In New Poll, Sorrell Leads Donovan in AG's Primary — But Many Remain Undecided

With just six days to go before the August 28 primary, a new poll from Castleton Polling Institute shows incumbent Attorney General Bill Sorrell with a commanding lead over Democratic challenger T.J. Donovan.

At least among those who have made up their minds. Almost a third of voters surveyed said they were undecided in the Democratic primary for attorney general.

And the small sample size of 223 likely primary voters means the poll comes with a high margin of error — plus or minus 7 points.

"It's summer," said Castleton poll director Rich Clark. "And while those of us who love politics have been following it with great intensity, most of the public has been following the Olympics and everything else but politics." 

According to the poll, Sorrell leads Donovan 44 to 24 among likely voters, with 31 percent of respondents saying they are undecided. Among the 122 self-identified Democrats polled, Sorrell leads Donovan by 16 points, with 36 percent of Democrats saying they are undecided.

Click here for full results from the new poll.

Meanwhile, the poll showed Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin (whose name the poll misspelled as "Schumlin") with a healthy lead over Republican challenger Randy Brock — 60 to 26, with only 10 percent of voters undecided. Twenty percent of Republicans polled said they'd vote for Shumlin if the governor's election were held today, compared with 6 percent of Democrats who favor Brock.

And surprising no one, President Barack Obama also holds a solid lead over Republican Mitt Romney among Vermont voters, 62 to 25 with just 7 percent of voters undecided. The poll was conducted between August 11 and August 21 — after Romney selected Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan as his running mate. As Clark noted, that pick doesn't seem to have moved the Vermont electorate.

The Most Ridiculous Photos of the 2012 Campaign — So Far

We interrupt our serious coverage of Vermont's 2012 election campaigns to bring you this totally frivolous bit of infotainment.

Every two years, Vermont politicians go through the rite of passage known as pandering for running for re-election. How do candidates win the hearts and minds of voters? Not with wonky policy plans and details about their "records," but with photos that show they are regular Joes — just like you!

To that end, Vermont candidates have peppered their Facebook pages with photographs depicting the lighter moments of the campaign. You know, milking goats, doing yoga, shaking hands with a guy in a cow costume. We pulled together the most amusing snapshots we could find and posted them here for your enjoyment. Many more are sure to come as the fall campaign kicks into gear post-Labor Day.

Our elected officials may at times leave us cynical, especially around campaign season, when things can get pretty petty. But at least they have a sense of humor.

Without further ado, we present the most ridiculous photos of the 2012 campaign, so far...

Attorney General Bill Sorrell submerged in a babbling brook

Many more after the jump...

Grazing: Mr. Hendricks, Meet the Cosmo

Any serious cocktail lover might order one in a low voice — such is the stigma that can accompany the Cosmopolitan. Somehow this simple blend of Absolut Citron, fresh or Roses lime juice, cranberry and a splash of Cointreau became, in the late 1990s, the cocktail equivalent of a Carly Rae Jepsen song.

But the bartenders that bastardized the Cosmo into sticky, sweet ubiquity are long ago and far away from from the bar at L'Amante in Burlington, where classics rule in both food and drink. With a chef who's a bona fide wine expert and a staff that know their Grillo from their Garganega, this is certainly a place to indulge a love of vino. The cocktail list, by contrast, is short and simple.

Ask bartender Ian DeLorme about wine and he will joyously pour you something new to try. Yet he also keeps classic drinks up his sleeve, including a tart, fresh-juice Cosmopolitan he first blended at his mother's request for a not-too-sweet version. 

This summer, DeLorme has been making a Cosmo using floral Hendricks gin, shaking up a generous pour of the stuff with fresh lime and lemon juices, splashes of Cointreau and cranberry juice, and floating St. Germain on top. The resulting drink has tiny bits of ice and hints of roses, a pool of citrusy herbaceousness that you want to dive into and emerge, buzzed, on the opposite rim.

