Why my Guv endorsing HRC AT THIS TIME, pisses me off. [View all]

[cali]

I would have no problem with Governor Shumlin endorsing HRC, but his timing is tacky as all get out. He is endorsing HRC less than a week before Bernie's celebratory kickoff in Burlington. It's a slap not just to Bernie, but to Vermonters, who approve of Bernie in a big way (over 70% approval rating) and detest the guv. Pat Leahy will certainly endorse HRC and I have no problem with that, but I can't imagine him doing anything so tacky. I get that the guv is angling for a job in a HRC admin, but doing this to Bernie is just sucky. Without Bernie's help, it's doubtful he would have been re-elected. All he had to do was wait a week.

Shumlin is deeply unpopular here- with democrats and liberals as well as with the small minority of repubs. His unpopularity is rooted in his moves against Unions, his constant push to cut the social safety net. His disaster with the Health Exchange, his backing off single payer, his refusal to consider the legislature's repeated attempts to raise taxes on his fellow 1 percenters and a lot of personal and character issues- like his exploiting his disabled, poor neighbor in a land deal

Shumlin barely won reelection last year in the bluest of blue states. It went to legislature and even some dems even voted against him.

Here's more from a post of mine written in NOVEMBER of 2014:

In a state this small, you can't get away for too long with the shit Peter Shumlin has pulled. Yes, he's supposedly the most liberal governor in the country, but his incompetency, the ongoing disaster of the health exchange, his lack of virtually any good relationships with fellow lawmakers in his own party, and the nasty story about his cheating a poor neighbor out of his property, all caught up with him. In Vermont, all politics are super local.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025816030


Gov. Peter Shumlin had to sneak out the back door of his own inauguration.

That should tell you a thing or two about how politically weakened the East Montpelier Democrat finds himself as he settles in to a third two-year term.

Blocking Shumlin's path from the dais of the Vermont House to its front entrance Thursday afternoon was a group of Vermont Workers' Center activists irate over his decision three weeks ago to scrap his long-promised single-payer health care plan. After the governor concluded his inaugural remarks, the protesters sat down in the center aisle and would not leave the House for more than five hours, at which point the Vermont State Police arrested 29 of them.

Left-wing health care advocates weren't the only ones standing in Shumlin's path. Earlier in the day, 69 members of the Vermont legislature took the remarkable step of voting against returning him to office, despite the fact that he won a plurality in last November's election.

<snip>
http://www.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/archives/2015/01/09/analysis-peter-shumlins-no-good-very-bad-day

What the hell happened in VT

In an election cycle of shocking surprises—Larry Hogan’s win in Maryland, Mark Warner’s near-death experience—none are greater than the slap in the face Vermont voters gave Governor Peter Shumlin. Ten days after the election, Shumlin, who as Chairman of the Democratic Governor’s Association was tasked with helping elect other Democratic governors, still has not been declared winner in a race no one thought was a contest.

In 2014, few thought he would have a tough race. Republicans had a difficult time fielding a candidate, and only after the 2012 Marijuana Party candidate announced she’d run as a Republican did the party establishment, led by former governor Jim Douglas, unify around businessman Scott Milne. Though he had never held office before, he was the son of two prominent Republicans and had the sort of bio Vermonters love: raised on a farm, small businessman, an avid hiker who lived next to the Appalachian Trail.

He spent only $20,000 on television to win the August Republican primary, and no one seriously thought he had a chance to win the general. At least until around 9 pm on election night when the numbers showed him in a dead heat with Peter Shumlin. In the end, Shumlin led by a puny 2,434 votes, less than the 50 percent margin needed for victory under Vermont law. This throws the election into the Vermont state house, where Democrats have a sizeable advantage.

<snip>

Assuming he sticks it out, the election will be thrown into the Vermont state house, where Democrats have a sizeable advantage. It’s assumed the vote will go Shumlin’s way. But for a governor who was never very popular with fellow state legislators when he was a colleague and has often treated them dismissively as governor, it is most humbling that his fate now rests in their hands.

How did the Chairman of the Democratic Governors Association in the bluest of blue states not even make it to 50 while Vermont’s single Congressman, Democratic Peter Welch, won with 64 percent? This in a state that has a near record-low unemployment of 4.4 percent.

<snip>

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/13/what-the-hell-happened-in-vermont.html

the land deal:

http://vtdigger.org/2013/05/24/digging-deep-into-the-shumlin-dodge-deal/

http://thevpo.org/2015/02/12/peter-shumlin-tough-guy/

http://www.vermontpressbureau.com/vsea-pushes-back-on-cuts-shumlin-unfazed/

Guess Which Ultra Liberal State Is About to Become a Hellish Place for People to Work in?

<snip>

The governor also announced that he plans to hack away at state jobs by consolidating emergency call centers and closing a school that serves state prisoners. In addition, he said that Vermont parents should “expect better outcomes for our students at lower costs.” He’s called for education cuts and higher student-teacher ratios, moves that will probably result in layoffs. This past fall, he announced he wants to outlaw teacher strikes in the state.

<snip>


http://www.alternet.org/labor/whats-matter-vermont