Racine: 'I'm Ready to Go'
State Senator Doug Racine (D-Chittenden) will be a candidate for governor in 2010. Pure and simple.
“I’m not going to dance around like most politicians do and play coy. I plan to be a candidate,” Racine told Seven Days.
The news first surfaced when an email from former Burlington State Rep. Mary Sullivan was posted on Green Mountain Daily. The email, which Sullivan later forwarded to Seven Days, was sent around to the chairs of county Democratic committees. Sullivan said she is part of a group working on Racine’s nascent campaign — with former Gov. Phil Hoff as honorary chair.
Racine said he knows
there will be other candidates interested in running, so he wants to get
organized and re-introduce himself to Democrats around the state. State Treasurer Jeb Spaulding has expressed an interest in running for governor, and it's no secret that President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin (D-Windam), Secretary of State Deb Markowitz, and Attorney General Bill Sorrell have given it thought.
“It’s been six years since I’ve run a statewide campaign, and I’ve got to reintroduce myself,” said Racine, who served as Lt. Governor from 1996 to 2002. “I haven’t had the chance to make it to most of the county committees and when I look at the names there are lot of new people involved.”
Racine is the only Democrat to come within striking distance of defeating the incumbent, Republican Jim Douglas.
Racine lost to Douglas by 2.5 percent — a mere 5871 votes — in 2002. Since Racine, Democrats have lost by wide margins.
“I’ve got some things to talk about,” said Racine. “I do not see a clear economic development strategy in this state, for starters. And, it's about broadband, it's child care, and it’s a health care system that works. Those are the things that make a state a community attractive and that’s not happening in our state right now.”
Racine said the lack of economic development strategy hit home for him last fall at the Vermont 3.0: Creative/Technology Career Jam, an event sponsored by the state's Department of Economic Development and PursueVT.org. Seven Days helped organize the Jam, which was held at Champlain College.
“I saw a number of entrepreneurial businesses who many people haven’t heard of but who employ 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 people,” said Racine. “But they are not the focus of the traditional job development strategy to help them grow.”
Not helping these tech companies grow, Racine argues, is only exacerbating the flight of young Vermonters from the state — or drawing them back after they leave to attend school.
In general, Racine implies Douglas talks a good game but has little to show for it.
Vermont also deserves a governor who can match the kind of vision and excitement provided by Barack Obama’s election as president.
“There’s an excitement out there with Barack Obama, and I think Vermont has tremendous opportunities for a new federal-state relationship and to build on this incredible spirit out there — let’s tap into that,” said Racine. “I know a lot of Vermonters are eager and excited to talk about where we’re going as a society and here we have a governor who is strangely silent about that topic.
“Government can do so much better and Vermont deserves
someone at the top who wants to do the job and solve problems and take
the risks,” added Racine.
Geez, where was this guy last fall, eh? With two lackluster candidates on the Left, Douglas had an easy time of reelection.
Still,
any political pundit will tell you that Vermonters don't throw out
their incumbents easily and any challenger to Douglas will have a hard
fight. Douglas is a top-tier campaigner who has been reelected time and
time again.
Before he makes any full-throttled run for gov, however, Racine said his first priority will be to focus on making sure that families and kids, and others hurt by the recession, do not bear the brunt of budget cuts from Montpelier.
Shaping up to be a very interesting session — and it hasn’t even started yet.
Leave it to Shay to consider Racine the candidate with luster. If Douglas runs, he'll kick Racine's ass into the dark ages.
Posted by: lustrous | January 05, 2009 at 05:43 PM
Who knows how Racine might do in 2010 .But Douglas has yet to prove he can actually govern his way through two tough years on the economic front with a Democratic legislature .
So far all he has come up with is more budget cuts,renaming Food Stamps,3SquareVt. and recycling his old,old permit reform can solve anything tune .A very stale game plan.
indeed .Douglas might be pretty battered in two years ,if he runs again.He still cuts a mean ribbon though.
Posted by: 1087 | January 05, 2009 at 09:26 PM