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Vermont
In Vermont’s most competitive Senate races, 10 wealthy families contributed one-third of GOP candidates’ donations – VTDigger
In Vermont’s five most competitive state Senate races, 10 generous families contributed more than one-third of all campaign donations to the Republican nominees, as of an Oct. 15 filing deadline.
Democrats in those five races, by comparison, can thank their top 10 highest individual contributors — among them, the candidates themselves and their family members — for one-fifth of their total fundraising numbers as of mid-October. That’s according to a VTDigger analysis of campaign finance data for the Caledonia, Chittenden North, Grand Isle, Orange and Orleans district races.
None of the five Republican nominees — Scott Beck, Chris Mattos, Pat Brennan, Larry Hart and Sam Douglass — are Senate incumbents, who historically have steep advantages, both at the polls and in fundraising. Beck, Mattos and Brennan are, however, current members of the Vermont House.
These races are widely seen as the GOP’s best opportunities to flip Democratic districts in the Senate and crack the latter party’s two-thirds supermajority. There are currently 23 Democrats and Progressives in the chamber and just seven Republicans.
GOP Gov. Phil Scott has been campaigning to support these down-ballot Republicans, telling Vermonters that his agenda depends on denting the Dems’ numbers. To reliably sustain his vetoes, Republicans would have to flip four seats.
For 10 wealthy families, that potential outcome is worth dropping a substantial amount of cash.
Take, for instance, the five Republican candidates’ greatest familial benefactors: the Pizzagallis, who made their fortune in construction and real estate development. Four members of the family — Angelo, James, Jon and Remo Pizzagalli — each contributed about $1,000 to all five of the Republican Senate candidates. (Nineteen of the family’s 20 contributions to those five faces were for $1,000 exactly. The sole exception was the $960.60 Jon Pizzagalli donated to Hart of Orange County.)
In an election in which Vermont’s rising cost of living and tax burden have dominated campaign trail rhetoric, Vermont Democratic Party executive director Jim Dandeneau said that these high-dollar donations suggest it’s Vermont’s wealthiest who are driving the conversation — not everyday Vermonters.
“The Republicans have tried to portray this as some kind of organic uprising about Democrats in Montpelier, and that’s not the case,” he said. “Democrats have spent the last eight years talking about building a Vermont that works for everybody, and not just the wealthy few. And the wealthy few are pretty upset about that, apparently.”
Scott’s campaign manager, Jason Maulucci, said he disagreed. “Talk to almost any member of their caucus,” he said of the Democrats. “Many of them have said it’s the number one issue they’re hearing when they’re going door-to-door.”
“To suggest that regular Vermonters aren’t feeling the pinch from higher property taxes and a new payroll tax, increased DMV fees, potentially seeing their home heating fuel costs go up billions of dollars — to suggest that they don’t care would be pretty tone-deaf,” Maulucci said.
Vermont’s campaign contribution limit from a single source, meaning an individual or a political action committee, is $1,680 for state Senate candidates, according to the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office. But that doesn’t mean families can’t coordinate their efforts to maximize their impact on local races.
The Pizzagallis are not alone in seeking to change the balance of power in the Senate.
In its data analysis, VTDigger cross-referenced identical last names and addresses (as well as a number of common spelling irregularities) in campaign finance records to calculate the impact of Vermont’s wealthiest individual donors on the most closely watched legislative races. The totals may undercount total donations from these families, since not all members may share the same last name.
Five people with the last name Tarrant — related to Richard Tarrant, the founder of health care technology company IDX, philanthropist and 2006 Republican Senate nominee — donated more than $14,000 to four of the five Republican candidates. (To date, Mattos has not received a single check from a Tarrant.) Beck received the greatest amount of support from five members of the family, totalling $5,000, though none of them report living in Caledonia County, where Beck is running.
In total, the 10 families contributed 34% of all individual contributions to the five Republicans, as of October 15. The families’ cumulative contributions ranged from the Pizzagallis’ near-$20,000, to roughly $5,000 from Mark and Rick Bove, whose family operated the since-shuttered Bove’s Cafe in Burlington, owns the eponymous pasta sauce company and whose real estate empire has drawn negative headlines in recent years.
Several of the major donor families are involved in Vermont’s real estate industry, but not all.
The Ortons, who contributed nearly $7,000 to four of the five GOP candidates as of Oct. 15, founded the Vermont Country Store. The Dubruls, who distributed $5,000 among three campaigns, own and operate the Automasters car dealership enterprise. Paul Plunkett, a veteran executive of Hickok & Boardman Insurance Group, is the New England manager for the national insurance company Acrisure; he and his wife, Gina Plunkett (whose maiden name is Pizzagalli), together donated a total of $5,000 to Beck, Brennan, Douglass and Mattos.
