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Staying on message is an important political skill, and few in Vermont politics do it better than incumbent Gov. Jim Douglas.

Then again, few politicians can boast a $400,000-a-year communications A-team at their disposal, thanks to the taxes you and I pay.

And Republicans like Douglas say they oppose public financing of political campaigns. Sure they do.

Democrat Gaye Symington and Independent Anthony Pollina would like to have that kind of PR money kicking around — especially given their lackluster fundraising — to issue daily updates on their good deeds.... Read more

A leading Burlington Progressive says he is running for the Vermont Senate in the Democratic primary partly out of frustration with what he considers the sectarian attitudes of the two parties’ top officials.... Read more

With the Democratic National Convention underway, and the Republicans gearing up for Minneapolis next week, local political races are increasingly on Vermonters’ minds.

That explains the persistent questions I’ve been getting from readers: Will the Progressives fade as a party? Does Gaye Symington really know how to run a statewide campaign? What the hell is Anthony Pollina thinking?... Read more

It’s all about the Democrats this week, as the national convention presses toward its purpose: officially anointing Sen. Barack Obama as the party’s candidate to become, as politicians like to put it, the President of the United States of America! It remains to be seen, in November, whether the junior senator from Illinois will bag the national election as well. But meanwhile, one Vermont company is making sure Obama is on a bag, so to speak, and its product has accompanied the state’s official delegation to Denver.... Read more

Jen Berger has an ear for heart-wrenching tales. As director of the Burlington Peace & Justice Center’s 4-year-old “Recruiting for Peace” campaign, the 36-year-old activist travels to high schools around Vermont telling teens what recruiters won’t: that war is not nearly as fun as glossy Army press materials would have them think. While educating students about their right to “opt out” of school-sanctioned recruiter databases, Berger relays real-life stories from modern-day soldiers.... Read more

Although he retired from Middlebury College in December 2007, political scientist Eric Davis is still very much at the head of the class — the political class, that is.

But rather than the best and brightest minds on the Middlebury campus, where Davis taught for 27 years, his current students are reporters, politicians and the public.... Read more

City Councilor Paul Decelles has lived in Burlington’s New North End since he was a kid. As a youngster, he used to play wherever he pleased. But two years ago, after learning that a convicted sex offender lived down the block from his family’s home, Decelles started keeping closer tabs on his young daughter.... Read more

The already thinning ranks of Vermont journalism will get a little thinner this week, thanks to newsroom cuts at The Burlington Free Press, the state’s largest daily newspaper.

In all, six staffers at the Gannett-owned broadsheet will get the axe. Among the first to go was columnist Ed Shamy, who joined the Freeps as a metro editor in 1999.... Read more

Hysteria, said Elia Kazan, “is inflamed by mystery, suspicion and secrecy. Hard and exact facts will cool it.” Kazan was wrong about a lot of things — for instance, his decision to inflame anti-communist hysteria by naming names of alleged pinkos during McCarthy’s Hollywood inquisitions. But he was really wrong about this.

I come to this insight painfully, having spent almost three decades carrying buckets of facts to try to quell America’s blazing sex panic. But as I witness the latest flare-up of panic in Vermont, I conclude: Facts have nothing to do with it.... Read more

It’s August, the time when many Vermonters pack up and hit the road to enjoy what’s left of summer.

Undaunted by a tanking economy and near $4-per-gallon gas, my family headed to Acadia National Park for a weeklong camping trip. Early August on Mount Desert Island usually means sun, and lots of it. But the coast of Maine has been hit with the same rainy weather that Vermont has. Still, we managed to soak up a few rays between the raindrops.... Read more