Last night, I attended the Rutland forum on health care, child care, and access to public service that I’ve been discussing. This was the Rutland forum, #6 out of fifteen.
It’s interesting to do these forums outside of your own district, because you see the issues presented in ways that are fairly different from how you’re used to seeing them. I didn’t live blog last night because I’m live blogging Brattleboro tonight (6:30 pm, Brattleboro Middle School), and didn’t want to do two nights of that in a row. I also know the Brattleboro candidates fairly well and feel more qualified to live blog that session.
But I’m extremely glad I went to the Rutland forum for one specific comment, more than any other.
Peg Flory, a Rutland Republican, talking about Challenges for Change, said “We were cowards.” She explained how they were too scared to make the specific cuts they needed to cut so instead they turned them into “objectives” and pushed them onto the state agencies and just said that they had to find ways to save money in a way which allowed the legislature to pretend to make hard decisions while evading actual responsibility for those decisions. This wasn’t someone posturing. Her body language, her tone? This was anger.
I don’t agree with Flory on a lot. She voted against same sex marriage and she voted against adding protections on the basis of gender identity (real or perceived) to employment non-discrimination, both of which I find to be extremely unfortunate choices on her part. She was one of 4 Senators to vote to extend Vermont Yankee’s license, which suggests to me either incompetence or mendacity.
But, even with all that, I came out of last night with a lot of respect for her willingness to own the problems inherent in Challenges for Change and, most likely, burn herself within her own committees. I’d still never vote for the woman, but I did not expect to come out of that evening respecting her more than any other candidate on the stage.
I’ve mentioned before that a friend of mine, Hilary Cooke, is running as a Republican in Windham County. When I was in Brattleboro the other night, I saw him doing sign waving with a bunch of other Republicans. I waved to him, just to say hi, but then all the Republicans cheered, thinking I was supporting them. So I had to make a point of yelling “I’m still not voting for you.” That drew a laugh, and his response, “will you still be my friend?” also drew one.
I like the guy, and I really wish he weren’t surrounded by wingnuts.
I hear her counting on her right wing base to turn out by promising to simply be more right wing, while bashing the Democrat-controlled Senate (which also plays well among that crowd). And sure she’s angry; she’s a true believer about this stuff.
I sat through the Yankee debate. FLory went on and on and on, redundantly. She had to make her point and monologue over and over again. Incompetence? Mendacity? Maybe and maybe – but the rambling struck me as simply self-indulgent and dogmatic.
…I’d say the Leg was pretty cowardly on a lot of fiscal/economic issues (refusing to look for new revenue streams, punting on healthcare twice). Strange contrast with the courage on VY and marriage equality.
This is the same shtick one of my representatives, Greg Clark (Addison-3) employs during our town meeting with his “report” each spring. He jovially lambastes the institution of government while simultaneously asking for our votes to send him back to the very institution he finds so desplorable. Whatever. It works. The voters in my district will send him back to Montpelier next month, as they have the previous four elections, not because he’s an effective legislator, but because he’s a “nice guy” that many have known for a long time. During the entire time Greg’s been our representative in Montpelier, Peg’s also been a member (since 1998) and is currently a member of the minority leadership.
The problem as I see it, is while Greg and Peg may talk a good outsider game they’re a major part of the problem in Montpelier.
While the Peg’s and Greg’s of Vermont are good at making statements such as these:
They’re both spending time and money this fall encouraging Vermonters to vote for a Gubernatorial candidate whose entire campaign premise is exactly what she claims to abhor:
10 points, 26 pages and 0 specifics.
Don’t fall for Peg’s, Greg’s or Brian’s tomfoolery.
I sat in on a meeting with Flory where she referred to gays and lesbians as “those people” while telling a teenage girl that she and her mothers did not deserve the same treatment as families with a 1 mother and 1 father.
Sitting next to Flory in the picture above is Cheryl Hooker and Kevin Mullen, two people who have risked their own careers to vote for civil unions and marriage equality for “those people”.
Commending Flory for her honesty is one thing (and she is honest, I’ll give her that), but to say you came out of the meeting respecting her more than any other candidate on the stage is something I hope you mis-stated.
Is the refusal to piss off their big campaign donors by requiring those very same people to pay their fair share of taxes as a means to raise revenues and prevent the need for cuts.
The no-tax mantra is the siren call of the ‘fraidy-cat politician.
If I remember right, Flory is a Douglas appointee to fill a senate vacancy. She is dogmatic, almost fascistic, for lack of a better term. I remember her meeting with the lobbyists of the VY and Entergy in the statehouse cafeteria. We were right next to each other and I was all ears. She had no idea, but it was not pretty to listen to and in the senate she was a particularly harsh critic of things like S.88, always voting against it. I think one of her sons is in the nuke field in some capacity or another. But it would be better for the state, I feel, if she lost this election and were out of the senate and out of state government where she could do the least harm.