August 11, 2013; Kevin J. Kelley; Seven Days
The absence of some of the party's brightest stars didn't prevent Vermont Progressives at a meeting on Saturday from considering a race next year against Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin.
The 40 Prog faithful who gathered on a dazzling August afternoon in Bethel's town hall reached no conclusions about election strategy in 2014. Most speakers, however, did express support for running what one described as "a serious statewide campaign."
Morgan Daybell, the party's former executive director, argued instead for investing the Progs'"limited money" in insurgent campaigns for the legislature in each of the state's 14 counties. One reason for taking that more grassrootsy approach, Daybell suggested, is that the party can count only "a limited number of people willing to be credible [statewide] candidates."
State Rep. Chris Pearson, a Prog who probably could project political credibility on a statewide stage, tilted toward the let's-go-for-it position during a cordial 20-minute dialogue with Daybell.
The 40-year-old leader of the party's five-member Vermont House contingent sounded a theme echoed by several other Progs when he denounced Shumlin's efforts to cut assistance for the poorest Vermonters. "We saw a self-professed liberal Democratic governor proposing a state budget [Republican former governor] Jim Douglas wouldn't have dared propose," Pearson told an audience made up mainly of elders. "As a populist party, how could we not challenge someone putting forth those ideas?"