All of Vermont’s Constitutional and legislative offices are up for election next month. One of the most competitive statewide races is between the Democrat and Republican running for Lieutenant Governor.
Incumbent Democrat/Progressive Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman is seeking his fourth nonsequential term. Zuckerman held the office from 2017 until 2021 and then unsuccessfully ran for governor. In the following election he won back the lieutenant governor’s seat.
John Rodgers served in the Vermont House and Senate representing the Orleans County area from 2003 until 2021 as a Democrat. In May he announced he would run for Lieutenant Governor as a Republican and won the August 13th primary.
The two candidates agreed on a few topics at a VT Digger debate. In late August a consultant released a report on improving Vermont’s health care system. It concluded that rural hospitals must make significant changes. Zuckerman was critical of the report.
“I found it interesting a couple different folks from different hospitals have told me that some of the foundational facts that went into that report turned out to be quite wrong. I think up in Newport it was stated that they had 200 births every two years when they had 200 births every year. So the recommendation of closing their birth center seems quite anomalous. So I think we need to first dig back into that and make sure the facts are accurate,” Zuckerman said.
Rodgers agrees that the report’s recommendations for the state’s rural hospitals are ill advised.
“I think our healthcare system needs a broad overview and maybe overhauled. And I think that there is probably efficiencies to be made in administration. But we can’t lose our local hospitals. They’re too important,” Rodgers agreed. “And so we have to figure out how to make it work and make it so it’s affordable for Vermonters.”
The two candidates often clashed with Rodgers questioning the incumbent’s integrity. When Governor Phil Scott announced his nominee for Education Secretary, Zuckerman sent out an email that mischaracterized Zoie Saunders’ background. He later apologized. During the VT Digger debate, he was asked why voters should trust him.
“I don’t think that was a huge violation with intent to radically distort someone’s record. A lot of us throughout the legislature had concerns. But I don’t think that that was an outrageous stretch in that regard,” Zuckerman asserted. “Again, I took responsibility for it. It was information that was gathered by other folks that had given me that to help write that letter. I think if you ask any Senator there they appreciated my taking responsibility for it and I think folks would recognize that I call the balls and strikes extraordinarily fairly.”
That led to Rodgers and Zuckerman arguing over whether the incumbent regularly issues inaccurate information.
“My opponent’s framing of Ms. Saunders is reminiscent of what he’s done to me several times since the campaign started in his newsletter spreading misinformation. And I have corrected him on several things but it seems to continue,” Rodgers said. “So I think it’s a bad habit of his using that letter to spread misinformation about people that he doesn’t necessarily agree with.”
“My opponent has chosen to be a Republican and that party has gone off the rails and so I have associated him with the party he has chosen to be a part of,” argued Zuckerman. “I don’t think that’s inaccurate.”
“It wasn’t just one thing about the Republican Party,” insisted Rodgers. “He has mischaracterized several other things as well. So I think his honesty’s in question.”
After complaints from female lawmakers, the House Speaker issued verbal and written warnings to Zuckerman. He was asked why he had made menstrual products available in his outer office.
“Those products had been in my office the first four years I was Lieutenant Governor because women had asked me about how we could do something about the lack of products in the Statehouse. I put a drawer full out in my chief-of-staff’s office and it was used regularly. So when I returned, I did the same,” explained Zuckerman. “What I probably did wrong was I probably should have just left my chief-of-staff make that conversation happen as a woman. And so I immediately removed them, as requested.”
Rodgers contends the Speaker was within her rights to issue the reprimand.
“What I’ve been hearing from around the state is a lot of folks just think it was inappropriate and showed poor judgement,” Rodgers said. “And I really don’t want to go any further than that.”
Early voting for the November 5th general election is underway in Vermont.
