When Peter Shumlin this week leaped on comments by Brian Dubie about Vermont Yankee, Dubie got a taste of the kind of treatment he is going to get in the General Election.

Shumlin is one of the five Democrats running in the Aug. 24 primary for governor, and it is far from certain that he will be the one to take on Dubie in the General Election. But he took the opportunity to blast comments by Dubie that seemed to cast a positive light on a report about the prospects for Vermont Yankee’s future.

Dubie’s comments came in an interview on Vermont Public Radio. He was discussing a report from the Public Oversight Panel last week about the continued operation of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant beyond the expiration of its license in 2012. Dubie said that if the owners of Yankee, Entergy Vermont, were to embrace a culture of safety and make necessary investments then the Public Oversight Panel saw no reason that Vermont Yankee couldn’t operate beyond 2012.

Shumlin saw his chance, and he turned what could have been passing comments on the radio into an issue about Dubie’s attitude toward Vermont Yankee.

In fact, Dubie’s characterization of the panel’s report on Vermont Yankee put a positive spin on a highly negative report. The panel, which was created by the Legislature, found serious problems at Yankee, raising doubts about the plant’s continued operation.

These problems include a corporate culture that does not encourage scrupulous attention to the truth, as well as the failure to devote adequate resources to the physical systems. These problems are “systemic,” according to the panel’s report. Vermont Yankee cannot operate reliably for another 20 years unless Entergy corrects this corporate culture and spends enough money on the plant, the report said.

The main thrust of the panel’s report was a warning: Things cannot go on like this. The report called what had happened at Yankee an “organization-wide breakdown” in attention to detail and in attention to the truth.

Dubie did not deny these findings. His spokesman said that Dubie believes safety is paramount and that the company’s actions were indefensible. Rather, Dubie was saying that if reality were different, there would be no reason why Yankee could not continue to operate. If the corporate culture could be corrected and we could receive adequate assurances of safety, then there would be no reason not to extend the plant’s license.

An election campaign is when statements such as Dubie’s inevitably come under minute parsing, with all shadings analyzed and all possible meanings teased out. In one sense, Dubie was merely stating the obvious: If everything were fine at Yankee, then everything would be fine.

But Dubie’s words suggested an eagerness to look on the bright side when it comes to Yankee. He claimed the report suggested that if a long list of mistakes were corrected, then perhaps the plant could carry on. But the emphasis of the report was on the list of mistakes and the fact that they hadn’t been corrected and doubt that the plant could carry on.

Dubie can expect more close parsing of his words as the election season continues. He is not as politically shrewd and verbally agile as Gov. James Douglas, and his Democratic opponent can be expected to pick up on any effort to spin a story to his liking.

Vermont Yankee may be a difficult issue for Dubie. Those who believe Vermont Yankee has been an important source of electric power and of well-paying jobs have been undercut by Yankee’s record of misstatements and mistakes. All five Democratic candidates believe the plant should be closed in 2012, and Dubie may lose credibility if he continues to look beyond the warning signs about Yankee to an unjustified rosy scenario.

Shumlin has made Yankee an important issue in his political career. But his Democratic primary opponents — Matt Dunne, Douglas Racine, Deborah Markowitz and Susan Bartlett — are also ready to see Vermont Yankee shut down in 2012. They, too, could be expected to take Dubie to task for looking past warnings about Entergy’s failures.

“Brian (Dubie) made comments on VPR last week that I am really concerned about… and I don’t think… they don’t reflect what we need from the next governor,” said Peter Shumlin, Democrat running for governor of Vermont.

Shumlin disagrees with Republican candidate Brian Dubie’s assessment of a new report about Vermont Yankee. The Public Oversight panel found last week the nuclear plant has a corporate culture problem and does not consistently spend enough on safety.

“What Brian indicated was that he trusts Entergy Louisiana, that he thinks they can change and that he thinks the report indicates that the problems are minor and can be overcome. That isn’t what the report says,” Shumlin said.

“I stand by what I said,” Dubie said. “I quoted the report.”

Republican Brian Dubie has stayed out of the spotlight. He does not have a primary race. Dubie supports Yankee and says if it’s proven safe it should keep operating and he thinks the report supports that.

“I’m not here to defend Entergy,” Dubie said. “What I’m here to say is we need to look at safety and we need to look at the importance of jobs, and when I give a pink slip to a fellow Vermonter I’m going to make sure all the questions are answered.”

