For those of you unfamiliar with Vermont, we have a Republican candidate for Governor, Brian Dubie, who is facing a serious challenge from Peter Shumlin, a Democrat who squeaked his way into victory in a 5-way primary.
I've been doing work with the Healthcare is a Human Right campaign, and I Live Blogged one of the local candidate forums that have been going on across the sate in Brattleboro last week.
On my way home, I stopped off to do night photography (not relevant here, but these are some of the sort of photos I take).
But what happened during that night shoot was that I saw a truck doing road work with a Dubie for Governor poster on it. "That," I thought, "can't be right." These are trucks doing work for the state, advertising for a candidate for Governor while doing that work. But my camera wasn't set up to photograph that, especially not at night.
So I went back during the day.
And I got pictures.
Below are several photos of one of the trucks in question. (You can also view them in my photo album):
Trucks
I did a little bit of research and blogged it. Then I got a tip and blogged some more about it. Here's the salient information from the piece which included the pictures:
In March, 7 Days reported on a Dubie birthday bash. One company in particular stands out in terms of donations:
Deb Ricker not only gave $2000 personally, but two of her companies — L&D Safety Marking Company and WorkSafe Traffic Control Industries — also pitched in $2000 apiece. Maybe a birthday hat in the shape of a safety cone?
What's on the side of this truck?
I want to be clear about something: while I am somewhat concerned about someone who receives contracts for state work donating large sums of money to candidates for Governor, I am deeply concerned about someone using the support they get from the state as an opportunity to advertise for a candidate for Governor.
In my years of working as a state contractor, doing presentations across the state, I never used that opportunity to advocate for candidates. I would never have dreamt of wearing a Clavelle or Parker t-shirt when presenting in the public on behalf of the state of Vermont. I wouldn't even put campaign buttons on my laptop case. Similarly, when I teach for the Vermont State College system, I do not advocate for candidates to my students. I even had a perfect lesson to use with my students about plagiarism in the form of the Martha Rainville campaign that would have fit perfectly with an existing lesson plan, but I chose to avoid that specific issue because it would have been inappropriate to bring a specific political campaign into the mix.
So while I don't have any problem with this company receiving contracts from the state of Vermont. Assuming their work is of good quality and they're being paid appropriate for the services they render (and I see no reason to assume otherwise), that part is fine.
The other part should be easy to understand. This is a company which has maxed out its donations to Brian Dubie, but is, additionally, providing an in-kind donation by using its truck fleet to advertise for him while doing work on behalf of the state.
Since writing the above, I learned more:
- Dubie has taken at least $9,593 from Debra Ricker, her husband and their businesses;
- The Rickers' businesses have been awarded six contracts to do road work for the Agency of Transportation since Jan. 2009, for a total of $2,314,897 in contract money;
- Governor Douglas appointed Debra Ricker to the Council of Economic Advisers;
- Governor Douglas appointed William Ricker to the Public Oversight Commission.
I offer the the following:
Dubie... hit Shumlin again when asked about an issue in the news Tuesday morning: that Shumlin had appointed supporter David Blittersdorf to the state’s Clean Energy Development Fund board, which went on to award Blittersdorf more than $4 million in tax credits for solar projects. Dubie said Shumlin should return the $8,000 that Blittersdorf and various companies he’s associated with contributed to Shumlin’s campaign.
Shumlin asked Blittserdorf to resign from that board, and he did. This was before he received any awards from the board. Did Dubie ask the Rickers to resign from their seats of power? Did Dubie think that he should return their money?
In one case, we have a Democrat who asked a man to resign from a board in order to avoid conflict of interest. On the other hand, we have a Republican who is being actively supported by someone who benefits directly from his administration and hasn't said a word about it.
Is it any surprise that no one is covering this but us?