Progressive Insurance When Sen Jim Jeffords, the man who last ran as a Republican then became an "independent", announced that he would not run again in 2006, Vermont became an important state to all types of political groups and interests.
The Republicans are certainly interested in this race and the chance to pick up another Republican seat in the Senate. So much so the Whitehouse has made a number of passes at Vermont's Republican Governor Jim Douglas and the PoliticsVT blog says that Governor Douglas will announce if he will be running again for the Vermont chief executives seat by Labor Day.
Vermont's lone representative Bernie Sanders, who stopped calling himself a Socialist before running for the Federal office, has all but announced he will run for Jeffords' Seat in the Senate. He being an Independent and all, it just might be that state Democrats might want to put forth a candidate as well, though the only Democrat openly saying he might be interested is President Pro Tem of the Vermont Senate. Peter Shumlin. But its early.
But not too early for Moveon.org to pick a horse and support it, it seems because Moveon has announced it will support Bernie Sanders for the Senate seat.
“Together, we'll make sure that Vermont sends a real progressive to the Senate in 2006,” the note concluded.
Such an announcement will certainly put a crimp in the Democrats ability to field a candidate but it seems that the Democrats are willing to roll over on this one,
For their part, state Democrats are expected to stay out of what is likely to be the most high-profile race in Vermont politics in years.
Although they deny any agreements to pave an easier path for Sanders — who, after all, has criticized the Democratic Party for years — few observers foresee the emergence of a credible Democratic candidate.
not that there is much difference between Democrats, Socialists and Progressives in Vermont anyway.
What is raising eyebrows, however, is the large financial commitment the group's members are willing to make so early in a campaign with no declared candidates.
MoveOn.org has already raised $135,000 from Vermont members (which is real money in Vermont politics, BTW) to support Sanders bid and has pledged to begin raising money nationally.
A Progressive like Sanders, who represents everything MoveOn likes in a candidate I guess is just too tempting.
"Rep. Sanders has been a hero on many of MoveOn's issues … If he becomes the consensus candidate quickly and is able to raise enough money, he could make Republican contenders think twice before jumping into the race."
And it's not like they were ever going to support Jim Douglas. On the other hand, MoveOn is (wet) dreaming if they think Republicans won't run a candidate.
And don't forget, Jeffords won every campaign as a Republican back when he was one...
