In and Out; the Loser Edition

The outcome of the 2015 Burlington, VT mayoral election was never in doubt; the only question was how strongly would the Democratic incumbent, Miro Weinberger win by and how badly would the Vermont secession flack Greg Guma lose by.

Weinberger defeated Guma by a factor of ten, garnering more than two thirds of the votes cast. Guma's distant third place showing was only matched by the last place loser who's campaign consisted primarily of hanging out at a coffee shop. Guma credits his miserable showing to "Matt for the strategic intelligence and social media savvy." That would likely be Matt Cropp who has yet to run an open campaign that was ever been even remotely successful. My personal favorite campaign was his stint as campaign manager for the 2010 secesher gubernatorial candidate Dennis Steele for whom far fewer than one percent of Vermont registered voters cast a ballot. Subsequently, Cropp penned a not quite concession posting that promised a lot for the future, declared Hancock, VT to be the secesher provisional capital, and then disappeared until his next electoral loss. Cropp went on to lose a bid for a board seat at City Market and for a local credit union. The Guma shellacking will be another significant notch on Matt's electoral guns.

Maybe Matt can craft a Guma concession message that proposes an outsized role for Guma in the next three years of the Weinberger administration. Certainly as the only candidate to run a negative ad in the campaign, Guma's earned something.

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In and Out - Part IV

Two weeks ago when I reported that Greg Guma's doomed to failure campaign for the office of mayor of Burlington (the usual result of Guma's several campaigns for public office) was on again I noted that Guma was setting out with a negative campaign style. That was hardly surprising given that Guma is a Vermont secession flack and dabbles in Vermont secesher historical revisionism. Secessionists and their allies are notoriously negative in their endeavors, laying on lots of hate to make their point. Proving so, Guma began his campaign by calling an opponent a "Republicrat," a pejorative from the Burlington political scene of the 80s. Vermont secessionists are promoting Guma's campaign as an "INSURGENCY" at their hate site (no link will be provided to the hate site).

For a little history, Greg Guma's first press conference on Friday, Feb. 6 was a flop. Described by Seven Day's Alicia Freese as "sparsely attended," Guma's presser elicited no public interest. Stung by this perhaps, Guma launched his first video ad that he admits is "reminiscent" of an attack style. Using wildly out of scale graphics to represent potential development on Burlington's waterfront, Guma's ad uses an ominous sounding, "in-a-world" style narration, including a target placed over the present mayor's face followed by a gunshot. You can read more about the ad here and see the target on Mayor Weinberger's face here. As a result of the outcry from the public, Guma has deleted his Palinesque target and gunshot, the only acknowledgement of which may be this vaguely worded, "(The ad) has been edited to comply with campaign regulations" on his campaign website.

Perhaps criticism of Guma's ad was best said by Burlington City Council president Joan Shannon in an email to the press that labeled Guma's ad claims as "absurd and inaccurate," adding,

"I urge Greg Guma to stop airing the ad immediately, so we can go back to the kind of honest, fair, civil debate that Burlingtonians expect from their politicians. Debating the issues and visions for Burlington is an appropriate debate to engage in. Putting a target on anyone’s head followed by the sound of a shot is something we all should be speaking up against, no matter our views on the mayor or development."

Here, here.

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For the archive of the Free Vermont Framework listserv, click here.