Recently, top Republicans held a secret meeting to urge Libertarian Dan Feliciano to drop out of the governor’s race because they feel Feliciano is drawing votes away from GOP candidate Scott Milne.
The effort was unsuccessful, and points to a continuing rift between two factions of the Vermont Republican Party.
The existence of this secret meeting was first reported by Seven Days. Caledonia senator Joe Benning, GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott Milne and Libertarian candidate for governor Dan Feliciano were all at the meeting.
Recent polls suggest that Milne trails incumbent Democrat Peter Shumlin by roughly 12 points, and Feliciano drew about six percent of the vote.
The meeting was held to express concern that Feliciano’s support is coming at the expense of Milne. So Felicano was asked to drop out of the race to give Milne a clear shot at Shumlin. But Feliciano refused to leave the campaign.
Retired Middlebury College political science professor Eric Davis thinks senator Benning held the meeting as a way to help bridge an ongoing rift in the Republican Party.
"I think he [Benning] was thinking about the long term future of the Republican Party and some of the conflicts that have been evident in the Vermont Republican Party for the past year or so." - Retired Middlebury College political science professor Eric Davis
On one side is a moderate group of Republicans including Scott Milne, Phil Scott and Party chairman Dave Sunderland. On the other side, is a more conservative group that wants the Vermont GOP to more closely reflect the views of national Republicans in Congress.
“I think he [Benning] was thinking about the long term future of the Republican Party and some of the conflicts that have been evident in the Vermont Republican Party for the past year or so since there was a contested election for Party chair,” said Davis. “And there are different wings of the Party that have different views about what the Party strategy should be going forward.”
Davis thinks the moderate wing of the GOP will gain strength within the Party, if Milne runs a relatively close race, Lt. Governor Phil Scott wins re-election and the Republicans are able to gain some Legislative seats.
“That could be seen as a reasonable successful outcome for the Republican Party considering where they started from earlier this cycle,” said Davis.
GOP chairman Sunderland says he’s not surprised that the meeting took place. He thinks it represents an effort to broaden the base of the Party.
“It definitely shows the ability and willingness of Republicans to reach out to other mostly liked minded candidates,” said Sunderland. “To see if there’s a way that we can come together for the greater good."
Sunderland says that voter turnout will be a key factor in this year’s election and he hopes that his party’s efforts will result in the election of more Republicans at the Statehouse .
