Here’s a look at some of the winners and losers (behind the obvious candidates) given the reality of Governor-Elect Shumlin.
Winners:
- Shumlin Campaign Manager Alex Maclean is now the big dog electoral organizer in Vermont. With a re-election in 2012, she and Governor Shumlin will be the new Democratic Party power brokers, surpassing even the Congressional delegation. Maclean will lead a real generational power shift in Montpelier.
- Jill Krowinski and Planned Parenthood. The former VDP Director and Symington for Governor Campaign Manager seemed to have moved out of electoral relevance, but came roaring back directing an unprecedented muscular intervention from Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. The perfectly timed push changed the topic of the Governor’s race, putting the discussion into the arena of abortion rights which arguably catalyzed Dubie’s election loss. With this victory, Krowinski is more of a player than she even was when she worked in the Speaker’s office.
- Drew Hudson & Matt Holland. You probably haven’t noticed, but these guys’ fingerprints are all over this election, from the unprecedented League of Conservation Voters’ efforts to the impactful and widely-discussed Green Mountain Future organization. I must say, even I had no idea how much of the independent efforts that led to the Shumlin victory came from their new firm, PowerThru until I did some work with them in the last couple weeks. PT will likely be the go to political consultant firm on the left in Vermont.
- Vermont’s Teamsters. Lots of unions are big winners, here – NEA, VSEA, the Troopers – but none bigger than the Teamsters who backed Shumlin in the primary when most of the union support was going to almost-nominee Doug Racine.
Losers:
- IBEW and George Clain. They doubled down for Dubie, and not just in a matter-of-fact way. They were in-your-face with their support, Clain in particular. It’s hard to imagine a bigger loser with Shumlin’s victory, and they won’t have their allies in the Vermont labor community to turn to for solace, as they burned most of those bridges as well (and with relish).
- Entergy Corporation. Duh.
- Frank Cioffi The go-to “Democrat-for-[fill-in-the-blank-Republican]” just became irrelevant, even as his role as psuedo-Democrat big shot was already becoming a cliche.
- Harlan Sylvester. 7 Days just did the latest semi-regular expose on why investment money man Sylvester of Burlington is the master of the universe, or somesuch nonsense. He isn’t. He never has been, and his mystique is one of the biggest examples of Burlington-bubble insider silliness I can think of. It goes like this: he thinks he’s a kingmaker even though nobody’s heard of him but insiders. Insider types then feel they’re in the know by understanding that he’s a kingmaker. They tell others to impress them with how in the know they are about the real kingmakers that mere mortals don’t know about – and so it goes. Harlan Sylvester as political relevance doesn’t even rise to an Emperor-has-no-clothes example because virtually nobody’s even bothering to look. Sylvester is no emperor, just a name insiders like to drop to show other insiders how insidery they are. The fact that Sylverster’s candidate (Dubie) lost, just makes him that much more meaningless.
- John Mitchell, publisher of the Times Argus and the Rutland Herald. It’s an open secret that Mitchell overruled his editorial boards and had his papers endorse Brian Dubie. So openly undermining his own well-respected people just gave his whole operation a kick in the credibility, especially since his candidate lost. Add to that the well-known challenges the papers are having and it makes onlookers wonder if the papers aren’t in a relevance-spiral. As much as the Herald and Argus higher-ups have made their distaste of bloggers like myself well-known, there is a lot of undeniable talent there – talent which now has its work cut out for it more than ever with the ill-advised moves by the paper’s owner.
- 7 Days. Not to overstate what isn’t a huge deal, but after Routly & company dug in on defending the unprofessional “most ethically challenged” tag they slapped on Shumlin (which famously became Dubie’s number one tool of attack), there’ll be some chilliness, especially coupled with the “Dubie’s (election) to lose” drumbeat over the months. A bit of humility on 7 Days part makes it all go away, no doubt, but if the we’re-too-hip-for-words takes continue, “Vermont’s Independent Voice” might find their access to the new administration to be a bit less than they’d prefer for a while.
Coming soon, we’ll look at some of the folks who could imaginably get tapped for roles in the Shumlin administration.
Your take? Other winners and losers? It’s not hard to start coming up with a very long list of each when you start thinking about it.
