Voters in the Republican gubernatorial primary later this month will see three names on the ballot. One candidate, however, is hoping voters bypass those options, and write-in a fourth. His name is Dan Feliciano.
Most Vermonters probably haven’t heard of Feliciano. But he’s certainly caught the attention of the Vermont GOP. That’s because Feliciano, a Libertarian, has launched an insurgent write-in candidacy for the top of the Republican ticket. And the GOP views him as enough of a threat to have launched a series of attacks over the past 24 hours, denouncing the Libertarian Party’s support for the legalization of heroin and cocaine.
“I mean the Libertarian Party has some very extreme, very controversial, very out-of-the-mainstream views that I think it’s important for Republican voters in Vermont to understand,” Vermont GOP Chairman David Sunderland said.
Most Vermonters probably haven't heard of Feliciano. But he's certainly caught the attention of the Vermont GOP.
Sunderland’s comments came at Rusty Parker Memorial Park in downtown Waterbury, where he watched a short distance as Feliciano formally launched his write-in candidacy.
Feliciano will be on the general election ballots – as a Libertarian – whether he wins the GOP primary or not. But says he adheres to a more moderate strain of libertarianism.
He’s all for the taxation and regulation of marijuana, but against the legalization of hard drugs, or amnesty for felons serving time for having sold them.
“I actually believe that people should have the freedoms to do as they choose, as long as they don’t harm anyone, and I don’t have to pay for it, essentially,” Feliciano says.
"I actually believe that people should have the freedoms to do as they choose, as long as they don't harm anyone, and I don't have to pay for it, essentially." - Dan Feliciano
And Feliciano says Republican attempts to deflect attention away more substantive issues, like health care, only underscore the reason he’s trying to subvert their primary in the first place.
“I patiently waited for somebody to step in, a Republican, maybe a Randy Brock or maybe a Brian Dubie, or somebody that was going to take a firm stand against single-payer,” Feliciano says. “That didn’t happen.”
Scott Milne, the GOP’s best-known candidate for governor, has said he’ll decline to take a position on the merits of single-payer until he understands better how much it would cost, and what taxes would be used to fund it.
“I would argue that … Feliciano thinking that ideology should lead me to automatically oppose single-payer before the facts are on there on the table is the same ill thought out ideology that the Shumlin Administration has adopted in pushing single-payer as this end all, be all,” Milne says.
But Feliciano says the troubled rollout of the state’s new online insurance exchange is proof enough of government’s inability to oversee the state’s $5 billion-a-year health care system.
“Does that instill any confidence that the same crew can wipe out health insurance altogether, and substitute it with government-controlled, bureaucratic-rationed, taxpayer-financed, Canadian single-payer health care?” he says.
Feliciano, a 51-year-old Essex resident, faces tough odds in the primary. More than 10,000 voters cast Republican ballots in the 2012 primary. And he won’t get any help from his own party, which has denounced Feliciano’s write-candidacy, saying Libertarians shouldn’t close ranks with Republicans.
“"I remind everyone that Libertarian principles do not waver,” Vermont Libertarian Party Chairman Jeremy Ryan said in a written statement. “It is great when other parties find agreement with our positions and support our candidates, but I personally oppose Libertarian candidates seeking outside party nominations, and so do the majority of our state committee.”
At a press event announcing his write-in bid, Feliciano, a “process improvement manager” at Keurig Green Mountain, denounced Shumlin’s plan to move to 90 percent renewable energy sources by 2050 as an economically reckless goal. He said that global warming would lower heating bills and extend the state’s growing season.
Feliciano also said he favors a voucher system for public education that would allow children to use public dollars to attend schools of their parents’ choosing. He said he would replace Shumlin’s plan for single-payer with an expansion of the private health insurance market.
“I would open up the exchange to other competitors and have them compete on the premium side,” he said.
Feliciano’s campaign event was a modest affair. His wife, Carol Feliciano, said she urged him to run to block single-payer. His in-laws stood behind them.
Asked which Republicans have lent their support to his campaign Thursday, Feliciano could name only one – Darcie Johnston, the longtime Republican operative who served as de facto campaign manager for GOP gubernatorial candidate Randy Brock in 2012.
Johnston is a polarizing figure in the party, and was among the key players in an internal divide that saw the GOP leadership split into two factions earlier this year. Johnston has been unapologetically contemptuous of Milne’s run, saying his refusal to condemn single-payer contravenes the party’s core platforms.
Johnston is volunteering for Feliciano’s campaign, and has helped orchestrate his write-in candidacy.
Milne invoked Johnston in dismissing Feliciano’s candidacy, saying she represents an “extreme” wing of conservatism wholly out of touch not only with the stalwarts of Vermont Republicanism, but also with mainstream Vermont voters.
“On one extreme we’ve got Feliciano and Darcie Johnston, and on the other extreme we’ve got Peter Shumlin and his administration,” Milne said. “I believe I’m the common-sense alternative to both.”
The sniping has turned nasty in recent days. On the eve Feliciano’s event, GOP Chairman Sunderland sent out a release to media outlets painting a grave picture of what he said a Feliciano governorship would look like.
"Let's be clear about this: Vermont Libertarians would release all the heroin traffickers and professional dealers who have peddled their poison on our streets." - Vermont GOP Chairman David Sunderland
“Let’s be clear about this: Vermont Libertarians would release all the heroin traffickers and professional dealers who have peddled their poison on our streets,” Sunderland wrote. “And all those felons who were arrested, charged and brought to justice by dedicated members of law enforcement for importing and profiting from the hardest and most addictive drugs would be set free and have their criminal records expunged if the Vermont Libertarians had their way. Then what? You know the answer: They’d be back at it.”
Johnston responded shortly after with a missive that referenced Milne’s voluntary disclosure last month that he’d been convicted, during his college years, of driving under the influence and possession of cocaine.
“Who's more likely to be in favor of illicit hardcore drugs,” Johnston wrote, “the candidate that has a security clearance from the military or the candidate who has been convicted of DUI and cocaine possession?”
The primary election is on Aug. 26.
