Nice Governor you guys have

[Redneck Socialist]

Any chance of getting rid of him?

He pretty much single-handedly derailed the New England Wilderness Act of 2006 (well, with some help from his buddy Pombo.)

Please tell me he's on his way out this year.

Leahy letter in response to Douglas' letter to Pombo and Goodlatte: http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200609/092106a.html

[david_vincent]

1. Nope, sorry

Douglas is almost certainly going to win. You underestimate just how red this state is, especially when it comes to the office of Governor. The majority of people in rural Vermont -- the self-styled "real Vermonters" -- are conservative, and Douglas is quite popular among them. Burlington and Montpelier are generally regarded with contempt in rural areas, as havens for hippies and (the most insulting term possible) "flatlanders". Vermonters are deeply independent-minded people, but this means that they would carry things to extremes and hurt themselves as a result, and do it proudly.
Remember, Vermont was one of only two states that voted against FDR in 1936. Douglas is quite chummy with the administration of President AWOL, but he keeps it quiet. On the state level, Democrats tend to be disorganized, and it hurts them a lot.
Jim Douglas is a typical right-wing ideologue, but he has an air of paternal (if not paternalistic) calm authority, and it syncs perfectly with Vermonters' opinion of themselves as being separate from, and better than, all the people embroiled in ruckus of all sorts "out there". Keep in mind that the single most important thing in the mind of a Vermonter is that this is damn well Vermont, and wherever you're from damn well isn't. The mindset here is one of a profound underlying provincialism and xenophobia.

[Redneck Socialist]

2. You could say pretty much the same thing about NH

It just puzzles me that you manage to elect some pretty decent folks to congress and the Senate, but then send a wanker like Douglas to the Gov's office.

[cali]

3. Geez, aren't you being a little harsh?

I live in the NEK, and even here, we elect Progressives to the leg, and Bernie signs outnumber Tarrant signs by at least 3 to one. Yes, there's ignorance and xenophobia in rural Vermont, but it's hardly as endemic as you make it out to be. And I know the NEK. I've lived here for over 25 years.

[AX10]

4. Kerry recieved 60% of the vote in 2004.

[skygazer]

6. Well, that's pretty harsh

I've been living in California for the last 7 years but I spent my first 38 years in Vermont and I wouldn't qualify it quite that way. For one thing, Vermont has always been extremely open-minded and liberal as to the people who live there and what they do - it was home to one of the first free-love communes back in the 1800's, it welcomed slaves who escaped on the Underground Railroad and protected them (at state government level) from slave catchers. It was the first state to outlaw slavery in its Constitution.

In the 70's Vermont welcomed a significant number of Cambodian refugees fleeing the Khmer Rouge government - Vermonters make pointed remarks about Flatlanders but what they mostly refer to are the people who come from New York or Connecticut on vacation, fall in love with the state, buy a house there and immediately try to turn it into New York or Connecticut. "Oh, we have to pave the road, and put up street lights and get the town to stop blowing the noon whistle that's been blowing for the last 200 years and put in a WalMart and widen the freeway and...."

What you call "provincialism and xenophobia" has protected the state from industrial pollution, uncontrolled growth, the loss of its rural character and beauty and much of the problems that plague less discriminating areas. If people are proud of that, I think they should be.

[garybeck]

5. he's going to win. slick talker.