Ian's Gin Cosmo

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice, then add the first five ingredients:
4 ounces Hendricks gin 
Juice from half a fresh-squeezed lemon 
Juice from half a fresh-squeezed lime
1 ounce Cointreau
Splash of cranberry juice
A very light splash of St. Germain

"Shake hard," DeLorme advises, then strain into a martini glass. Float some St. Germain on top, garnish with a wedge of lime, and serve.

 

VIDEO: 7 Highlights/Lowlights From Last Night's Seven Days-Channel 17 Attorney General Debate

 

Oh, snap!

Democratic rivals for attorney general, incumbent Bill Sorrell and contender T.J. Donovan, threw down on their home turf last night in a feisty debate inside Burlington City Hall sponsored by Seven Days and Channel 17 Town Meeting Television.

With the August 28 primary less than two weeks away, Sorrell and Donovan are jockeying hard for pole position — or maybe pol position — in the most competitive campaign of the year.

The candidates sat close together (their elbows were practically touching) and the tension was palpable at times. Donovan, the Chittenden County State's Attorney, stayed on offense the whole night, hammering Sorrell for what he said was a lack of engagement and leadership during his 15 years as attorney general — and for accepting help from a Washington, D.C.-based super PAC. Sorrell vigorously defended his record and got in his own digs, demanding that Donovan stop "distorting" his record.

At times, both candidates shook their heads in disbelief while the other answered a question.

Here are seven highlights (and lowlights) from the evening. You decide which is which.

Shumlin Widens Fundraising Gap, While Brock Widens Fund-Spending Gap

The news coming out of Wednesday's monthly campaign finance filing deadline is hardly news at all: Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin continues to raise money, while his challenger, Sen. Randy Brock (R-Franklin), continues to spend it.

In the 30 days since they last reported fundraising numbers, Shumlin took in $160,293 to Brock's $55,329. But in that same period, the incumbent Democrat spent just $16,041 to his Republican challenger's $65,516, widening the already yawning gap between the two candidates' campaign reserves.

With Shumlin now having outraised Brock $839,805 to $584,924 — and that includes a $300,000 loan Brock gave himself — the governor's cash-on-hand advantage moving into the last two-and-a-half months of the race is $769,027 to Brock's $237,139.

So how've they been raising and spending it?

In Irene Funding Dispute, Shumlin Makes Nice With FEMA

For nearly four weeks, Gov. Peter Shumlin's administration has blamed the Federal Emergency Management Agency for misleading — and even deceiving — the state into believing it was due more in Tropical Storm Irene recovery funding than it may eventually receive.

But on Tuesday, Shumlin sought to hit the reset button with the feds.

"I'm proud of the relationship we have developed with FEMA," the governor said, unprompted, at his weekly press conference. "I can tell you that in talking with other governors about recovery efforts like this, there is not a governor in the country who will tell you that there aren't good days with FEMA, there aren't bad days with FEMA, that there aren't happy days with FEMA, that there aren't sad days with FEMA. And we have to expect that we're going to have exactly the same experience here in the state of Vermont."

The governor's newly conciliatory tone toward FEMA comes as the agency continues to weigh the level at which it will reimburse Vermont for the replacement of the state psychiatric hospital and the Waterbury State Office Complex — both of which were badly damaged by Irene. Contrary to reports earlier this week, Shumlin said Tuesday that an announcement from FEMA outlining how much funding the state should expect is still three to four weeks away. Shumlin and the state's congressional delegation are continuing to lobby for the maximum amount of funding, the governor said.

Shumlin Opponents Mount Write-In Campaign

Concerned about wind turbines on ridgelines or chloramine in your water supply?

If so, chances are you’ve heard of Annette Smith, the no-nonsense director of the grassroots organization Vermonters for a Clean Environment. Smith has made a name for herself advocating on behalf of local communities fighting unwanted development, and now her supporters hope that Smith’s name recognition will come in handy in an upstart write-in campaign in the August 28 primaries. They’re urging Vermonters to vote for Annette Smith of Danby as the Progressive Party’s candidate for governor — not so much because they love Smith as because they hate the other guy.