As of Oct. 15, half of the 10 families had donated to all five Republican candidates; four donated to four; and one to three.
Another round of campaign finance reports were due to the Secretary of State’s Office by midnight Friday, after this story was published. The reports filed by publication time suggested that the families still had more cash to spare. In their Nov. 1 filings, Hart reported receiving $1,000 from Steele Dubrul of Shelburne and $960.60 from Eliot Orton of Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
To Dandeneau, the pattern of giving suggests some level of coordination between these high-rollers, a situation that is hardly uncommon. Maulucci, too, said, “It’s clear that they’re talking to each other.”
“There’s a group of those business folks who are upset with the direction that the state’s going,” Maulucci said. “Not all of them are Republicans even, and they are trying to make a difference and give support to candidates they think will be more focused on making Vermont more affordable.”
What is different this time around, Dandeneau said, is Scott’s involvement in down-ballot races.
“This is Phil Scott making a play for a more pliable legislature, and he’s tapping into the folks who have historically funded his races,” he said, adding, “If we had 10 ungodly wealthy families on our side, I’d be doing the same thing for our people.”
Maulucci acknowledged that the Scott campaign had been in contact with some of the families, noting that many of them had contributed to his campaign, as well.
“Often they’re asking us who we think are in competitive races, so we point to candidates that the governor is supporting,” Maulucci said. “And obviously, there’s been a lot of public attention to the Senate being particularly competitive, and the governor’s been on the stump campaigning for those candidates. So folks who have given to the governor and want to help out the governor might put two and two together and support some of those candidates.”
The Pizzagallis have donated more than $15,000 to Scott this cycle. Former Wall Street executive and gubernatorial candidate Bruce Lisman has sent $2,500 his way.
Calls to members of several of the donor families were not returned.
VTDigger also analyzed comparable data from the five Democrats running for these seats: Amanda Cochrane in the Caledonia district, Irene Wrenner in Chittenden North, Andy Julow in Grand Isle, Mark MacDonald in Orange and Katherine Sims in Orleans. Wrenner, Julow and MacDonald are incumbents (though Julow was only appointed to fill a vacancy in May). Sims is a member of the House.
Excluding contributions from the Vermont Democratic Party and political action committees (the Vermont NEA Fund, for instance, provided the maximum allowable contributions to Cochrane, Julow and Sims), Democrats’ major supporters contributed noticeably less money to hold onto the five Senate seats. While the Republicans’ top 10 donor families contributed at least $80,000 across five races, Democrats collected just $22,000 from their top supporters.
“Not that our money came exclusively from small-dollar donations, but the bulk of our money was raised through nose-to-the-grindstone hustle, and not 10 phone calls,” Dandeneau said.
Four out of 10 of those top contributing families, however, were related to the candidates — or included the candidates themselves. Julow, for instance, donated or loaned himself more than $10,000 of his own money as of Oct. 15; his wife, Kim Julow, donated another $1,000 to his effort. Sims and her family members contributed roughly $4,500 to hers. Wrenner loaned herself $2,050. And Cochrane’s husband, John Raser, and her mother-in-law, Gail Raser, sent a combined $1,850 to the first-time candidate.
Republicans’ fundraising totals in the five races eclipse those of their Democratic counterparts when taking into account smaller donations, too. In total, Republicans raised $235,000 across all five races, compared to Democrats’ $166,000, as of the filing of their Oct. 15 reports.
One ripple effect of major donors’ input into these races is becoming clear: The grand total amount of money raised per state Senate race appears to be climbing.
In the Chittenden North district, first-term Democrat Wrenner raised $16,000 in 2022, and $18,000 by Oct. 15. By that time in 2022, her Republican challenger, former state Rep. Leland Morgan, raised a comparable amount: $17,000.
This year, Wrenner’s challenger, Mattos, raised more than twice that by Oct. 15: $41,000.
“It is surprising,” Dandeneau said of the jump. “It’s completely out of the ordinary.”
He added, “It remains to be seen if this is a blip or a trend. I would like to say that it’s a blip. I’m concerned that it’s a trend.”
Vermont
Vermont’s men’s soccer national title was unprecendented. Dalen Cuff rose to the occasion on the call. – The Boston Globe
“They were not just happy to be there,” said Dalen Cuff, who called Vermont’s 2-1 overtime victory over Marshall on ESPN2 last Monday night. “They felt like a team on a mission and they were. Their mind-set was, ‘We will be forgotten if we don’t win the whole thing.’ I think they were just very salient in the fact that if we win the whole thing, then we hit legendary status. And they were right.”
So when the Catamounts achieved what might have been a stunning outcome to just about everyone outside of their own locker room, prevailing on Max Kissel’s golden goal in the 95th minute, Cuff’s exceptional call included acknowledging the Catamounts’ own we’ve-got-this, no-glass-slipper-necessary mentality.
