(Nice to hear what’s up in the northeast corner of the state! – promoted by Sue Prent)

As promised, Kristina Michelsen is not running again for the house representing the CALEDONIA-2 district. Some Men In Suits were seen in front of the Centennial Building shortly before new Select Board Members Larry Hamill announced he was running as a Republican for the seat.

I had previously posted here that the Dems were beating the bushes to try to find somebody, anybody, to run against the Republican Party. They got some guy named Chip Something-Or-Other…

Well, on Saturday, I was standing outside glaring at the teen drivers speeding down the otherwise calm and quiet residential street when this grizzled greybeard came up and introduced himself. He was the famous Chip Not-The-Republican!

There’s more in a rare split diary from the Disillusioned Comrade:

He was making the rounds gathering signatures to get on the ballot.  I was eager to sign.

He is Chip Troiano from Stannard, he’s been working for Legal Aid representing the poor and homeless for several years. He’s older than me, having been in the infantry in Viet-Nam, finishing his time there as a door-gunner on the famous Hueys…

We had an interesting talk, he asked great questions, starting with, “What’s your biggest concern in the legislature?”

We spoke about how Vermont is way behind the times regarding Cannabis policy (thanks for nothing, Shap!), the crazy ways that our schools are funded where the cap on per-pupil spending doesn’t take into account special needs students so that three special needs kids and their caretakers almost put the tiny burg of Woodbury into the same class as Stowe: A ‘Sending’ Town, and the way that the Vermont welfare system is still stuck in full-time work thus not understanding the Brave New Republican world where no one has full time jobs anymore, no one get’s paid the same month to month and everyone has to have three jobs just to pay the gas to get to those jobs.

Nice guy. I’ll vote for him…