All five Democrats for governor want Yankee to close in 2012. But Shumlin is the first to attack Dubie, trying to set the tone that he’s a frontrunner… already looking to the November election. But Shumlin needs to win the Democratic primary first on August 24. He admits it’s a tossup.

“It’s a wide open race,” he said.

Shumlin also said Tuesday that if Yankee closes in 2012, he would tax the plant to store its nuclear waste in Vernon. Brian Dubie’s campaign says it will have to study the issue but that Dubie supports having Entergy pay for clean up and maintenance of the site.

Kristin Carlson – WCAX News

http://www.wcax.com/global/video.asp?clipId=4979452&topVideoCatNo=63459&autoStart=true

BURLINGTON – Senate President Peter Shumlin opened up an attack on Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie Tuesday, accusing the Republican candidate for governor of going too easy on Vermont Yankee executives and misrepresenting a state report on the plant’s future.

Shumlin, a Windham County Democrat running for governor, said Dubie places too much trust in executives with Entergy Nuclear Vermont, the company that owns the nuclear power plant, after accusations this year that they misled regulators.

He also accused the Republican candidate of misrepresenting a report on Vermont Yankee by the Public Oversight Panel to paint a rosier picture of the plant’s chances to continue operation after 2012, when its current license expires.

“I’ve lost faith in Entergy Louisiana’s ability to tell us the truth,” said Shumlin, who led a vote in the Vermont Senate in February to reject the plant’s relicensing. “I don’t trust their word anymore. But it seems that Brian Dubie does.”

Corry Bliss, Dubie’s campaign manager, responded that Shumlin “has his facts wrong” and the lieutenant governor has always believed that “safety must come first at Vermont Yankee.”

“He has never wavered in this belief or in the belief that Entergy’s actions are indefensible,” Bliss said. “The evidence clearly shows Entergy misled the public and lost the public’s trust. Rebuilding that trust, if at all possible, will be a slow and carefully scrutinized process.”

Vermont Yankee’s future in the state is expected to become a political issue in the fall after the primaries, when Democrats have selected a nominee who will face Dubie in the November general election.

The company, which employs hundreds of Vermonters, saw its credibility whacked this year when it was revealed that executives misled regulators and lawmakers about the existence of underground pipes — infrastructure that was leaking tritium and other radioactive materials into the ground.

Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell is now investigating whether the company intentionally misled the state. He said last week that his office has received more than 2 million pages of documents and will soon begin interviewing Entergy executives.

“I wouldn’t say we are drowning in paperwork, but we are swamped,” Sorrell said last week. “This may take some time.”

Shumlin’s criticism of Dubie centers on an interview that the Republican gave to Vermont Public Radio last week, shortly after the release of a report by the state’s nuclear consultants that painted a dire picture of Entergy and its chances to operate beyond 2012.

When asked about the report on VPR last week, Dubie said its conclusion was that “if there is a culture of safety that management would embrace — absolutely I totally agree with that — and if investments are made that, if investments continue to be made in Vermont Yankee, the legislative-appointed Public Oversight committee saw no reason that Vermont Yankee couldn’t operate past 2012.”

Shumlin said Dubie’s statement on the radio show appears to come more from Entergy’s press release about the report rather than the report itself.

“The report stated that there were serious problems with Entergy Louisiana’s corporate culture,” Shumlin said. “These are problems that can’t be fix in one week or one month or even one year. They are systemic problems.”

Arnie Gundersen, one of the nuclear consultants on the Public Oversight Panel who worked on the report, agreed Tuesday that Dubie gave the wrong impression of the report’s conclusions. He said the report expressed strong doubts that the company could make the necessary corporate and infrastructure changes necessary to operate after 2012.

“The lieutenant governor’s quotes are based not on the history of Vermont Yankee, but his wishes for improvement,” Gundersen said. “You don’t make decisions based on wishes, you make them based on history.”

He also took issue with another statement from Dubie: That the report was the product of the Legislature and that Gov. James Douglas’ administration had no input.

Douglas’ first appointee to the panel died before the process was complete, but another member, Fred Sears, was appointed to the panel by the other members — with the blessing of Douglas, he said.

When asked about Gundersen’s comments, the Dubie campaign stood by their original statement issued after Shumlin’s press conference, held at his campaign’s offices in Burlington early Tuesday afternoon.

