| Hosted by Liz and Eric Miller, last night's fundraiser for the Vermont Democratic Party was a great first step in putting the VDP back in business since the Democratic National Committee has stopped funding State Parties.
Burlington Photographer Carolyn Bates released the following photo of elected Vermont Democrats in attendance at this VDP Fundraiser. Many more photos will be popping up on the VDP website and other venues as Carolyn was photographing non-stop.
©2009 carolynbates.com
From left to right: Acting Vermont Democratic Party Chair Judy Bevans, Senate President Pro-Tem Peter Shumlin, Former Governor Howard Dean, Attorney General Bill Sorrell, Chittenden County State's Attorney TJ Donovan, Secretary of State Deb Markowitz, and State Representative Joey Donovan. Speaker of the House Shap Smith and Senator Doug Racine, who were also in attendance, left prior to this photo shoot for previously scheduled events.
As usual Howard was warm, approachable and full of humor. He regaled the group with humorous stories while reminding everyone that now was not the time to let up. Using the health care issue as an example, Howard noted that now the hard work must begin. It is time, he admonished, to make sure that all Dems become more progressive rather than compromising our party's principals in order to win a few Republican votes. |
| Transparency in Government is one of my pet peeves, so I love how up close and personal Vermont Politics are. As Howard reminded all of us, Vermont politics is about people, people involved in their community governments with the vehicle of town meeting.
I moved to Vermont from Connecticut in 2001 only 2 weeks prior to September 11. I hated the Bush years. Connecticut's Governor John Rowland, later indicted on fraud and put in jail for one year, was the first Governor to endorse President Bush, and was being considered for a cabinet post, until his penchant for using other people's money came to the surface. For five years, I was a newspaper reporter in Connecticut, first with two award-winning weeklies and then for a daily newspaper, which I thought would be the ultimate gig. It wasn't. I went from two award-winning weekly newspapers to the one daily paper in our rural part of Connecticut. It was the paper that was the machine behind Governor Rowland's election. That paper, The Waterbury Republican-American, would not even allow us, mere reporters that we were, to cover Democratic party candidates unless we had an OK from the editors or publishers. After working for a year, primarily on the police beat, I went into teaching.
Last night's event was about people. I thank my neighbors Eric and Liz Miller for hosting last night's Howard Dean Welcome Home VDP fundraising event along with Arthur and Anne Berndt, Tom and Susan Boswell, Hon. TJ Donovan, Crea and Phil Lintilhac, Hon. Deb Markowitz, Hon. Doug Racine, Hon. Peter and Deb Shumlin, Hon. Bill Sorrell, Jane and Bill Stetson, Hon. Shap Smith & Melissa Volansky, and Steve Waltien. I also thank Selene Hofer-Shall for her vision, energy and work to put together such an event as a way of jump starting the almost empty VDP account! |
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