(Continuing the policy of promoting diaries from officeholders and officeseekers. Some text moved subfolda to conserve real estate on the FP. – promoted by GMD)
Thanks for the comments on my last post. I hope you will all join me at my Campaign Kickoff Party on Saturday, January 23rd from 3 to 5 pm.
We have added a few new locations since last week, so please check out the website and find a party close to you! Remember that if you RSVP through my website, you will be able to submit a question for me to answer at the party. All the details are at: http://dougracine.com/.
We’ve also added some video clips to the site – they are in the issues sections. Check them out and let me know what you think.
We spent the last week focused on the health care bills, and we are really starting to dig down deep into the questions that we must answer to apply for the waivers we will need to guarantee universal, affordable access to quality health care in Vermont.
This week, Dr. Deb Richter and Con Hogan will present on the global budget issues. I truly believe we can make significant progress on this issue this year. Health care for all will be a priority when I am the governor, but I do not want to wait another year to begin the process of making it happen.
I also wanted to respond to the question about touch screen voting machines. Touch screen machines make me very nervous. I do not see a need or a reason to have these machines in Vermont. I believe that we should vote with paper ballots – we should make our mark on paper and that paper ballot should be the paper trail. I believe that touch screens leave too much opportunity for meddling with our votes and also that they may actually dissuade some voters who are not comfortable with computers from voting.
Of course, I need to mention Vermont Yankee as well. I have been firm in my commitment to shut down Vermont Yankee when its license expires in 2012, and the past week’s news has only confirmed what I already believed – we cannot keep this plant open past 2012. We cannot make this situation any worse than it already is. If we can’t even trust the company to tell the truth on the record, then we certainly can’t put our trust in an LLC that is a spinoff – we must ensure that we will be able to decommission the plant without pushing those costs onto future generations, and we must stop producing high level nuclear waste as soon as possible.
Thanks again for your comments and questions. Please keep in touch with me and get involved with my campaign if you can. I am committed to a grassroots campaign, and there are plenty of opportunities to get involved, offer me feedback, and help get the word out that we must do better for all Vermonters.
Many of us here on Green Mountain Daily would like to know more about your position on ATV’s on public lands. I believe you have been quoted as saying that “all Vermonters should be able to enjoy our public lands.” While that may be very true, there are appropriate ways to enjoy these lands without using them for motorized recreation; and I believe that, if handicapped Vermonters seek motorized access, there are already channels for handling those requests on a case-by-case basis. Am I mistaken?
Certainly the potential environmental impact of allowing 35,000 motorized travelers to cross these lands at will could seriously impact all Vermonters ability to “enjoy” those lands.
Please understand that I am not asking you this in a confrontational manner, as I know you to be an environmentally conscientious candidate. I am simply giving you the opportunity to explain a position that remains in question.
Is an excellent example of two way blogified candidate interaction.
Ask questions ….. get answers…
Where’s Deb been?? Got to be more to her camapign than just collecting money!!!:??? hopefully
Doug:
Thanks so much for the posts here. I know how busy you must be with the health hearings and trying to firing up your campaign. Like you, I cannot wait until Jim Douglas is history. We have to do something about how we are drowning in health care expenses now, with 15% of the state’s budget for health care, or some $4 billion (last year’s figures from the book, Gridlock) while Douglas is squeezing the unions dry for some spare change of $150 million or so. But, with Obama’s plan down the tubes as we lost Kennedy’s old seat, will the feds even be into granting a waiver? What would they care then?
We’ve got to do something.