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I am very grateful for the support of so many Vermonters throughout this campaign. I'm honored to have your confidence and support. I am also appreciative of the coaching and support of the staff and volunteers who worked for the Vermont Democratic Party and the Symington For Governor campaign.
Six months ago we set out to offer Vermonters a choice for new leadership. We presented a different vision for our state -- one based on building on our strengths, investing in our people and seizing the opportunities before us to get our economy moving again. We offered leadership based on straight talk, concrete action and long-term thinking. We put new ideas on the table to grow jobs, build a clean and reliable energy future and provide young Vermonters with a path to higher education and good jobs.
Our campaign came up short, but it is hard to feel disappointed on such an historic night for change across our state and nation. What a relief to wake up this morning knowing that our country is back on track, with an eloquent leader who will pull us together to face our challenges and restore international respect for the United States.
I'd like to reassure my friends who are concerned that I may be feeling hurt this today. My ninth grader is on the starting defensive line-up of the varsity Mt Mansfield Union High School football team and he gets exasperated when I constantly ask whether he's been hurt during a game. He reminds me, "Mom, I want to be here, I'm strong enough and I worked hard to get here. It's not about whether I get hurt, it's about making the team and playing to win." And that's how I feel about having taken on this race. I belonged in the race and I was ready for the challenge.
I knew that taking on an incumbent governor would be a challenge. It was. But, I chose to enter the race. I wasn't roped into it. I belonged in the race and I was ready for the challenge. Whether it hurts to fall short of the goal line is not the point.
It is striking that a three term incumbent governor would find it necessary to spend such a high proportion of his million dollar campaign on distorting the record and words of his opponents in order to pull out a majority vote, rather than on focusing on his own record. It is also striking that, despite throwing tens of thousands of dollars into TV ads and distorting attack mailings, at last count the Republicans failed to pick up any seats in the House.
I hope that Jim Douglas will use this opportunity to recommit to working more constructively with the Democratic legislature going forward. The work of our campaign will make it easier for the Legislature to demand that Jim Douglas puts Vermonters first as we face critical choices about our state budget, our energy future, the workforce that supports our economy and as we work together to build a stronger, better state for your children and mine.
Running for statewide office is probably not on the to-do list of many of you. I can understand that -- for 54 years it wasn't on mine. So, I'd like to share with you some of what I encountered over the past six months that reinforced my respect and love for this state:
- Milo, a home schooled fifth grader who designed and built a solar powered popcorn maker.
- Whitney and Jesse who are inventing a sport, not just a sled, from their tiny office at the Mad River Rocket Sled Company.
- Ethan, a senior at Peoples Academy in Morrisville, who has designed a wood pellet furnace that burns green wood chips.
- The staff and Vista volunteers who work at our homeless and crisis centers and see most directly the fall-out from our "tough budget decisions."
- The women and men who staff our corrections facilities, supervising, counseling, disciplining, and maintaining respectful interactions with those incarcerated there.
- The entrepreneurs, senior staff and line workers of the companies I have toured who are making everything from nanotech water purifiers to wheat free baked goods to specialty beers to custom milled brass nuts & bolts.
- And the 9 year old boy I introduced myself to at the Race for the Cure in Manchester. He was visiting from Connecticut, a state whose Governor is Jody Rell. He turned to his mom and asked whether boys were allowed to run for Governor too.
I'm here to say to every little boy and every little girl that you can run for Governor. . It's not easy to put yourself out there; it's scary and sometimes you have to say what people are not yet ready to hear. Democracy is messy and noisy and frustrating. But it matters that you participate fully.
Running for office and serving your community, especially when you have a team behind you like I've had, is an important way to strengthen and serve your community. At some point or you are going to see something that needs to be changed or made more fair. At some point someone may ask you to run for office. And I hope that when that opportunity comes you will put your voice forward for others to rally around and support as you have done for me for the past six months.
Please, do not wait to run for office until you can give your voice perfectly. Take the risk of being imperfect. As long as you speak with a voice that is from your heart, as long as you listen and think before you speak, and as long as you remember to speak not just for yourself but also for those who don't have the opportunity to speak as loudly as you do, I hope you will give your voice to the public debate by running for office.
You will make a difference.
Thank you very much.
Demand Jim Douglas stand up for Vermonters
As you know, over the past few weeks Americans discovered that the price tag of the “corporate America knows best” Bush philosophy was a staggering $700 billion dollars. But did you know Jim Douglas is treating Vermont Yankee like Bush treated Wall Street, and it could cost Vermonters hundreds of millions of dollars?
Last year, Speaker Gaye Symington led the legislature to pass a bill that would have required Vermont Yankee’s owners to maintain the decommissioning fund with enough money to pay for the plant’s clean up when it closes. Jim Douglas vetoed that bill, even though just last year, the fund was short hundreds of millions of dollars. Guess who will be stuck with the bill if the fund is short when Vermont Yankee closes? You.
Symington for Governor launched an online petition demanding that Jim Douglas stand up for Vermonters and ensure we aren’t stuck with the clean up bill at Vermont Yankee. Sign the petition at SymingtonForGovernor.com today!
Welch grills Wall Street in oversight hearings
On the heels of the financial collapse, Congressman Peter Welch continues to push for proper oversight and accountability for Wall Street. Congressman Welch, a member of the House Oversight Committee, yesterday grilled a representative from the Securities and Exchange Commission about the failed oversight of Wall Street.
Democracy for America endorses Symington
"Gaye Symington is a fantastic candidate with a long record of achievement," said Jim Dean, Chair of DFA. "Democracy for America is proud to endorse her campaign."
"I'm honored to receive the endorsement of Democracy for America which is such a strong force for change in our party and our nation," said Speaker Symington. "Their support is crucial because my victory depends on waging the kind of effective grassroots campaign that DFA is known for. I'm very grateful that DFA has chosen to stand with me in this effort to bring Vermont the change it needs."
Democracy for America is a key endorsement in this race, bringing donations from progressives and providing volunteers to participate in door-to-door, grassroots outreach. DFA has helped elect over 550 progressives to office from Governor Deval Patrick in Massachusetts to Rep. Donna Edwards in Maryland's 4th Congressional District.
“In the wake of this collapse and bailout, Vermonters are asking ‘how did we let things get to this point?’ While there are undoubtedly many complex factors that led us here, there’s a basic philosophy in gear that puts too much trust in large private interests over the public good,” Speaker Symington said at a press conference on the Church Street marketplace in Burlington. “Unfortunately, this ‘corporate America knows best’ worldview is not just on display in Washington. Our own Governor has in several important instances shown the same blindness to the dangers of this philosophy.”
Speaker Symington highlighted two recent examples of Douglas’ out-of-touch adherence to the Republican philosophy without regard to the impacts on working Vermonters.
“If Governor Douglas had had his way, our lottery system would have been placed in the hands of Lehman Brothers, a Wall Street firm that no longer exists,” Symington said. “When Jim Douglas proposed this idea last year, I questioned the wisdom of it and called in experts for a second opinion.”
Symington also pointed to Douglas’ veto of the bill this year that would have required Entergy Nuclear to pay clean up costs after the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant closes. “Jim Douglas has to explain to Vermonters why—after all we’ve seen in the past several months—is he is still taking the side of Entergy instead of protecting Vermont taxpayers. He is taking the same gamble in trusting Entergy to handle the decommissioning funds properly as he did in trusting Lehman Brothers to handle our lottery system,” Symington said.
To read the full text of Speaker Symington’s speech, visit the Symington for Governor website.
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