Governor Jim Douglas says he will not campaign next year against the re-election of U.S. Senator Jim Jeffords. The Republican governor says that he and Jeffords have been good friends for decades and that he believes Jeffords has done a great job as a senator. Douglas says that friendship trumps partisan politics.
Jeffords was a lifelong Republican who left the Republican Party in 2001 because of unhappiness with the Bush administration policies. The Republican Party hopes to run a strong candidate against Jeffords next year but Douglas says he will not help in any effort to defeat Jeffords.
His comments were made in an interview on Monday with the Valley News newspaper.