“I don’t see the difference between the report and LG Dubie’s comments,” Bliss wrote in an e-mail.

Vermont Yankee, which began operating in 1972, is scheduled to close in March 2012 unless it wins approval for a 20-year license extension. The Vermont Senate voted against continued operation in a 26-4 vote in February.

Dubie, in his role as lieutenant governor, presided over the Senate debate. Shumlin, as Senate president, led the charge against the bill, which would have allowed the Vermont Public Service Board to issue a decision on the plant’s continued operation.

http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100728/NEWS02/707289945/0/NEWS&template=printart

MONTPELIER — With Vermont health care costs
expected to rise by $1 billion during the next two
years, all five Democrats running for governor
say this issue is high on their list of things to
tackle as governor.

The candidates admit they sound an awful lot
alike on the issue. The phrase “quality,
affordable health care for all” reverberates as if
they’re in an echo chamber. They all put a lot of
weight on a pending report the Legislature
commissioned about how to solve the problem.

Burrow down, though, and voters will find
differences among the Democratic candidates,
and much greater differences between them and
the Republican that the winner of their primary
will face in November.

Democrats all say they would push the federal
government to offer coverage to more
Vermonters and to control costs. Meanwhile,
Republican Brian Dubie of Essex contends the s
tate’s hands are tied until 2017 by recently
passed federal legislation, and candidates who
say otherwise are being unrealistic.

“The best thing I would do is work to leverage
the federal law,” Dubie said, citing a requirement
for states to establish health insurance
exchanges by 2014 that would allow consumers
to shop for health insurance as one place he
would focus his energy. “I’m realistic. I’m going
to focus on where I can make a difference.”

Democratic candidate Matt Dunne of Hartland,
in a view echoed by his fellow Democratic
candidates, said the next governor can’t afford
not to pursue health-care reform, even if the
federal government has said it won’t grant
permission — in the form of waivers — for states
to experiment.

Read the entire article here: http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20100725/NEWS03/100724013/Health-care-and-the-governor-s-race#ixzz0uhC92fQ0

By Daniel Barlow
Vermont Press Bureau – Published: July 20, 2010

MONTPELIER – More than 60 House members and 12 senators received perfect 100 percent rankings on the first legislative scorecard issued by the organization Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility.

The progressive business organization, which has more than 1200 members, ranked lawmakers on seven key legislative votes, such as Vermont Yankee’s relicensing, the establishment of same-sex marriage, health care reform and the fix for the state’s unemployment fund.

The scoring on those votes indicated strong support for the business group’s agenda at the Statehouse, with 62 House members receiving 100 percent rankings, meaning those lawmakers voted with VBSR on all the main issues the group identified.

Sen. Ann Cummings, D-Washington, was one of the 12 senators to have a perfect record with VBSR. She said she doesn’t consider rankings such as these when casting her votes, but she appreciates the support afterwards.

“I’m proud to have 100 percent ranking,” Cummings said. “It’s always a bit of a surprise. I vote my conscience. But Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility have been a very positive and proactive organization at the Statehouse.”

Will Patten, the executive director of VBSR, said the organization will do these scorecards every two years now for each Legislative biennium. Starting the scorecard was in response to member businesses that wanted to see how local lawmakers were voting on business issues the company’s cared about, he said.

“I think there are a lot of couragous legislators who are pro-business, but don’t neccesarily get acknowledged for that,” he said. “It’s worth pointing out their longterm support for businesses in Vermont.”

VBSR’s ranking is a lot different than the scorecards put out by the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, the other major business group in the state.

That organizations 2009-2010 rankings have not yet been released, but in its 2007-2008 rankings, for example, the Chamber gave Cummings a 50 percent score. Lawmakers with high scorings for the Chamber tend to be Republican; high scores for VBSR tend to be Democrats or Progressives.

Rep. Pat McDonald, R-Berlin, had a VBSR scoring of 17 percent – one of the lowest in Washington County, where she lives.

McDonald, who is retiring from the Legislature this year, said votes at the Statehouse on key issues are not always as cut and dried as the scorecards make them out to be. For example, she said she voted against S.88 – the health care reform bill – after the House added in new provisions.

“Small businesses are the backbone of Vermont and the votes I took supported small businesses in the state,” she said.

The VBSR scorecard ranked several lawmakers seeking higher office this year.

