Tight Finish Predicted For Gubernatorial Race

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(Host) Most political observers are predicting a very close finish among the top Democratic candidates running for governor.

The Vermont Democratic Party is preparing for the possibility that the race may be so close that one of the candidates calls for a recount – a process that could take weeks to complete.

VPR’s Bob Kinzel reports.

(Kinzel) On election night in 2006, it appeared that Republican Auditor Randy Brock had squeaked through in his bid to win re-election. Brock defeated Democratic candidate Tom Salmon by just 137 votes. 

Under state law, a challenger can request a recount if the margin of victory is less than two percent – in this case – the two candidates were virtually tied with 44.4 percent of the vote.  Salmon requested a recount and won by 102 votes.

Could this year’s 5 way race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination be so close that the second place finisher might request a recount?

Robert Dempsey is the executive director of the Vermont Democratic Party. He’s says Party officials are preparing for this possibility:         

(Dempsey) "We are weighing all of our options and preparing for all of the outcomes – again, regardless of the likelihood of the outcome, it’s definitely plausible that this scenario could come up."

(Kinzel) And Dempsey says there’s no informal agreement among the candidates not to ask for recount if the margin is very small:

(Dempsey) "Ultimately we really feel that that would go against the sanctity of the vote. In order to make sure that the will of our voters is properly expressed we want to make sure that whoever ends up with the most votes is elected."

(Kinzel) UVM political science professor Garrison Nelson says a recount would throw a monkey wrench into the Democrats’ plans to get the General Election campaign off to a fast start:

(Nelson) "What would be a problem would be the fact that you’d have likely two putative nominees and a lot of questions about ballots – and very time consuming, very expensive – and gives Brian Dubie even more of a head start than he already has."

(Kinzel) If the Democrats do a have recount, Nelson says it will be almost impossible for any of the candidates to raise money for the General Election for several weeks.  Under this scenario, Nelson expects that Senator Patrick Leahy, who has more than $3 million in cash sitting in the bank, would come to the rescue:

(Nelson) "He is a person who’s sitting on a vast chunk of change he is not facing serious opposition and he can basically donate money to the Party that will help them get through this."

(Kinzel) The Democrats are planning a unity rally on Wednesday afternoon and the first campaign debate with Republican candidate Brian Dubie is scheduled for Thursday night.

These events would most likely have to be put on hold if there’s a recount.

For VPR News, I’m Bob Kinzel in Montpelier.

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