Dark money from outside groups is flowing into local races for House and Senate that could determine the fate of a first-of-its-kind energy policy that would transform the market for heating fuels in Vermont.
Earlier this year, Americans for Prosperity spent more than $60,000 on an advertising campaign designed to sour voters on the “clean heat standard” that Vermont’s next Legislature is set to vote on in 2025.
Over the last two months, meanwhile, a national group called the Green Advocacy Project has contributed $180,000 to a Vermont-based super PAC that’s using the money to boost candidates who it believes will support the clean heat standard.
We definitely take a strategic look at the political landscape electorally and make those decisions around where we decide to put our focus and effort in.Justin Marsh, Vermont Conservation Voters Action Fund
With its small population and relatively tiny fuel market, the economic effects of energy policy in Vermont, in isolation, won’t be far reaching. But as larger states such as Maryland and Massachusetts contemplate similar measures, according to Washington County Sen. Andrew Perchlik, it’s not surprising that outside groups would take such an interest in what’s happening in Vermont.
“I mean, that’s the value of Vermont doing some of these things,” Perchlik, a Democrat who supports a clean heat standard, told Vermont Public. “Where sometimes people say, ‘Well, what’s the point? Vermont’s so small.’ Well, we can have an outsize influence if we can get it right and other states are like, ‘Oh, that’s pretty smart. We can do that as well.’”
The Green Advocacy Project, which contributed $180,000 to Vermont Conservation Voters Action Fund, did not return an email request for an interview. Tax filings show the group has given five- and six-figure donations to scores of environmental advocacy and electioneering organizations across the country.
Justin Marsh, with VCV Action Fund, describes the Green Advocacy Project as a “pro-climate, pro-environment” group that supports candidates who will embrace clean energy policies in state and local governments.
“They’re very interested in supporting legislative races because their focus is on clean energy and pro-environmental policy,” Marsh said. “And so they really value the importance of state policy to get this done.”
Marsh said the Green Advocacy Project is especially interested in the clean heat standard that Vermont’s next Legislature is going to decide whether to pursue. And the results of the upcoming election in Vermont will be key to the future of that policy.
That’s because Republican Gov. Phil Scott, who opposes the clean heat standard, will almost certainly veto the bill if it makes it out of the Statehouse. And Marsh said Vermont Conversation Voters Action Fund is using the $180,000 to support Democratic candidates in tight races this year in hopes of securing the votes needed to override that potential veto.
“We definitely take a strategic look at the political landscape electorally and make those decisions around where we decide to put our focus and effort in,” Marsh said.
Spending by VCV Action Fund on down-ballot races has been significant by Vermont standards. The group has spent more than $10,000 in support of Democrat Andy Julow in the Grand Isle Senate race, and nearly $10,000 on Democrat Amanda Cochrane in the Caledonia County Senate race.
The PAC hopes that even smaller expenditures, like the nearly $2,000 in support of Rep. Bobby Farlice-Rubio, a Democrat from Barnet, have the potential to move the needle. He's only raised about $3,200 so far for his own campaign. His Republican opponent, Debbie Powers, has taken in about $9,300, most of which came from herself or immediate family members, according to campaign finance disclosures.
Farlice-Rubio told Vermont Public he had no idea he’d become the recipient of outside spending until a friend texted him a picture of the mailer that VCV Action Fund sent to local voters. As someone who thinks dark money from outside groups is generally bad for democracy, Farlice-Rubio said he was concerned.
“It was kind of a shock. I’m one of those folks who thinks there’s way too much money in politics,” he said. “And at first I was like … this is weird and unfortunate.”
With seven Republican senators out of 30, and 37 representatives out of 150, we have no voice up there.Judy Taranovich, Proctor Gas
Farlice-Rubio, however, said he’s been the target of false claims and negative attack ads by his opponent, and by outside groups who have accused him of increasing the cost of heating fuel and making the state unaffordable for Vermonters.
Farlice-Rubio said he supported legislation that will create a clean heat standard proposal for lawmakers to review next year. But he said if that plan is going to negatively affect his constituents, then he won’t vote for it.
“And so I feel like if this group that wants to support me is using factual information to get out the vote, then I welcome it, even though it’s not something I asked for,” he said.
It’s unclear where the Green Advocacy Project is getting its funding. The U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling in 2010 established a new legal framework that allows organizations engaged in electioneering activities to conceal the identity of their donors, so long as they don’t coordinate directly with candidates.
Marsh said VCV Action Fund supports campaign finance reforms that would make it obsolete. Until then, they said, they can’t afford not to leverage the opportunities the post-Citizens United environment presents.
“It is unfortunate that we are a super PAC. We would love to have campaign finance reform. But yes, we are technically a super PAC, and this is the landscape we’re in, so it’s what we got to play with,” Marsh said. “We’ve seen Big Oil money coming in, and we just knew that we needed to sort of counter the narrative so that Vermonters were receiving both sides of the story.”
The “Big Oil” money Marsh references arrived in the form of an ad blitz by Americans for Prosperity that encouraged Vermonters to oppose the clean heat standard. The group, notable for its ties to the Koch brothers and large fossil fuel interests, has spent hundreds of millions of dollars nationally over the years to influence elections and move public opinion.
The ad spend by Americans for Prosperity drew a complaint from Jim Dandeneau, executive director of the Vermont Democratic Party, who said the organization failed to properly register with the state.
Dandeneau said in his complaint to Attorney General Charity Clark that the group’s activities in Vermont were part of a “pattern of deception.”
“This … is part and parcel of the practices that the multi-million dollar AFP and its affiliates in the billionaire-funded Koch Brothers’ network has undertaken throughout the nation wherever elected officials attempt to stand up to the fossil fuel corporations and take action to slow the devastating and costly global overheating that the fossil fuel industries products and activities cause in places like Vermont,” Dandeneau wrote last month.
Matt Cota is director of government affairs for the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association, which has raised concerns about the impact of the clean heat standard on heating fuel delivery companies in Vermont. Cota said Americans for Prosperity’s action in Vermont did no favors to the small businesses whose solvency is at stake as elected officials ponders the future of energy policy.
“I can’t speculate why they did what they did,” he said. “I can just tell you it has not been helpful. It’s rather annoying. And it’s not helping forward the conversation.”
Fuel dealers have established their own in-state super PAC, called Vermonters for Affordable Heat, that’s making its own bid to influence down-ballot races in November. The group has raised about $38,000 and is funded primarily by in-state fuel dealers such as Judy Taranovich, who owns Proctor Gas.
If fuel dealers and their customers want a fair shake in Montpelier next year, she said, then they need to get involved in local elections for House and Senate.
“I think we need balance back up there, right?” Taranovich said. “I don’t think we need everybody thinking my way either … But with seven Republican senators out of 30, and 37 representatives out of 150, we have no voice up there.”
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