Senate President Peter Shumlin of Windham County and Sen. Doug Racine of Chittenden County got 100 percent rankings and Sen. Susan Bartlett of Lamoille County got 83 percent. All three are Democratic candidates for governor in the Aug. 24 primary.

Sen. Ed Flanagan, D-Chittenden, a candidate for state auditor, scored 83 percent. Sen. Phil Scott, R-Washington, a candidate for lietenant governor, scored 33 percent. Rep. Steve Howard, D-Rutland, also a lieutenant governor candidate, scored 83 percent.

Rep. Chris Bray, D-New Haven, a candidate for secretary of state, had an 83 percent score.

Full Article: http://www.timesargus.com/article/20100720/NEWS02/707209909/1003/NEWS02

Daniel.Barlow@timesargus.com

By Terri Hallenbeck, Free Press Political Reporter

7 July 2010

PUTNEY — Down a winding dirt road on the outskirts of Putney is the business Peter Shumlin’s parents started that he now runs with his brother. Over the ridge is the dairy farm Shumlin bought and turned back over to the farmer to run. Nearby are acres of trees Shumlin owns where a friend runs a sawmill. In the center of town are several buildings filled with commerce — a restaurant, offices, apartments — that Shumlin owns and has had renovated.

Just a few square miles offer evidence that the 53-year-old Shumlin has his hand in just about everything. One hundred miles up the highway in Montpelier, where Shumlin serves as Senate leader, legislative colleagues say it is the same with the state’s business.

“It’s amazing the subjects that man is aware of in any given day at the Statehouse,” said fellow state Sen. Richard Mazza, D-Grand Isle/Chittenden. “The guy just never stops.”

Shumlin showed drive for immersing himself in local issues early on. He was 24 years old — back home after college to work in the family business, Putney Student Travel — when he won election to the Putney Selectboard. He helped his hometown win a fight against a new federal prison being built on the defunct Windham College campus. Instead, Shumlin helped lure Landmark College to the site, where it remains today.

John Leader, who was chairman of the Putney Selectboard when Shumlin joined the board 30 years ago, remembers that even at the age of 24 he had a way of making things happen. “Peter was fairly dynamic in his approach to problems. He was not afraid to use his connections and he had quite a few,” said Leader, who runs the Pepsi distributorship in Brattleboro.

Friends and adversaries alike say Shumlin has the intelligence for grasping issues, savvy for knowing when to act and a charm for getting his way — all of which means he gets things done even as he sometimes generates friction along the way.

Local economy

Shumlin is equally at home whether at the Statehouse, where he is typically dressed in a sharp-fitting suit, or back home in Putney dressed in a T-shirt and shorts. He appears to be a man at home anywhere, as long as he is in the middle of the action.

In laid-back Putney, the action is Shumlin’s involvement in a broad cross-section of enterprises. Each one, Shumlin said, brings home the importance of local control and a local economy.

As he walked through the barn of the dairy farm he bought, Shumlin said he decided it would be better to invest his money here and support the local agricultural economy than in the stock market. Being involved with the farm has helped him learn more about milk pricing and the challenges farmers face, he said. The milk there is sold to a cheesemaker down the road, which pays better than the traditional milk market.

Over the hill and up a rutty logging road, a friend runs a sawmill on land Shumlin owns. On another part of the property, a sawmill employee plans to start a CSA — a community-supported agriculture farm – selling locally grown food to local residents.

Family business

If Shumlin has a lot of irons in the fire, he appears to have learned it from his parents, George and Kitty Shumlin, retired teachers who started Putney Student Travel 59 years ago and turned it over to their sons 20 years ago.

In the renovated barn where the business operates, employees jokingly thanked Shumlin for stopping by one recent day. Between the January-May legislative session and his campaign for governor, Shumlin doesn’t spend a lot of time here. His brother, Jeff, runs the day-to-day business of sending students on foreign trips from Australia to Uganda for language, cross-cultural and community-service experiences. The company three years ago began a partnership with National Geographic for a series of programs.

Jeff Shumlin, who is nearly four years younger than his brother, said the two of them have become accustomed to their roles. “I’m more of a behind-the-scenes detail guy,” Jeff Shumlin said. “Peter is really a visionary, a creative thinker. We’re a good team that way.”

