3 Vermont governors back Republican John Rodgers’ bid for lieutenant governor  – VTDigger

John Rodgers, the Republican candidate for Vermont lieutenant governor, announced endorsements Wednesday from the state’s three most recent governors — among them, notably, former Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin. 

Rodgers has already been backed publicly by the state’s current chief executive,  Republican Gov. Phil Scott. But in a press release Wednesday, Rodgers, who is vying to unseat the office’s Progressive/Democratic incumbent, David Zuckerman, said he also has the backing of Shumlin and former Republican Gov. Jim Douglas. 

In the release, Rodgers’ campaign framed the endorsement as “unprecedented” bipartisan support for a candidate seeking the state’s second-highest office. But the party dynamics, Shumlin contended in an interview on Wednesday, are “murky.”

The former three-term governor pointed to how Rodgers identified as a Democrat while serving for nearly two decades in the Legislature, only running as a Republican when he announced his bid for lieutenant governor earlier this year. (Rodgers has hesitated to fully embrace the GOP label himself, he said recently.) And Shumlin noted, as well,  how Zuckerman has long allied himself with the Vermont Progressive Party. 

“Let’s remember that one of them’s a Democrat, and the other one’s a Progressive, in my view,” Shumlin said, adding that he thinks Rodgers’ messaging is more in line with the majority of voters on one of this year’s most animating issues — affordability. 

“You won’t find a more dedicated, logical individual who understands working Vermonters better than John Rodgers,” Shumlin said. He said that includes voters who have “common sense,” are “hard working,” have “limited incomes” and are “watching property taxes.” 

Shumlin added that Rodgers, who owns a stonework and excavation business, also “can build you the straightest, most beautiful stone wall you’ve ever seen.”

Both Zuckerman and Rodgers are also farmers, and the two have clashed repeatedly on the campaign trail over the details of their backgrounds as they both seek to appeal to working-class voters.

Rodgers, like Scott, has been deeply critical of the Legislature’s Democratic leadership in debates and other forums this fall. Asked if he shared those sentiments, too, Shumlin contended that, “I don’t agree with John Rodgers on everything.” 

“This is not an indictment of anybody,” he said, referring to his endorsement.

Shumlin’s backing comes less than a week before Election Day on Nov. 5. The former governor said Rodgers reached out to him seeking his endorsement, and the two finally connected this week, a conversation that spurred Shumlin to declare his support. 

While Shumlin is perhaps the highest-profile Democrat to endorse Rodgers, Rodgers has a number of GOP backers, too. That includes Rep. Casey Toof, R-St. Albans, who is also Rodgers’ campaign manager, as well as John Klar, a firebrand writer and farmer from Brookfield who’s campaigned heavily on culture war issues in the past.

Reached by phone Wednesday, Zuckerman pointed to his own slate of endorsements, including from another former Democratic governor, Madeleine Kunin, as well as from the prominent environmental activist, Bill McKibben. He also highlighted his support from Vermont Conservation Voters, an environmental group, and a number of unions, including the Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO.

The lieutenant governor, who is seeking his fourth term this year, also has support from numerous Democratic leaders in the Statehouse. 

“I have fought long and hard to increase the minimum wage and fight for universal health care,” Zuckerman said, asked to respond to Shumlin’s comments about working voters, “so that everyday Vermonters would be better off.”