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VT-AL: GOP Voters Nominate Welch

by: James L.

Thu Sep 18, 2008 at 2:26 PM EDT


Remember how Republican Martha Rainville actually made this a fairly close race in 2006? Those days are now just a foggy memory for the Vermont GOP:

Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., calls himself a proud Democrat, but says he'll accept the Republican congressional nomination.

Welch says he was surprised to receive enough write-in votes on Republican ballots to secure the nomination of a party that didn't put up a candidate of its own.

Kossack Kagro X via email: "He should demand the opportunity to debate himself."

James L. :: VT-AL: GOP Voters Nominate Welch
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The UItimate Bipartisan?
Does this mean that we can now claim anything he votes for in Congress has bipartisan support?  ;)

Why again...
Can we not find a suitable challenger for the republican Governor of VT?  There is no excuse for letting any R skate in a state like VT, even if he does have very limited power with our huge majorities in the VT legislature.

Sometimes it's better to have a divided government.
A one party state ain't all that great. I mean, look at the stink hole that is Massachusetts. Billy Bulger and former Speaker Finneran both belong in jail.

Plus, Douglas is a moderate. His two major achievements last term included signing a bill to extend healthcare to children and strengthening laws against workplace sexual harassment.

He also vetoed a couple of new gun control measures but then again I'm probably among a minority of Dems to not support them.


[ Parent ]
Your example doesn't make sense
From 1991-2006, Massachusetts had only Republican governors (Weld, Cellucci, Swift, Romney).  Bulger retired in 1996 from the Senate, after Weld appointed Bulger to be President of the University of Massachusetts.  Finneran became Speaker in 1996, and retired in 2004 to head the Biotechnology Counsel, and did plead guilty to criminal charges.  

I don't like either of them, but your idea that having a politician of the other party in an otherwise one-party state will somehow stop corruption is undermined by your example, not supported by it.  

In fact, Deval Patrick's done a lot more to shake up the government than the Republicans govs did, since they pretty much just tried to survive.  

John McCain: Healthcare for kids?  Not for a Bush-McCain America.


[ Parent ]
That health care bill is crap
He killed universal health care in VT (true UHC, unlike that horrible MA plan).

[ Parent ]
People like having a differently winged governer
That's why Massachusetts had Republican Govs for 16 years and Kansas and Wyoming have Democratic ones.  The whole balance of power thing...

28, Unenrolled, MA-08

[ Parent ]
What if he loses?
What if he loses though?  Would Boehner demand that he join the Republican caucus?

"Keep the Faith"

If it's like Massachusetts
He will just have one line on the ballot, but his party will be listed as "Democrat/Republican"

28, Unenrolled, MA-08

[ Parent ]
Or what he nearly ties...
...would he demand a recount?

[ Parent ]
this is a little suprising
as the Republicans do have a healthy number of members in the state house 49R 93D and 8I

I guess they can sense the political winds are against them in Vermont

Male 21 Dem Ca's 1st  


Having less than One-Third is not healthy
If you count those 8 indies as Dems, which they basically are (progressives), we have a 2/3rds majority.  I'd hardly call that healthy by any stretch for the republicans.

[ Parent ]
Healthy in the sense
of comparing their numbers to other legislatures in the Northeast:
MA 19R 140D 1I
RI 13R 60D 2I

But yes perhaps instead using healthy I should have said something to the matter of having enough seats to still have some say in the state house

Male 21 Dem Ca's 1st  


[ Parent ]
at least the I
in Massachusetts caucuses with Republicans, giving them twenty votes; or 1/8th of the General Assembly. But, MA, especially the legislature is like the south used to be, it's turned into a one party legislature; there are a lot of very conservative Democrats, many of whom are only Democrats because it is more useful for them to be in the majority party. Not to say that a strong majority of the chamber isn't liberal, but not nearly as deceptively large as though inflated numbers are.  

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus

[ Parent ]
thankfully
we did defeat a good deal on the conservative Dems in '04

Male 21 Dem Ca's 1st  

[ Parent ]
I have a hunch about those one-party-dominated states
that there are quite a few Democrats in Massachusetts who may not be all that liberal but are just D's because it's more convenient, and same with Republican in Wyoming who may not be all that conservative but are just R's because it's more convenient.

party: Democratic, ideology: moderate, district: CT-01

[ Parent ]
I know it's the case in KS
There is a huge divide within the epublican party in that state between moderates and conservatives.  

Same is true in Alaska where moderate R's often work together with dems.


[ Parent ]
That's exactly the case in RI
We may have a D-dominated leg., but all that means is that the battles come down to conservative dems vs. progressive dems.  Since RI (like MA) has so many staunch Catholics, there is a powerful group of Dems that prevents socially progressive policies (ie gay marriage) from going through.

[ Parent ]
Why is it...
that Green Mountain Daily, the progressive Vermont blog, doesn't even have anything on this??  I'd figure they'd have the local flavor, but it's as if nothing even happened.  :-\


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