We Have A Winner!!

I thought this was going to be easy for any of the regular readers who follow the antics of Vermont's "small community" of secessionists. Who knew that it'd take five frickin' days to name Rob Williams as the "Vermont Secessionist Who Has Won Any Elective Office In Vermont?"

You see, a few years ago Rob won a seat on the Waitsfield Elementary School Board. Oddly, even with (or perhaps because of) Champlain College's media expert's presence, perfesser Rob Williams, Waitsfield has one of the crappiest websites in the state. The elementary school website isn't much better. But I did learn Rob's secret for getting elected to an office in a town where everyone knows that you're a secesher nutter - run for an office no one else wants.

It's a tried and true path first blazed by evangelical christian activists in the 1990s, based on a plan devised by Pat Robertson, Ralph Reed and Gary Bauer, if memory serves. Ruth Dwyer, a bit before Rob's time here, followed that playbook and see how far it got her in a state like Vermont.

But I'm just babbling on and on here and what you all really want to know is who got the correct answer. Unsurprisingly, it was a former secesher insider who'd been, as I recall, drummed off the island for questioning the blatant secesher crazy going on in the 2010 election cycle - ntodd.

His correct answer was, "Oh wait, is it Rob? Isn't he on (a) school board or something?"

I've decided (because I can) to offer a prize despite having said I wouldn't. For obvious reasons I can't deliver it personally so ntodd can pick up the free Ben & Jerry's ice cream cone I'm giving him at any Ben & Jerry's outlet on April 3, 2013.

There was one emailed answer that offered the name of a former secessionist who'd smartened up and left the fold but that didn't really fit the criteria of the question so, unfortunately, I couldn't name that entrant as a winner. I will give Dave an honorable mention though and throw in a cone as well - same deal; pick it up next year.

So bask in the moment, ntodd (and the cone if you get it) - you've earned it!

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