Republican Criticism Targets Deb Markowitz

Print More
MP3

(Host) The five-way contest for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination took a partisan turn this week: Republicans are attacking Democrat Deb Markowitz.

As VPR’s John Dillon reports, the criticism didn’t come from another candidate for governor.

(Dillon) In debates and campaign forums, the five Democratic gubernatorial candidates almost always play nice. They profess to be friends, and they usually refrain from direct attacks on their opponents’ positions or job performance.

Jason Gibbs feels no such restraint.  He’s a Republican running in a primary for secretary of state. And he’s unleashed a withering critique of Secretary of State Deb Markowitz over problems that surfaced recently with early voting and the statewide voter checklist.

(Gibbs) "In each case the incumbent’s focus was on deflecting responsibility from the problems that they had instead of solving them. And I believe that’s principally because she’s pursuing another office and not focused on the one she has right now."

(Dillon) Ballots in some areas were not immediately available when voters went to town clerks’ offices last week. The problem was a printing error, and it was fixed without taxpayers’ expense. But Gibbs said Markowitz knew of the mistake on July 2nd but failed to immediately correct it. He also said some town clerks could not access the statewide voter checklist because of computer glitches.

(Gibbs) "I think that what’s most concerning about the statewide voter checklist and the ballots in particular is that when there was a problem, she immediately threw the town clerks under the bus."

(Dillon) But Gibbs insisted he is not criticizing Markowitz personally but is trying to show how he would run the office differently. And he said he has not coordinated his strategy with Lieutenant Governor Brian Dubie, the GOP gubernatorial candidate.

Eric Davis, retired political science professor at Middlebury College, says Gibbs is advancing his own political agenda – and helping the Republican Party along the way.

Davis says Gibbs hopes to gain attention to his primary campaign against Republican lawyer Chris Roy. The broadside against Markowitz gets him publicity, Davis says.

(Davis) "If one of the consequences of Mr. Gibbs putting out this press release today is that Secretary of State Deb Markowtiz has to spend some of her time responding to Jason Gibbs’ allegations, instead of making the case for her own campaign for governor, and if some Republicans think that Markowtiz is the putative frontrunner in the Democratic race, which she may or may not be, that would perhaps work a little bit to the advantage of Brian Dubie in the fall campaign."

(Dillon) Markowitz has said any problems with voting were immediately corrected. And her campaign says Gibbs is simply serving as the Republican attack dog. Paul Tencher is Markowitz’s campaign manager. He points out that last week’s campaign finance reports show Markowitz with a lead in fundraising.

(Tencher) "I think that the Republican Party quite saw the strength of Deb last week, saw our momentum, and Jason Gibbs is taking some shots at us for Brian Dubie, who obviously is worried about this fall’s coming election."

(Dillon) The blast from Gibbs was not the only criticism from Republicans over the early voting glitches. Gibbs’ former boss – Governor Jim Douglas – had this to say last week.

(Douglas) "It’s disappointing. Folks showed up Monday morning in some communities and the ballots weren’t there. I don’t understand why there wasn’t an announcement of some kind maybe at the end of last week saying they’d be delayed in some places."

(Dillon) Douglas was asked whose fault was it? Markowitz’s, or the Legislature, which moved up the date of the primary.

(Douglas) "Well, the Democrats." (laughter)

(Dillon) As if anyone needs to be reminded, it’s the Democrats who hold the majority in the Legislature.

For VPR News, I’m John Dillon in Montpelier.

Vist VPR’s 2010 Gubernatorial Candidate interview page

Comments are closed.