Secretary of State's race VT 2020

Ballot arrived Friday.  Looking through all the candidates.  VPIRG has a list of links to candidates' platforms, and VTDigger has a candidate guide.  

Sadly, not a single candidate for Secretary of State chose to respond to VTDigger's questions for the candidates.

Jim Condos; Democratic.  Has a website with clear sections outlining why he's running and his positions on the issues that are important to him.  I would prefer Issues to be further left; as it is, it looks like getting people involved in his campaign is more important to him than the issues.

Cris Ericson; Progressive.  Discussed in the Lt. Governor's race.

H. Brooke Paige; Republican.  Candidate's website claims to be for his Gubernatorial and AG runs, with no mention of Secretary of State.  There is a laundry list of issues he wants to address, but again, nothing specific to the position he's running for here.  

Pamala Smith; Independent.  Has worked in the UVM library for 22 years; her website has a number of unclear menus across the top; for example "Updates (09/27)" and "News (09/24)".  Why are these two different selections?  There is a "Condos Files" page that has links to three videos that presumably give reasons why one shouldn't vote for Condos, but I don't know, because there's nothing in the text to indicate why I should go watch the video, so I'm not gonna. Her primary initiative is "Visually confirm your vote was cast just as you’d intended"; this is cool, but am not sure it's the #1 issue facing the Secretary of State.

Also see: the State Treasurer's race.

State Treasurer's race VT 2020

Ballot arrived Friday.  Looking through all the candidates.  VPIRG has a list of links to candidates' platforms, and VTDigger has a candidate guide.  

Carolyn Whitney Branagan; Republican.  The top-level items on her website each seem to be an issue of interest to the candidate, and there is both video and text describing her position.  She answered VTDigger's questions in detail, which is appreciated.  In a question about the state's investment portfolio, says, "The hardworking folks who administer it, and the state treasurer herself, have done well."  This is honest, but given that the Treasurer's #1 problem for the last decade has been the underfunding of the VT Retirement Fund, it's not clear what the candidate believes she can do to fix this that Beth Pearce isn't already doing, and Branagan's page on this issue doesn't offer a plan.

Cris Ericson; Progressive.  Discussed in the Lt. Governor's race.

Beth Pearce; Democratic.  Made a half-hearted effort to respond to VTDigger.  Has a clearly labeled Issues page on her website, but her positions are outlined in MS Word documents, and they appear to be from 2016 and 2018.  

Alex Wright; Independent.  Did not answer VTDigger's questions.  Zero web presence.  Googling "alex wright" only turns up the retired wrestler.

Also see: the Lieutenant Governor's race.

Lieutenant Governor's race VT 2020

Ballot arrived Friday.  Looking through all the candidates.  VPIRG has a list of links to candidates' platforms, and VTDigger has a candidate guide.  

Wayne Billado III; Independent.  Covered in the Governor's race.

Ralph Corbo; Banish the F35s.  Answered VTDigger's questions, if extremely briefly.  In this VPR interview, he calls out a lack of leadership on issues.  I can sympathize with this take, but he doesn't seem interested in providing a vision of his own.

Cris Ericson; Progressive.  Chris has her own wikipedia page and a website with a pitch for each of the five races she's running in.  This feels more like a stunt than a serious endeavor.  Did not answer VTDigger's questions. 

Molly Gray; Democratic.   Answered VTDigger's questions in detail.  In addition to the other platforms, has a website with a clearly labeled Issues page.  The issues page is well-organized around four main themes, with a bulleted list of the main points under each theme, and further details for each point. 

Scott Milne; Republican.  Did not answer VTDigger's questions.  When I first looked at his website, I thought it would be policy-free, like Phil Scott's.  Then I glanced down his campaign FB feed and found this post that suggested he did publish a plan, but... the link was broken.  So I went back to his website and clicked on ProgressVT, which isn't clear that it's about his policy on issues, but whatever, I found it now, and it's a 35-page PDF organized around the acrostic "ProgressVT".  I'm really glad he took the time to lay out his plans, and there is a lot to agree with in here, but I have serious concerns about the organizational skills of a candidate who has broken links on their site and puts up a 10-point plan in the form of an acrostic in 2020.

Also see: the Governor's race

Governor's race VT 2020

Ballot arrived Friday.  Looking through all the candidates today.  VPIRG has a list of links to candidates' platforms, and VTDigger has a candidate guide.  

Wayne Billado III; Independent.  His most easily discoverable online presence related to his gubernatorial run appears to be an 8 month old reddit thread, and a Facebook page that was moribund until last week.  He's also running for Lt. Governor.  If you can't decide which statewide office you're suited for, don't expect me to decide for you.  

Michael Devost; Independent.  No presence beyond a candidate profile video.

Charly Dickerson; Unaffiliated. No web presence. 

Kevin Hoyt; Independent.  Facebook page full of videos.  Appears to be a one issue candidate (2nd amendment) full of vague accusations of corrupt Montpelier leadership and the need for Vermonters to "stand up and reclaim their state".  

Emily Peyton; Truth Matters.  Unlike the first four candidates, has actually responded to VTDigger's questions for candidates, created a website, maintains an active Facebook page (though it's not clear how all of the activity relates to her candidacy), and Twitter account (ditto).  The answers to VTDigger's questions are most illuminating.  There's a lot to agree with in there, but there's also a suggestion that most of the COVID-19 deaths are due to recent installation of 5G networks and not COVID-19.

Phil Scott; Republican.  Scott's website outlines no plans or policy positions, which matches his Governance by reaction, rather than leadership.  Has not answered VTDigger's questions.  He's running on his COVID-19 response and incumbency.  

Erynn Hazlett Whitney; Independent.  A website that clearly lays out the candidate's most important issues, but without any links to further details on policy for those issues, so while there's a lot to agree with in there, one is left with questions...  Facebook, Twitter, and Insta presences are collectively reasonably active, but not illuminating.  Has not answered VTDigger's questions.

David Zuckerman; Prog/Dem.  Website lays out the candidate's plans and positions on the issues in detail.  Has responded to VTDigger's questions.  I am a little concerned about a supermajority in the state congress + governor, because best policy doesn't come from an echo chamber.