Green Mountain Power, Bolton, Dean and devolution

Vermont Business Magazine, Mar 01, 1998

Here's a little bit of political history for the governor to chew on. In 1990, Bernie Sanders lost to Peter Smith in the Congressional election. The race was close, but on review Bernie was always behind and didn't have a realistic chance of winning. He had lost the Brattleboro area, even though Brattleboro is one of, if not the, most liberal parts of the state. He worked hard to win down south in 1992, Smith lost his incumbent's advantage by flip-flopping on support for a semi-automatic rifles ban, and the rest is history.

Now, Dean does not have Bernie breathing down his neck (or I don't think so, anyway), but Act 60 will cost him some votes, and his seeming disregard for the southern part of the state will hurt him in what is otherwise a Democratic bastion. Rutland is Republican. Add in to that the anger by a vocal minority over logging, and Dean has many separate regions of the state that he cannot count on.

Remember, national political experts were picking Peter Smith for re-election right up until November 1992.