“Oh my gosh! They do it!” exclaimed Cuff as Kissel’s goal rolled toward the net. “Don’t call them Cinderella! You can call them national champs!”
Vermont’s victory and how it occurred made the Catamounts an instant social media sensation, and the buzz carried through much of the week. On Tuesday, the match drove conversation on such shows as ESPN’s “Around The Horn,” where host Tony Reali declared it the best sporting event of the year.
I told Cuff – whom locals may remember from his time at Comcast SportsNet New England nearly a decade ago — that watching the end of the championship match reminded me of what it felt like when Doug Flutie’s Hail Mary found Gerard Phelan to lift Boston College over Miami in November 1984.
“It’s funny you mention the Flutie thing,” said Cuff, who has called four NCAA men’s soccer finals for ESPN. “When I grew up, I had the VHS tape, ‘Great Sports Moments of the ‘80s.’ One of them was the Flutie play, with the radio call: ‘He did it! He did it! Flutie did it’!
“I never thought I’d be the voice of any type of unforgettable moment, especially since I started my career as an analyst.
“I’ve heard people like Al Michaels or Mike Tirico or Joe Buck talk about when you’re calling something that has a chance to be an incredible moment, or when you’re calling a championship, ‘Do you think about it in advance? Do you rehearse?’ The weird thing is, I don’t think you can in soccer, where one moment that can define the game can happen at any time.”
Cuff said he just instinctively went with what was already on his mind.
“And what was on my mind was that they found it practically offensive to be called Cinderella,” he said. “Their point of view was, ‘We’ve won more games than anybody in this tournament the last few years. We know we’re a small school from America East, but we’re not Cinderella.’
“So we mentioned that during the broadcast a couple of times, and so in the moment I communicated that they’ll never be considered Cinderella again. Just call them champs.”
Cuff acknowledged that he didn’t quite grasp how much the championship match and Vermont’s team was resonating with sports fans until the next day.
“I walked out of there in kind of a stupor,” he said. “Not that they won, but more like, ‘I can’t believe that happened.’ The way it went down. I was kind of dumbfounded for a couple of hours, and I don’t think I understood the response and how many people watched and appreciated what they’d seen. I realized Tuesday with all of the talk about the game and people texting me how much people gravitated toward this.”
The championship aired on ESPN2 in the spot in which the “ManningCast” would normally be on as the alternate broadcast of “Monday Night Football.” But there was no show last Monday.
“Shout out to the Manning brothers for taking the week off,” said Cuff with a laugh. “Thank you for that. I’m sure some people tuned in thinking the ‘ManningCast’ was on, stuck around, and got this unbelievable game.
“I do think where it’s on television matters. It was on ESPN2 for the first time since I’ve been calling it. I think random people stumbled across the game. I recognized that part instantly. When you walk into a bar, ESPN is likely on TV. ESPNU is not likely to be on. So the platform made a difference.”
…
Jim Donaldson, an important member of an outstanding Providence Journal sports section for nearly four decades, died Thursday morning at age 73. Donaldson never smoothed the edges of his opinions as a writer, particularly when it came to the Patriots, and was a friendly companion in the press box. I enjoyed his wry sense of humor as a frequent weekend host on WEEI back in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. Even after his retirement in 2016, he remained an engaging — and opinionated, of course — presence on social media. I’ll miss hearing from him . . . Expect the Red Sox to announce their broadcast booths for both NESN and WEEI at Fenway Fest — an even kinder, gentler version of Winter Weekend, apparently on Saturday, Jan. 11. Dave O’Brien (NESN) and Will Flemming (WEEI) will remain in their play-by-play roles, but some other specifics are still being worked out.
Chad Finn can be reached at chad.finn@globe.com. Follow him @GlobeChadFinn.
Vermont
Vermont’s men’s soccer national title was unprecedented. Dalen Cuff rose to the occasion on the call.
Media
The University of Vermont men’s soccer team — excuse me, make that the national champion University of Vermont men’s soccer team — was undeniably an underdog along its now-storied journey.
The Catamounts were ranked No. 17 and unseeded entering the NCAA Tournament. Even as an exceptional America East program, they don’t have the resources to match the big programs from the Big Ten and Atlantic Coast Conference.
Underdog? Accurate assessment. Just don’t tell the Catamounts themselves that they were a Cinderella story, as if their success required some sort of fairy-tale caliber intervention. For one thing, Cinderella doesn’t wear flannel, as the Vermont players were prone to do when they took the field for warm-ups. For another, they were certain they could beat anyone, even while the final chapters of its extraordinary and ultimately fulfilled quest were still being written.
