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Vermont Candidates File Campaign Finance Reports

American flag with cash
Steve Johnson/Flickr

Candidates, political action committees and parties in Vermont were required to file updated campaign finance reports Tuesday. Incumbent Governor Peter Shumlin’s account is far ahead of his key challenger, while the lieutenant governor’s race is competitive.

 
Candidates in Vermont are required to register with and submit periodic campaign finance reports to the Secretary of State’s office if they have raised or spent more than $500. PACS and political parties that have raised and/or spent $1,000 must also file a report. 
 
In the Republican primary for governor, Steve Berry of Wolcott did not file. Emily Peyton reported spending about $1,200 and receiving $255. Party-backed Scott Milne reported receiving $20,420 in donations.  Democratic Governor Peter Shumlin raised $93,350 during the reporting period and has over a million dollars available. His primary opponent H. Brooke Paige did not file a report. 
 
Middlebury College Professor Emeritus of Political Science Eric Davis says the big question in the governor’s race is whether Milne, the Republican frontrunner, can raise enough money to be competitive.  “There’s a certain amount of money you need to hire a staff, to buy advertising, to have a presence on the web, to do some basic outreach and communications efforts.  For a statewide candidacy in Vermont that probably costs about $200,000.  The rate at which Scott Milne has been raising money so far raises questions in my mind about whether he’ll even be able to make that. If Milne wants to raise $200,000 between now and election day, he has to raise about $50,000 over the next month to keep on pace. The first month he raised only about $20,000. About half of it came from members of one family that are not Vermont residents. Only a very small amount came from small contributions  from Vermonters.” 
 
In the lieutenant governor’s race, Progressive challenger Dean Corren received $19,283 in donations and qualified last month for $200,000 in public financing. Incumbent Republican Phil Scott, who rejects public financing and is the only Republican in statewide office, says he has $78,000 cash on hand for the fall campaign.
 
Seven Days political columnist Paul Heintz notes that this is the first time in a decade that a candidate is making use of Vermont’s public financing system.  “The legislature just recently doubled the amount that candidates for governor and lieutenant governor can receive in public financing and Dean Corren is availing himself of the system.  While he only raised $19,000 he has far more to spend than the incumbent Republican Phil Scott does.  Scott raised more, but he does not have public financing, so he only has about $78,000 to spend right now.  So simply because of public financing the Progressive has a lot more money at the moment than the Republican. Which is a very peculiar situation.”
 
Both Heinz and Davis find that the campaign finance reports overall are indicative of a loss of Republican power in Vermont. Eric Davis.  “The Vermont Republican party is in big trouble. They have difficulty recruiting candidates. Other than Phil Scott and a candidate for governor they have no candidates for any of the other statewide offices. They were not able to recruit as many legislative candidates as they wanted. In terms of fund raising the party committee reports indicated that the Democrats have about five times more cash on hand than the Republicans at this point in time. So the future of the Vermont Republican party looks bleak.” 
 
A link to the campaign finance reports is available here.
 

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