Last year, the business helped Shumlin earn an annual income of nearly $1 million, making him the wealthiest candidate in the race. Shumlin reluctantly revealed his income in April after the other gubernatorial candidates released their tax records. Once he did, he defended it as the mark of somebody who understands business.

Born for politics

While business brings home the money, politics has long been in Shumlin’s blood, his brother said, describing a young Peter sitting in his closet listening to Martin Luther King Jr. speeches on reel-to-reel tape. He was in the closet, Jeff Shumlin said, because the rest of the family was so sick of hearing the tape. Shumlin said he still occasionally listens to the speeches in his car.

His interest in King’s speaking ability might have been driven by his own learning disability. Shumlin struggled as a child to learn to read and spell and was eventually diagnosed with mild dyslexia. Shumlin said he believes he compensated for his difficulty reading with his speaking ability. “I had to be the guy who was fastest with my tongue,“ he said. “I had to be funny, engaging, witty and irreverent to survive those spelling bees and still have my peers know I was OK.”

It has paid off for him in politics. He is known around the Statehouse as being quick with a sound bite, the envy of more tongue-tied legislators.

Shumlin entered state politics after seven years on the Putney Selectboard. In 1990, he was appointed to a seat in the House by Gov. Madeleine Kunin. He moved to the Senate in 1993, became minority leader in his second term, and was elected president pro tempore the next term after Democrats gained the majority. He lost a three-way race for lieutenant governor in 2002 to Republican Brian Dubie, the man he hopes to face in November’s election. After a four-year hiatus, Shumlin returned to the Senate in 2007, and his colleagues elected him president pro tempore again.

Doing battle

President pro tempore was a job Sen. John Campbell, D-Windsor, very much wanted that year, after serving as majority leader under Peter Welch, who left the Senate to run for Congress. Campbell and Shumlin duked it out in a close race by secret ballot in a Democratic caucus meeting before the Legislature convened. When Campbell lost the higher position, he said he had no interest in returning to majority leader. Within weeks, Shumlin had lured Campbell back, promising him a key role in policy decisions. Shumlin stayed true to his word, Campbell said. “He and I were political adversaries,” Campbell said, “but I had no problem staying with him. He puts that aside.”

That is a recurring attribute for Shumlin: He does battle, sometimes there are hard feelings, but he has an uncanny knack for winning forgiveness.

“People stick with me because I think they know I’m going to get at least some of the results I promise,” Shumlin said.

Mazza, a 25-year veteran of the Senate, was angry that Shumlin pushed for a Senate vote in February against the continued operation of Vermont Yankee just as the nuclear power plant was mired in a public relations nightmare. Mazza was among a number of senators who thought Shumlin was unfairly taking advantage of Yankee’s troubles to defeat the plant instead of waiting for the results of an investigation into a tritium leak.

“My feeling was we were jumping the gun,” Mazza said recently. “I would not have handled it that way.”

Shumlin held the vote anyway. Mazza was among the few who voted for Vermont Yankee, but he quickly shrugged off his discontent with Shumlin. “I’ve been angry with him many times. The following day, it’s over,” Mazza said.

Months later, Mazza even defended the Yankee vote, saying Shumlin knew more about the issue than he did. Though Mazza said he is not endorsing any candidate for governor, he speaks highly of Shumlin, more than any of the other candidates. “He has a great ability to lead,” he said.

Beth Robinson, who led the fight for same-sex marriage through the Vermont Freedom to Marry Task Force, said Shumlin’s willingness to vote on that issue showed both his savvy at reading the tea leaves and his power of persuasion in getting others to follow.

In 2009, many legislators who supported same-sex marriage said it wasn’t the right time to take on the issue, Robinson said. “It took a lot of vision to get outside the conventional wisdom that prevailed — that this was too scary to do even though it’s the right thing to do,” she said. “Peter had the vision where others did not to see where Vermonters really were.”

Then, she said, Shumlin persuaded reluctant lawmakers that they would not face the backlash they did with the passage of civil unions in 2000. “That’s where I think Peter was a game-changer,” Robinson said.

Not everyone’s a fan

While supporters see him as a man who makes things happen, critics question the way he gets there. Polls suggest that Vermonters have picked up on that. In a recent Rasmussen Reports poll, Shumlin had a higher percentage of people viewing him very unfavorably than did the other candidates.

