(Host) Franklin County Republican Senator Randy Brock says he’ll run for governor in 2012.
Brock had been considering a race for treasurer. But he said he chose to challenge Governor Peter Shumlin because the Democrat is steering the state on a wrong course in the areas of health care, education and economic development.
VPR’s John Dillon has more.
(Dillon) The ornate Cedar Creek room at the Statehouse was packed with a Who’s Who of the state Republican Party. They were there to hear Randy Brock announce a run for higher office.
Brock had kept his plans quiet, indicating only that he was considering a run for treasurer, auditor or governor. And former Gov. Jim Douglas, also served as state treasurer, tried to keep the suspense going.
(Douglas) "Randy, whatever the announcement is today, perhaps it’s one of those offices I once held, I’m with you. Good luck!"
(Dillon) Brock said Shumlin is a good person who has made too many policy promises that the state can’t keep. He singled out the governor’s support for a single payer health system.
(Brock) "What the Shumlin Administration has given us is the prospect of a utopian single payer system and they won’t tell us what it will cost, what will be covered, and how it will impact our hospitals and doctors. Think of the illogic: how on earth can we say it save money when we don’t know what it costs."
(Dillon) Brock characterized Shumlin’s health care and energy agendas as untested ideas that could harm working Vermonters.
(Brock) "If my travels around the state have taught me anything it is this: Vermonters don’t want to live in a laboratory for change. They don’t want to be guinea pigs or lab rats in a grand social experiment."
(Dillon) Vermont does not have a record of turning out incumbents. And Brock acknowledged the challenge in taking on a popular, one term governor.
(Brock) "History is not on my side. No incumbent governor has been defeated in Vermont in half a century. Well, all I can say is it’s about time."
(Dillon) Brock has handicapped the race accurately, according to retired Middlebury College Political Science Professor Eric Davis. Besides the uphill fight against an incumbent, Davis says Brock will be running in a year that favors Vermont Democrats.
(Davis) "President Obama will do very well in Vermont regardless of how he does nationally. Bernie Sanders will do very well, and Peter Welch will be re-elected comfortably. So one of the things Randy Brock is going to have to do is convince voters that after having voted for two Democrats and a Democratic affiliated independent at the top of the ballot they then have to vote for a Republican candidate."
(Dillon) Davis said Brock may be able to turn the healthcare issue to his advantage but needs to differentiate his position from that of national Republicans.
(Davis) "Randy Brock’s challenge on healthcare, I believe, is going to be to suggest alternatives to a single payer program without being seen as supporting what the national Republicans, the Republicans in Congress, support. He can’t be seen as affiliated with policies such as repeal Obama care, raise the eligibility age for Medicare, turn Medicaid into a block grant. Those policies have no legs in Vermont."
(Dillon) The 68-year-old Brock brings a range of experience to his run for higher office. He’s a Vietnam veteran. He’s served as state auditor and now represents Franklin County in the Senate. A Middlebury College graduate, he also worked as a top executive for Fidelity Investments based in Boston.
For VPR News, I’m John Dillon in Montpelier.
Read the full text of Brock’s announcement here.