White River Junction
Lt. Gov. Phil Scott, who is running to replace Democrat Peter Shumlin as the state’s chief executive, summed up the platform with a simple gesture.
He held up one of his campaign signs before the crowd of several dozen people. There was something out of place about it. It read: “Phil Scott LT GOVERNOR.”
Then he covered up the “LT.”
Presto: A 2014-era Phil Scott sign had been recycled, waste had been avoided, and the Republican gubernatorial candidate had illustrated his strategy for thrifty government in Vermont.
The dinner audience broke into applause.
“I’m kind of frugal,” Scott told the crowd. “Cheap, sometimes.”
As costs for statewide services rise and demographic trends chip away at the state’s workforce, fiscal prudence is how Vermont’s Republican party is selling its candidates.
Scott, who touted his blue-collar background — he grew up in Barre and owns a construction business — said that when it comes to protecting the state’s working class, legislators in Montpelier “just don’t get it. They just don’t connect the dots.”
Being a member of the GOP in Vermont usually means being in the minority, and Thursday’s candidates presented themselves as outsiders seeking to overthrow the ruling order.
Randy Brock, a former state auditor and senator from Swanton, is looking to take Scott’s place as lieutenant governor. He criticized the Democratic establishment for pursuing pie-in-the-sky projects without considering their effect on the economy.
“Every time Peter Shumlin says we’re going to be ‘first in the nation’ in doing something,” Brock said, “I cringe and hold on to my wallet.”
He pulled out a pocket flashlight and switched it on, a gesture to indicate he had “looked under the hood of state government” as an auditor and promised to do so again.
In keeping with his background, Brock said he wanted to give state auditors the power to review the finances of municipal governments — a measure that he predicted could save millions.
Brock recently gained a prominent potential opponent on the Democratic side: House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morristown, announced his bid on Wednesday.
State Sen. Dave Zuckerman, P/D-Chittenden, and Rep. Kesha Ram, D-Burlington, also are in the race.
And more Republican candidates, not all official, were waiting in the wings Thursday.
Deb Bucknam, an attorney who practices in St. Johnsbury, is gunning to succeed Attorney General William Sorrell, who bowed out amid campaign-finance questions.
“I want to go to Montpelier to help clean house,” she told Thursday’s attendees.
Emceeing the ceremonies was Scott Milne, the travel agency owner from North Pomfret who nearly defeated Shumlin in 2014. Milne has endorsed Phil Scott for governor this time around and has publicly speculated about challenging Democratic U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy in November. Although Scott boasts the highest name recognition in the gubernatorial field, which on the Democratic side includes Sue Minter, Matt Dunne and Peter Galbraith, he is not without competition for the GOP nomination.
Bruce Lisman, a former Bear Stearns executive pursuing what would be his first political office, pitched his business sense and outsider candidacy to voters on Thursday. In their stump speeches, Scott and Lisman avoided differentiating themselves from one another in favor of attacking Shumlin, who says he will not run for re-election.
The Democratic governor has lost popularity with the bumpy roll-out of Vermont Health Connect and his abandonment of plans for single-payer health care, leading to speculation that Republicans might have a chance to seize the office.
Lisman, whose platform includes shelving Vermont Health Connect, called Shumlin “the most incompetent governor we’ve had in over 100 years.” In the absence of good leadership, Lisman said, the Legislature has been free to raise taxes for “silly things.”
The former business executive from Shelburne said he hoped to hold annual spending increases to 2 percent for the next three years and require agencies to find 1.5 percent in additional efficiencies.
Scott had another idea in mind to curb excess from the Legislature: limit its sessions to 90 days.
As it stands, lawmakers meet in early January and, without a set time constraint, typically finish by mid-May, according to the Legislature’s website.
The measure would be “so valuable for so many reasons,” Scott said, “one of which is to get regular people to run” — the kind of people “who sign the front of a check instead of the back.”
That proposal won the support of at least one voter in attendance: John Carroll, the former state senator from Norwich who challenged Bernie Sanders’ re-election bid for Congress in 1994. Carroll said the 90-day limit had attracted him to Scott.
“The more time they have,” Carroll said, “the more bright ideas they get.”
Rob Wolfe can be reached at rwolfe@vnews.com or at 603-727-3242.