Vermont’s Lark Bunting, Dick Mazza

In a five year study of the Lark Bunting, scientists found the birds seemed to select companions for varying traits from year to year. One year they found selections were based on beak size, and the next year this choice was based on plumage. Following years it was smaller body size and the next year the trend might be reversed. Researchers also think this behavior might be found in other species.

Dick Mazza a middle of the road Vermont state senator from Colchester is displaying some of the distinctive traits of the female Lark Bunting, but all in one election year! In September, he let it be known he didn’t expect to weigh in for one Vermont gubernatorial candidate or the other.
Eventually, but with no commitment made, he took to displaying a little Democratic Shumlin plumage on his lawn in the form of a yard sign.

Now the Burlington Free Press observes his behavior takes another turn after a courting visit to Mazza’s General Store:

Mazza agrees to let [Republican Brian]Dubie plant his own sign in the yard. While Dubie is outside doing that, back inside the store Mazza says he’ll be supporting Shumlin.

The following field observation might have been made from afar with binoculars.

Dubie heads to the back of the store, where Mazza is in his office. After they chat about the need to extend the Amtrak rail line from St. Albans to Montreal, Mazza gets firm with Dubie about the tone of the governor’s race.

Back in the minivan, asked what he thinks of Mazza’s support for Shumlin, Dubie says, “I’m glad he said I could put a sign out.”

Li’l Dubie Dirty Tricks?

Nixon had Zeigretti and the Rat F@%kers, George H W “Poppy” Bush had Lee Atwater but what has Brian Dubie got going?

We cling to the idea that Vermont campaigns are different but could Dubie’s green shirted supporters, or though unlikely his campaign manager Cory Bliss have taken a page from those days or maybe the more recent exploits of conservative activist James O’Keefe?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/us/politics/27landrieu.html?_r=1
Saturday the Bennington Banner reported about a man dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit sporting a fake swastika tattoo claiming to be named “Horton” (an obvious reference to Lee Atwater’s infamous Willie Horton ad) showed up a Shumlin rally. The man carried a sign saying “Convicts for Shumlin”.The Dubie campaign for several weeks has been fear mongering and making questionable at best and perhaps false arguments against Shumlin’s proposed plans for the corrections department.

The man in the prison outfit, who identified himself as "John Horton," claimed to be an ex-con who had served time for possessing "a small amount" of marijuana. However, he also was in attendance at a campaign event several weeks ago for GOP gubernatorial nominee Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie at the Bennington County GOP headquarters on South Street.
"Horton," who appears to be Kurtis Stevens in a profile on the social network Website Facebook, claimed he was a supporter of Shumlin's because Shumlin, the Senate president pro tem, would release inmates early.

Peter Shumlin spoke briefly with “Horton” at Democratic headquarters after speaking to supporters at the rally. Dubie campaign officials denied any knowledge of any of this disturbing performance. Interestingly though there is a connection to the Bennington GOP to another stunt at the event.

A second man parked a large camper outfitted with Dubie signs directly in front of the Bennington County Democratic headquarters for several minutes shortly before Shumlin's event. He also has been present at previous Dubie events in Bennington.
The camper is owned by Kirby Wright, who also owns the building housing the Bennington County GOP headquarters.

Sounding the claxon of fear

What’s a supposedly nice guy like Vermont gubernatorial candidate Brian Dubie doing in a campaign like this? He is running around saying IBM told him they will leave Vermont due to higher power rates. However in the Free Press IBM spokesman Jeff Couture clearly denies that.

“I don’t think we’ve said anything about moving jobs specifically around the electricity goals,” Couture said. “There was nothing specific, or an ultimatum.”

Dubie’s recent radio ad says that Peter Shumlin will “fire three hundred correctional officers ... and release close to 800 nonviolent criminals from prison,” This new fear based effort comes a day after the Vermont Troopers Association endorsed Shumlin over Dubie.

Why wasn’t our man Dubie sounding the claxon of fear in 2009 when this was proposed:

“We need to continue to identify and implement new strategies that will protect our families and the safety of our communities by focusing on reintegrating property and drug offenders into the community and preserving prison beds for the most serious offenders,”

That is from a Douglas/Dubie administration plan which you might think the Lt. Gov would have passing familiarity with.

Will credibility be an issue if Dubie and his win-at-all-cost campaign team keep this up?
He is running on empty if all he has to run on is fear.