

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The Candidates Speak: Lt. Governor’s Race

Posted on October 26, 2012 by | Comments Off
Cassandra Gekas

Cassandra Gekas

Phill Scott

Phil Scott

 

 

 

 

 

We posed 5 questions to the candidates for Lieutenant Governor, Democrat Cassandra Gekas and Republican Phil Scott. Their answers, provided by email, are below.

Q: It’s April of 2014, and the sitting governor passes away before he was to sign into law a controversial bill with which you disagree vehemently. After being sworn in to serve out the remainder of the term, would you sign the bill? Or use your executive power to prevent it from becoming law?

Phil Scott: If I were ever to find myself in this unfortunate position, I would take a page from the Howard Dean playbook and respect the process. I think it would be important during that time of crisis to establish a sense of consistency. So, to answer the question, I might not sign the bill, but I would not use my executive power to veto it, either. (If the governor does nothing with a bill that crosses his or her desk, the bill becomes law.)

Cassandra Gekas: As an elected official, there are times when you must weigh your personal values against the recommendations of your colleagues or what is politically popular. In Vermont, where the governor and lieutenant governor are elected separately, this can be particularly difficult when the two leaders do not have a shared vision for the future of our state. Continue reading →

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Brock, Scott condemn Akin remarks

Posted on August 22, 2012 by | Comments Off

Like their GOP colleagues everywhere else, Vermont’s highest-profile Republicans sought to distance themselves Tuesday from the now infamous comments of Missouri Congressman Todd Akin.

In a press release fired off to news outlets this afternoon, Republican candidate for governor Randy Brock condemned the remarks as “ignorant, offensive and insensitive.”

“They are insulting to all of us, but particularly to women, victims of rape and their loved ones,” Brock said of comments by the Missouri Senate candidate. “His hurtful comments have no place in civil political discourse today. Mr. Akin should put aside his personal political ambitions and step aside.”

Lt. Gov. Phil Scott used his  Facebook page to sound off.

“Much as I hate to draw even more attention to it, I do feel compelled to say, in response to Todd Akin’s ignorant remark: how can you even put ‘legitimate’ and ‘rape’ in the same sentence?” Scott posted.
 
Vermont Democrats aren’t wasting the controversy. In a press release sent out this morning, Vermont Democratic Party Chairman Jake Perkinson spotlighted a pro-life provision in the Republican platform up for approval this week at the party’s national convention in Tampa, Fla.  
The language -  “(an) unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life that cannot be infringed” – isn’t new, and has long been part of the GOP plank.
“After the continued anti-women rhetoric we’ve seen by the national GOP, I call on Vermont Republican delegates to disclose how they will vote on the ‘human life amendment’ and tell Vermonters whether or not they stand with women,” Perkinson said. “We can ask our Vermont Republicans to condemn willful, misogynistic ignorance instead of stand with the deplorable commentary made by their national figureheads.”
Both Brock – a delegate to the Tampa convention – and Scott long ago came out as pro-choice. Both support parental notification laws.
 

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Shumlin, Donovan earn nod from firefighters

Posted on June 19, 2012 by | Comments Off

The Professional Firefighters of Vermont unveiled endorsements today in statewide races, and true to Vermont form, the 300-member organization wasn’t afraid to split the ticket.

Democrats Peter Shumlin, TJ Donovan, Beth Pearce and Jim Condos won endorsements for their bids for governor, attorney general, state treasurer and secretary of state, respectively.

Republicans Phil Scott and Vince Illuzzi, meanwhile, will get the union’s support in their candidacies for lieutenant governor and state auditor. 

The group is known to hit the phones hard for their chosen candidates, and could provide a key lift in close races.

From the release:

The Professional Fire Fighters of Vermont gathered for their 2012 Biennial Convention at the Sheraton in South Burlington. The highlight of the convention was the PFFV endorsement of the candidacy of Peter Shumlin for Governor.
 
Speaking about the endorsement, PFFV President Mathew Vinci stated: “The nearly 300 members Professional Fire Fighters from across Vermont are proud to stand with Governor Shumlin and to support his candidacy for a second term.  Throughout his first time, and during long political career in Vermont Governor Shumlin demonstrated time and again his strong leadership on the issues important to our members.  We look forward to his reelection and to partnering with him in his second term.”
 
At the convention the PFFV also endorsed candidates for Auditor, Attorney General, Treasurer, Secretary of State and Lt. Governor.  Speaking about this slate of candidates Vinci stated:  “Our slate of endorsed statewide candidates distinguish themselves as leaders in Vermont and supporters of our members and their families.  Vince Illuzzi, TJ Donovan, Beth Pearce, Jim Condos, and Phil Scott all recognize the essential roll our members play in keeping Vermonters safe and we know will all continue to be champions for our cause when elected.”
 
The Professional Fire Fighters of Vermont are a statewide union that represents Paid Professional Fire Fighters, Paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians across Vermont.

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Scott off guard

Posted on April 29, 2012 by | Comments Off

Phil Scott has won a reputation over the years as being a pretty diplomatic guy. Tactful. Even-keeled. Gets along well with others.

His delicacy was on display last Thursday, when a gaggle of tourists wandered onto the Senate floor.

The chamber had recently emptied out after a long floor debate and Scott, still standing at the dais from which he presides over the body, was kind of enough to field a few questions from the curious crowd. Top of mind for the group: the alleged “dysfunction” in the Senate they’d read about recently.

The lieutenant governor thought a moment before reflecting on the lengthy, contentious flood debates that have characterized this year’s session.

“I think it’s an indication – pause – we have different – longer pause – it’s unique,” Scott finally said. “We have a lot of people here from all different walks of life. We have a trial attorney, we have a professor from UVM, we have a former ambassador from Croatia,” Scott said, referring to Sens. Joe Benning, Philip Baruth and Peter Galbraith.

The three senators belong to a loquacious class of freshmen legislators that has been cited by Senate President John Campbell as one of the reasons for the perceived chaos in the chamber.

At this point in the conversation, Scott got a well-timed assist from Steve Marshall, assistant Senate secretary.

“Some very strong minded-individuals,” Marshall said.

Scott: “And they want to be heard”

Marshall: “And they are.”

Scott: “And some don’t always understand the rules of the Senate, so when they get trampled on a bit, other people bring up points of order.”

The long and the short of it, Scott said, is that “the debate has been unlike any I’ve seen over last 10 years.”

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