“They were not just happy to be there,” said Dalen Cuff, who called Vermont’s 2-1 overtime victory over Marshall on ESPN2 last Monday night. “They felt like a team on a mission and they were. Their mind-set was, ‘We will be forgotten if we don’t win the whole thing.’ I think they were just very salient in the fact that if we win the whole thing, then we hit legendary status. And they were right.”
So when the Catamounts achieved what might have been a stunning outcome to just about everyone outside of their own locker room, prevailing on Max Kissel’s golden goal in the 95th minute, Cuff’s exceptional call included acknowledging the Catamounts’ own we’ve-got-this, no-glass-slipper-necessary mentality.
“Oh my gosh! They do it!” exclaimed Cuff as Kissel’s goal rolled toward the net. “Don’t call them Cinderella! You can call them national champs!”
Vermont’s victory and how it occurred made the Catamounts an instant social media sensation, and the buzz carried through much of the week. On Tuesday, the match drove conversation on such shows as ESPN’s “Around The Horn,” where host Tony Reali declared it the best sporting event of the year.
I told Cuff – whom locals may remember from his time at Comcast SportsNet New England nearly a decade ago — that watching the end of the championship match reminded me of what it felt like when Doug Flutie’s Hail Mary found Gerard Phelan to lift Boston College over Miami in November 1984.
“It’s funny you mention the Flutie thing,” said Cuff, who has called four NCAA men’s soccer finals for ESPN. “When I grew up, I had the VHS tape, ‘Great Sports Moments of the ‘80s.’ One of them was the Flutie play, with the radio call: ‘He did it! He did it! Flutie did it’!
“I never thought I’d be the voice of any type of unforgettable moment, especially since I started my career as an analyst.
“I’ve heard people like Al Michaels or Mike Tirico or Joe Buck talk about when you’re calling something that has a chance to be an incredible moment, or when you’re calling a championship, ‘Do you think about it in advance? Do you rehearse?’ The weird thing is, I don’t think you can in soccer, where one moment that can define the game can happen at any time.”
Cuff said he just instinctively went with what was already on his mind.
“And what was on my mind was that they found it practically offensive to be called Cinderella,” he said. “Their point of view was, ‘We’ve won more games than anybody in this tournament the last few years. We know we’re a small school from America East, but we’re not Cinderella.’
“So we mentioned that during the broadcast a couple of times, and so in the moment I communicated that they’ll never be considered Cinderella again. Just call them champs.”
Cuff acknowledged that he didn’t quite grasp how much the championship match and Vermont’s team was resonating with sports fans until the next day.
“I walked out of there in kind of a stupor,” he said. “Not that they won, but more like, ‘I can’t believe that happened.’ The way it went down. I was kind of dumbfounded for a couple of hours, and I don’t think I understood the response and how many people watched and appreciated what they’d seen. I realized Tuesday with all of the talk about the game and people texting me how much people gravitated toward this.”
The championship aired on ESPN2 in the spot in which the “ManningCast” would normally be on as the alternate broadcast of “Monday Night Football.” But there was no show last Monday.
“Shout out to the Manning brothers for taking the week off,” said Cuff with a laugh. “Thank you for that. I’m sure some people tuned in thinking the ‘ManningCast’ was on, stuck around, and got this unbelievable game.
“I do think where it’s on television matters. It was on ESPN2 for the first time since I’ve been calling it. I think random people stumbled across the game. I recognized that part instantly. When you walk into a bar, ESPN is likely on TV. ESPNU is not likely to be on. So the platform made a difference.”
…
Jim Donaldson, an important member of an outstanding Providence Journal sports section for nearly four decades, died Thursday morning at age 73. Donaldson never smoothed the edges of his opinions as a writer, particularly when it came to the Patriots, and was a friendly companion in the press box. I enjoyed his wry sense of humor as a frequent weekend host on WEEI back in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. Even after his retirement in 2016, he remained an engaging — and opinionated, of course — presence on social media. I’ll miss hearing from him . . . Expect the Red Sox to announce their broadcast booths for both NESN and WEEI at Fenway Fest — an even kinder, gentler version of Winter Weekend, apparently on Saturday, Jan. 11. Dave O’Brien (NESN) and Will Flemming (WEEI) will remain in their play-by-play roles, but some other specifics are still being worked out.
UVM men’s soccer celebrates National Championship with home fans
The 2024 D-I men’s soccer National Champions, Vermont returned home to celebrate the first title in program and school history with fans.
How did University of Vermont men’s and women’s basketball teams fare during its final games before the holiday break? Read below for schedule, scores and stats from the Catamount basketball programs.
SATURDAY, DEC. 21
Women’s basketball
Vermont at Princeton, noon
Men’s basketball
Vermont at Dartmouth, noon
Contact Alex Abrami at aabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter: @aabrami5.
Contact Judith Altneu at jaltneu@gannett.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter: @Judith_Altneu.
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