Vermonters First goes from airwaves to internets

The Republican super PAC spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on behalf of GOP candidates this fall finally has a web presence, and www.vermontersfirst.com features the same throw-the-bums-out motif that has defined its television ads and mass mailers.
Burlington resident Lenore Broughton is the only known underwriter for the group, though a campaign finance deadline next Monday will reveal whether the organization has mustered any additional donors. Broughton spent $100,000 on the group’s first three television ads, and, as Seven Days’ Paul Heintz noted last week (http://7d.blogs.com/offmessage/2012/10/conservative-super-pac-dives-into-legislative-races.html), Vermonters First is now spending big on statewide mailings pitching local candidates for House and Senate.
The website doesn’t include a list of preferred candidates – the closest it comes to naming names is a link to a roll call on two key votes on bills related to single-payer health care. But it does caution in severe terms against the ills of “one party rule,” which, according to the website, has created “an unhealthy dynamic where there is little debate, no incentive to engage good ideas, and no one to hold the majority accountable for their policies.”
“The result is troubling,” the site says. “Every Vermonter is now faced with the looming threat of a massive, partisan, government take-over or our healthcare system, and $3 billion in new tax increases to pay for it.”
The solution?
“The fact is, if we want to ensure balance in Montpelier so that everyday Vermonters are heard, we must elect more Republicans and true Independents to office this year – at every level,” the site says. “We cannot continue to elect the same old politicians who simply do what the Democratic leadership tells them to do.”
The site even has an online petition where likeminded thinkers are asked to “Stop Montpelier’s plans to expand the sales tax to services!”
House Speaker Shap Smith has already said he doesn’t anticipate trying to enact the expansion next year.
Vermonters First treasurer Tayt Brooks didn’t immediately return a call early Monday afternoon.