The Vermont Republican Party has announced that one of the presidential candidates will be at a fundraising event later this month. As WAMC’s Pat Bradley reports, the GOP is hoping for a big year with the governor’s seat open.
U.S. Senator and Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul will be in Vermont on Monday, August 31st to keynote the Vermont Republican Party’s summer fundraiser.
Vermont GOP Chair David Sunderland was unavailable for an interview Tuesday, but wrote in an email announcing the appearance: “We…appreciate that Senator Paul is willing to engage Vermonters in the discussion about how to move America forward, even though we are not an early primary state.”
Details on the event have yet to be released and Middlebury College Professor Emeritus of Political Science Eric Davis is curious to see if the Paul campaign initiated the visit. “Rand Paul, whose presidential campaign is not doing as well as he would like, probably has a northern New England swing in particular to New Hampshire planned for late August. My guess is he went to the Vermont Republican Party and said ‘well I’m willing to do an event in Vermont’. So that way the Vermont Republican Party raises a little money and more importantly Rand Paul gets some exposure in northern New England.”
Davis adds that Paul’s father Ron Paul did better than expected in the 2012 Vermont Republican Primary. “Rand Paul probably thinks that the same sort of libertarian oriented voters who voted for his father in 2012 would vote for him this time around. The Vermont Republican Party will probably end up with a few thousand dollars out of it which they’ll use in state races next year. You know Vermont is going to have the smallest delegation in the whole country at the Republican National Convention. So Vermont’s not a big player in national Republican politics. I don’t think too many Republican candidates are going to spend much time coming to Vermont. They’re much more interested in New Hampshire right next door.”
Middlebury College Political Science Chair Bert Johnson notes that Rand Paul calls himself a different kind of Republican and Vermont is full of different types of Republicans. “Now he may not be exactly the same kind of different kind of Republican. But having someone who doesn’t represent the mainstream of the GOP in the state – it might be good for the Vermont Republican Party. It fits with what Rand Paul has been doing which is to travel to very different places with very different constituencies than most of the rest of the Republican Party is visiting. I doubt we’ll see a flood of Republican candidates to Vermont although candidates typically run advertisements in Vermont media markets because those spill over into New Hampshire of course and that’s a very important primary state.”
Johnson feels it would be a stretch to link Senator Paul’s visit to upcoming statewide elections. “Because Phil Scott, who is the presumptive Republican nominee in ’16, is somewhat different from Rand Paul in terms of his policy positions and his core constituencies. I do think the Republicans will be very competitive in 2016 but that’s not necessarily because of the Rand Paul folks. It’s because of Phil Scott’s popularity. For races down the ballot I think they’ve got some work to do in recruiting candidates and raising money and organizing. And perhaps Ron Paul can generate some publicity and enthusiasm that’ll help with that.”
Vermont Democratic Party Executive Director Conor Casey says Paul’s stances are disconnected from reality and don’t match Vermonters’ philosophy. “I was hoping that Vermont would be untouched by the circus that is this Republican primary. But clearly that’s not the case. It doesn’t worry us in the slightest for the 2016 election. In fact I think most Vermonters will find Senator Paul’s views repellant.”
The Rand Paul campaign, in an email, said would be willing to schedule an interview next week.
In 1988, George H.W. Bush was the last Republican presidential candidate to win in Vermont. Vermont’s primary is set for March 1, Super Tuesday. Vermont Independent U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders is running for the Democratic nomination.
