Editor’s note: The Andrea Murray for Senate campaign submitted this response to an op-ed, “That’s a Whole Lotta Bull, Ma’am,” written by John Walters, publisher of The Vermont Political Observer.
You could almost feel sorry for Andrea Murray but you don’t need to because your gossip column posing as a journalistic blog misses the mark entirely.
For starters, what is a far-right Republican in the first place? In pale blue Vermont it’s virtually anyone right of Bernie Sanders, not a hard mark to hit. Today’s “far-right Republicans” are farther left than John F. Kennedy, so the silly nomenclature is practically meaningless.
Secondly, recounting the historic failure of Windsor County to seat a Republican then bemoaning the ouster of John McGovern who presided over much of that failure is like being a chronically 2-14 Jets fan and being mad they fired the coach. Only it’s worse than what you stated. McGovern was ousted, by a group of his peers, not just the Murray’s, for repeatedly side-stepping protocol and acting as a dictator largely because he was the only game in town for so long. He’d gotten so calcified in the ship he’d help sink he acted like whatever he did was smooth sailing because he barely even had a skeleton crew.
The Murray’s, new to the area and eager to serve, along with another thirty Vermont Republicans looking for the right leaders to revive Windsor County, all agreed McGovern had to go. No hard feelings, no back-stabbing, he simply was not performing per the role he’d essentially inherited. It’s that sort of “rules don’t apply to me” mentality we see in Washington, now Montpelier, that taxpayers are tired of. Sorry John, but if you want to stay on the team you don’t get to keep coaching the losing product you helped create and bend rules to suit your needs. That’s all.
Attacking Andrea as a “common-sense” Republican for stating she will work across the aisle, then lobbing a salvo at Democrat turned Republican John Rodgers reveals the stuck-in-the-woods mentality of the author. Democrats across the country have bailed by the tens of thousands to become Republicans, or at least join with them, because the left as typified in Vermont lacks “common-sense”. Notably Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Eric and Brett Weinstein, Walk Away founder Brandon Straka, former Clinton advisor Naomi Wolfe, award winning (actual) journalists Matt Taibi and Michael Schellenberger, comedian Jimmy Dore just to name a few. Sure, claim Darth Cheney as your counter – you’re welcome to him. That’s the point, We the People, both left and right, have had enough of You the Establishment and your big government, big pharma, big war, big corruption cronies.
Thirdly, using one’s own money to support one’s campaign is hardly an indication of largesse, but you wouldn’t know that because you, not being a journalist in practice, didn’t ask for an interview nor did you assume correctly, only making an ass out of you. Financing one’s own political campaign is more an indication of self-belief and self-sacrifice than deep pockets. Had you bothered, you’d know she’s using her retirement to pay for it, out of sheer concern for the dysfunctional state of Vermont. It’s called commitment to the cause, a concept slightly beyond this tabloid apparently.
Of course you make no substantive arguments regarding her policy positions or lack of being a career politician like Becca White, Alison Clarkson and Joe Major, you look into who her PR firm is? The one she fired after finding out the same grift you mention? You make her guilty by association without understanding their association. Again, a real journalist would have asked for the interview, gotten this information, and saved the egg on their face, a result you’re left with now.
It’s a wonder you’re so concerned with Mrs. Murray’s spending her own money in a state that is the second most egregious for spending taxpayers (i.e. other people’s) money.
Then we have the petty typo complaint, which just goes to show how puerile your criticism is. A typo, really? If that’s a top problem for her as a candidate Vermonters should be lining up to check off her box in November, and they will. Throw on some pants and drive around the county and count up all of the Murray for Senate yard signs. We dare you.
Speaking of deep pockets, where is trustifarian Alison Clarkson getting her money? Maybe look into that. Or journeyman Joe Major formerly of Buffalo, then Pennsylvania, then Florida, then Maryland, now Vermont? You sniff out political opportunism as well as you do interviews. Then of course Becca White who has stayed in one political position just long enough to launch upward to the next. She’s got a Bernie Sanders trajectory with that Hillary Clinton energy, which no doubt you’ll confuse as a compliment.
Of course you won’t touch the third rail of questioning why the Vermont political sky is so blue, because it takes courage to push back against the establishment here in the Green Mountain state.
To the readers of this blog we ask these questions: Are you happy with the tax situation in Vermont?
Are you satisfied violent crime in Vermont has doubled since 2014?
Are you willing to throw more money at an education system that isn’t just failing our children but causing our children to fail?
Are you going to keep the people who created this mess accountable or keep voting for them?
We respect whatever decision you make, however we still ask for your vote. We also understand the author of this blog has been fired by his last two employers for poor performance as a journalist. Now he’s reduced to tabloid level gossip masquerading as insider journalism.
You just hate to see it.