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.”