News – Politics – Opinion – Podcasts
Rob Roper 
Vermont will not survive another Democrat/Progressive supermajority Forgive me if you feel like you’ve heard this before in these pages, but it needs to be said again on this eve of election day: Democrat/Progressive/Bernie-Socialist politicians have ruled Vermont virtually unchecked for decades, and the results have been nothing short of disastrous. In Vermont, the only … Read more
This is no surprise, as for nearly the full two years since VT Democrats got walloped in the 2024 elections, I and many others have been observing that their only plan to regain power (running on their bat-crazy agenda not being a viable option) is to shriek “Orange Man Bad!” Then hope enough Vermont voters … Read more
“We can’t solve today’s problems with the same thinking that created them,” says Democrat/Progressive gubernatorial candidate Amanda Janoo, repeatedly in her campaign’s closing arguments. Totally agree! That’s why we shouldn’t vote for this woman. Her entire policy agenda reflects the same failed thinking that created the problems we face today. Her flagship campaign promise is … Read more
Vermonters are sharing stories of receiving ballots for the dead and gone. During COVID, Vermont started mailing absentee ballots to every voter on the statewide checklist (exceptions for those formally challenged) for general elections automatically and without request. The problem with this (well, one of the many problems) – as has been pointed out repeatedly … Read more
The Vermont Climate Council – you remember that costly yet useless body of unelected (mostly) nut-jobs established by the Global Warming Solutions Act to come up with plans to tank our economy in a half-assed kamikaze mission to “save the planet” – met on October 5th to discuss some polling data. It did not, at … Read more
Because the answer would scare the you-know-what out of voters. Vermont Republicans have a concrete, transparent plan for what they’ll do if they re-take the state senate this November. It’s called Vermont Promise, and you can read all about it on its dedicated website and learn even more on the Vermont Senate Republicans’ Facebook page. … Read more
The Really Ugly Side of the “Second Home” Tax The recent poll by Vermont Public showed – sadly, but not surprisingly – that a majority of Vermonters (57 percent) support taxing owners of second homes more heavily in our state. This has been a topic of conversation under the Golden Dome for at least the … Read more
Two polls were released within the last week: one by the University of New Hampshire (The Green Mountain State Poll), and more recently one by Vermont Public (yes, I caved and used the new dumb name). The former caused shock waves by concluding that the far-left activist Amanda Janoo is beating America’s most popular governor … Read more
Scores 100% on the Democratic Socialist Party policy questionnaire Democrat Lieutenant Governor Candidate Molly Gray is out on the campaign trail projecting herself as some sort of moderate and a champion of rural Vermont. But, as highlighted in a recent interview on WVMT’s Morning Drive, Gray responded to the Green Mountain Democratic Socialists of America … Read more
The proposed Constitutional Amendment, Proposal 3, that Vermonters will vote on this election began its journey in 2023 as part of the Democrat Supermajority’s radical, all-you-can-pass smorgasbord of policy-payoffs-to-special-interests agenda, along with the Clean Heat Standard, Renewable Energy Standard, the new pre-K payroll tax, Act 181, etcetera. And, what does it have in common with … Read more
Pretty much everybody in Vermont politics says that housing, or rather the lack of it, is THE major problem at the root of so many other problems our state is facing. Young people are leaving because they can’t find housing. Businesses can’t hire because employees can’t find housing. The rent is too damn high! And … Read more
A few months back, the University of New Hampshire ran a poll showing that 86 percent of Vermonters found the state to be unaffordable and 64 percent of prime working-age folks 18-34 were actively planning to leave. Last week, the Fiscal Alliance Foundation followed up with another poll, this one asking (among other things) what would make someone change … Read more
Vermont’s Big Oil shakedown should meet a similar fate. Another (BIG) one bites the dust. New York, like Vermont, passed a Climate Superfund law back in 2024 in hopes of making “Big Oil pay” for damage these doom-and-gloomers allege is caused by our burning fossil fuels to survive winter, do our jobs, transport ourselves from … Read more
Back in the end of March, I took part in a panel discussion on election integrity that included Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas. At that event, she said unequivocally, and I quote: “Most definitively, no. We do not have people who are registered to vote in this state who are non-citizens.” Most definitively, no. … Read more
The November election results are still over two months away, but VPR (I refused to use the ridiculous name Vermont Public, which sounds like a restroom, so maybe it fits after all) is reporting Democrats have already settled on who will be Speaker of the House come January.: Lori Houghton (D-Essex Junction). Well, isn’t that … Read more
Vermont Democrats nominated Amanda Janoo as their horse to take on Phil Scott in November’s gubernatorial election, rejecting by a slim margin the putatively more moderate alternative, Aly Richards, and in doing so decided to go – as many in their party have – full-on communist. Though Janoo doesn’t formally claim the Democratic Socialist party … Read more
First, let me say that open primaries are dumb. Parties should be free to pick their own candidates without outside shenanigans taking place, and if folks don’t want to be affiliated with a political party, good for you, that’s your choice, enjoy your summer, you get your say in the general election. That said, thems … Read more
When Vermonters vote this November (or, more accurately, when Vermonters vote at some point between September 24th and November 3rd during our ludicrous election-month-and-a-half), we will have to decide whether or not to pass yet another constitutional amendment, this one called Proposition 3, or “The Right to Collectively Bargain.” Just going to say up front, … Read more
This week, the famed pollster and certainly no conservative, Nate Silver, founder (but since departed) of FiveThirtyEight and now author of the Silver Bulletin, published an article breaking down the financial and racial demographics of who makes up the Democratic Socialists of America. What he discovered is that the party’s “sweet spot,” to use the term from … Read more
Does CNBC’s “Best States” ranking make any sense? Yogi Berra famously said of a once favorite Yankees hangout, “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.” I feel like there’s a way to tweak that phrase regarding Vermont’s just winning CNBC’s “Best States to Live” for the sixth straight year: “Nobody wants to live there anymore. … Read more