The results of Vermont’s September 10 primary mean there will be no openly gay or transgender statewide candidates on the ballot this year.
      In a contentious Democratic primary for Treasurer, openly gay former Vermont Auditor Ed Flanagan lost to former state Sen. Jeb Spaulding by more than 7,500 votes.
      “It was really a victory that he [Spaulding] should be proud of,” Flanagan said when conceding the race. “If democracy is thriving and working well then there should be sparks and there should be tension [in campaigns]. If there isn’t, then democracy is too whispered and is probably not doing its job.”
      As the Democratic nominee for Treasurer, Spaulding welcomes the gay community’s support. “I believe gay and lesbian Vermonters share the same hopes and concerns about the future as all Vermonters and I hope they will support me,” he said. As Treasurer, Spaulding would “actively vote our proxies and co-sponsor shareholder resolutions on corporate policies to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and to ensure domestic partner benefits.”
      Spaulding faces retiring state Rep. John LaBarge (R-Grand Isle), a civil union opponent, on Election Day.
      In the GOP congressional primary, moderate Rutland lawyer Bill Meub soundly defeated two conservative challengers: Gregory Parke, a former Air Force pilot, and Karen Ann Kerin, a transgender engineer from South Royalton.
      Kerin attributes her loss to being “outspent and shunned by the media.”
      “The results are very disheartening because conservatives did not turn out,” she said. “I thought a primary was a good thing because it brought early attention to the party. That was an opportunity that seems to have gone awry because the rhetoric coming from all parties is very much the same.”
      Bill Meub now faces incumbent U.S. Rep. Bernie Sanders (I), a longtime supporter of the gay and lesbian community (see related story on page 3).
      Saying he is not an anti-gay verbal “basher,” Meub believes gay and lesbian Vermonters should support his candidacy. “Prejudice and discrimination against the GLBT community is wrong,” he said.
      In the race for Governor, Republican Treasurer James Douglas, Independent Con Hogan, and Democrat Lt. Governor Douglas Racine will face off on November 5.
      While Douglas, Hogan and Racine all say they would appoint openly gay men and lesbians to state commissions, and/or their Cabinet, they differ on the future of Vermont’s landmark civil union law.
      Both Douglas and Hogan are open to expanding Vermont’s civil union law to include other types of families including “spinster aunts.” This move is seen by many members of Vermont’s gay community see as an attempt to undermine the significance of the landmark law.
      “I would be amenable to considering legal recognition of other types of loving family relationships,” Douglas said. “There has been discussion of family members having various types of benefits that might be helpful and I’m certainly willing to consider those.” Hogan agrees with Douglas but doesn’t feel now is the time to revisit law. “I think there will come a day when people will examine what has been created and say simply that these privileges and opportunities should be available to others who live together for other kinds of reasons,” he said.
      For his part, Douglas Racine says he would leave the civil union law alone. “I’d leave it the way it is,” he said. “It is a good law and those who are affected by it are happy with it and people who aren’t directly affected, I think, are becoming more accepting of it.”
      Civil unions also separate the three major candidates for Lieutenant Governor – Republican Brian Dubie, Progressive Anthony Pollina, and Democrat state Sen. Peter Shumlin.
      While Pollina and Shumlin support the law, Dubie says he would support a Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in Vermont. “I believe marriage is between a man and a woman and I believe in a Defense of Marriage Act that would describe that,” he said on Vermont Public Radio’s Switchboard program. “I still think that that is a reasonable thing to do and if I had the opportunity, that’s the kind of legislation that I would support.”
      If no candidate in the race for Governor or Lieutenant Governor receives more than 50 percent of the vote, the Vermont Legislature will decide the outcome of the race by secret ballot in January.

Political correspondent Paul Olsen also writes for in newsweekly.