“Too often we’re all in a position of holding our noses and voting for whoever we think might not be as bad as the other guy or girl,” says Stephanie Kaplan, a Calais environmental lawyer organizing the write-in campaign. She says it’s an attempt “to let people who are dissatisfied with Shumlin know that there’s something they can do in the primary election.”

Alice Eats: Pearl Street Diner

85 Pearl St., Burlington, 862-3220

DoughBoy's Coffee Shop may have been the ultimate old Burlington diner. With a clientele split mostly between seniors and college students, it was a kind of spiritual cousin to Bove's Restaurant across the street. When it closed last summer, it left some big shoes to fill.

But Pearl Street Diner's owners, Pam Scanlon and Michael Niederer of Radio Deli, aren't trying to recreate DoughBoy's. Their tack is a little smarter. Along with diner classics, they're also serving up more creative fare with local ingredients.

One need only look at the condiments on the counter to get an idea of the aesthetic. Beside the ketchup, salt and cinnamon sugar, there's also Sriracha.

Grazing: Whip It Good

The northward migration of a chef from Austin, Texas, to the Green Mountains is a rare but wonderful thing. When such a person moves between two wildly different places, they can bring a mashup of styles, ideas and dishes that is nothing but good news for the diners around them.

Chef Cody Vasek grew up on a farm in Bellville, Texas, and developed his culinary chops at hotels in Austin and Houston, where his farm-centric early life gave him a natural affiinity for field-to-fork cuisine. Like many a chef hungry for new experiences, Vasek eventually drifted north and worked his way through several of Jean Georges Vongerichten's kitchens (JoJo, Vong, Mercer Kitche, Spice Market and Jean Georges among them) before he pushed even further north, to the 45th parallel to become the executive chef at Stowe Mountain Lodge. (If there is an invisible hotel kithen circuit, Stowe Mountain must be a major yet frenetic node — as far as I can tell, it's a magnet for talented chefs who don't stay long.)

Aerial Shots Capture Lowell Wind Project Progress

Steve Wright last took to the sky in April to capture a series of dramatic bird's-eye photographs of construction at Kingdom Community Wind, the 21-turbine wind project that Green Mountain Power is constructing on a ridgeline above Lowell. He went airborne again on Wednesday this week — in the interest, Wright said in an interview with Seven Days, of documenting the ongoing construction on the mountaintop. "In some years we’ll look back at this and shake our heads," says Wright, a Craftsbury Common resident and outspoken opponent of ridgeline wind development.

"It's continually distressing that we would do this with a mountaintop, but we're moving on to a statewide campaign to make sure this doesn't happen anywhere else," adds Wright, a former commissioner of the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department. His concerns aren't aesthetic but rather biological. "Humans have a capacity to be able to tolerate looking at just about anything," he says. "That mountain has been forever changed in its hydrology and its entire ecological function."

Wright's photos first appeared on the Mountain Talk blog, where wind opponents post frequent photos, videos and updates. It's been a busy week for activists in Lowell. On Monday, around 45 protesters scrambled to the mountaintop to stage a peaceful protest blocking the main construction thoroughfare at the site, an event that culminated in six arrests. A day after the largely festive gathering (complete with square dancing and chanting), around 30 activists returned for a somber "funeral" for Lowell Mountain. 

Green Mountain Power previously said that Wright's aerial photos only present a snapshot of a moment in time and that much of the disturbed landscaped will be re-vegetated after construction wraps up.

UPDATE: This morning, GMP spokesman Robert Dostis added that concerns like Wright's were raised during the extensive permitting process for the wind farm, were "fully vetted," and eventually the Public Service Board deemed the project to be in the public good. Dostis says that construction at the site — where the crew is now finishing the fourth complete turbine — is on schedule for completion by the end of the year.

Dostis also says that while the total "project impact" is 135 acres, GMP has conserved more than 2700 acres to mitigate that environmental impact, and nearly all of the conserved land is protected in perpetuity. 

Photos by Steve Wright