“There’s a number of things he’s said from time to time,” said Sen. Randy Brock, R-Franklin, noting that Shumlin told a television talk show host that Germany drew 30 percent of its power from solar when it actually produced 1 percent. “That makes me scratch my head,” Brock said.

Brock pointed to another instance. At the beginning of the last legislative session, Shumlin had a vacancy on the Senate Finance Committee to fill after the resignation of the only Republican on the committee that would do the bulk of the work on Vermont Yankee. Shumlin passed over Brock, a first-term senator who had served as state auditor and executive vice president of Fidelity Investments and loaded the committee with seven Democrats. “It certainly had the appearance of being disingenuous,” Brock said.

Shumlin said he draws criticism because he’s willing to make tough decisions, something that would serve him well as governor. “Tough decisions make both friends and enemies. I’ll take on things other politicians won’t,” he said. “You can’t have good government if you are not a good politician. Bad politicians don’t annoy people because they don’t do anything.”
Read more: http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20100707/NEWS03/100706006/-1/TOPICS0206/Peter-Shumlin-is-at-home-in-the-middle-of-the-action#ixzz0t86cbihK

NEAL P. GOSWAMI
Bennington Banner

Wednesday July 7, 2010

BENNINGTON — Democratic gubernatorial candidate Sen. Peter Shumlin snagged endorsements Wednesday from Bennington County Sens. Dick Sears and Robert Hartwell.

Shumlin,the president pro tem in the Vermont Senate, faces four others — Secretary of State Deborah Markowitz, Sens.Susan Bartlett and Doug Racine, and former Sen. Matt Dunne — in a primary Aug. 24. Endorsements from Democrats in the Legislature had been slow to arrive for the five candidates, but have picked up with the primary date fast approaching.

Sears, the county’s senior senator and chairman of the Senate JudiciaryCommittee,and Hartwell, who is seeking a third term in November, were unequivocal in their support for Shumlin in a brief news conference at theBennington Town Office.

Sears said all five Democrats in the race to succeed retiring Republican Gov. James Douglas were “terrific candidates.”

But Shumlin stands out for several reasons, Sears said, most importantly is his ability to win.

“I believe Peter can win in November, and I think that’s tremendously important as a Democrat,” said Sears, who has served with Shumlin in the Senate for 14 years.

Shumlin is the “best candidate of the five to lead Vermont out of our recession-induced budget gap,” according to Sears. “That’s a tremendous problem that we’re facing in the state and throughout the nation,” he said. “Peter understands that we can’t do that by either
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… raising taxes or cutting services. He realizes we need to that through economic development.”

Hartwell said Shumlin was an effective “manager as well as a legislator.” The Putney Democrat has guided fellow lawmakers through several challenges, including an override of a vetoed state budget and passing same-sex marriage, Hartwell said.

“In my four years with Peter he’s been confronted on a number of occasions with tough management decisions and guiding the Legislature through tough issues,” Hartwell said.

He said he, too, was swayed because “Peter can win this in the fall.”

Sears also said Shumlin has “the temperament to lead.” While he can be “overly aggressive” on issues, Sears said he has watched (Shumlin) grow in the position of president pro tem.” He demonstrated after the tragic killing and sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl in 2008 the ability to approach hot-button issues in an even-keeled way, Sears said.

“There was all kinds of calls for this, for that, but at the time Peter was the leader, in my view. He said, ‘No, we’re not going to jump to special sessions. We’re not going to suggest that Vermont isn’t a safe state. We remain as one of the safest states in the union,’” Sears said. “Peter … set in motion, I think, one of the best examples of leadership this state has ever seen.”

Bennington County would benefit from having a governor from Southern Vermont, Sears said.

“Peter understands southern Vermont. It’s interesting. I have candidates call me and say, ‘What are the issues down here,’” Sears said. “He understands that and he understands what it’s like to be forgotten.”

Shumlin pledged to bring more attention to the southern part of the state and said he hoped to “make Bennington County Sears, Hartwell and Shumlin county.”

“Having been born and raised in Southern Vermont, I will never forget my roots or where I come from. I am going to be the governor that creates jobs equally across the state, not just in our central population base,” Shumlin said.

“Bennington desperately needs jobs. We need to grow the opportunities in composites and other areas where we’ve been extraordinarily innovative.”

Contact Neal P. Goswami at ngoswami@benningtonbanner.com
http://www.benningtonbanner.com/ci_15462118