| Word is that former State Auditor and current Chittenden Senator Ed Flanagan will announce at a brunch tomorrow that he will be a candidate for Lieutenant Governor.
Flanagan would enter a Democratic field that has already begun to fill, with House Majority Leader Floyd Nease reportedly already fundraising and putting together the fundamentals of a statewide campaign.
In addition, there continues to be speculation about current State Auditor Tom Salmon's ambitions. Junior Salmon has been keeping a high political profile of late, going as far as to attempt to insert himself into the recent budget battle between the Governor and the Legislature. Salmon has contracted with the nascent consulting firm of Theseus Advisors, which is the collective shingle of Burlington-area political usual suspects Selene Hofer-Shall and Jake Perkinson. That strikes many as a lot of firepower early in the election cycle for an Auditor re-election campaign.
So it seems likely that there will be a primary for Lieutenant Governor as well. The question remains as to whether the winner would face incumbent Republican Brian Dubie, or whether the rumors are true and Dubie will opt not to run again, passing the Republican institutional blessing to Barre Mayor Thomas Lauzon as his heir apparent.
Flanagan was, of course, the subject of an unflattering piece in Seven Days which lead with an extensive, generally anonymously-sourced indictment of his competence in office since his brain injury years back. While the latter part of the piece presented much on-the-record defense of Flanagan's performance, it was clearly the intention of the article to raise the very doubts and concerns it could not meaningfully corroborate. It was not the usually dependable Ken Picard's finest reporting hour. |
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