The move came a day after Seven Days reported on Burlington Republican Party chair Paco DeFrancis’ online criticism of Sen. Debbie Ingram’s (D-Chittenden) 2017 drunk driving arrest. Farrell condemned the attack on Wednesday and said his campaign had had nothing to do with a video DeFrancis posted featuring footage of Ingram’s arrest.
But later Wednesday, DeFrancis sent Seven Days screenshots of a text-message exchange he’d had with Bartley in July suggesting that the campaign manager had approved the video. (DeFrancis posted the screenshots to Twitter on Thursday morning but quickly deleted them.)
DeFrancis said in an interview Thursday that he’d understood Bartley’s texts as a “go-ahead” to circulate the video. “I would’ve never posted it if I hadn’t talked to him,” DeFrancis said.
Bartley confirmed the authenticity of the texts but took issue with DeFrancis’ interpretation of them. “There’s absolutely no way in that moment that I’ve … given permission for an ad like that to be released,” Bartley said, calling DeFrancis “a little bit of a loose cannon.”
Farrell said Thursday that he was “frustrated” to learn Wednesday night of the text exchange. The candidate said he’d asked Bartley to step away from the campaign “so that I can figure out exactly what happened here.” In the interim, Farrell said, City Council President and state Rep. Kurt Wright (R-Burlington), would manage his campaign.
The text messages show that DeFrancis sent Bartley the Ingram video on July 27. “Wow. Did you do that?” Bartley responded.
DeFrancis explained that he’d made the video because he perceived Ingram and Sen. Chris Pearson (P/D-Chittenden) as the weakest of the six Democratic and Progressive incumbents in the race to represent Chittenden County in the Senate.
“I agree,” Bartley wrote. “Pearson is really nervous. I like the ad but gotta figure out how to get it out there post primary.”
Later in the exchange, DeFrancis wrote Bartley, “I can also push it, or at least this strategy, so it doesn’t look like Alex is going negative.” Bartley did not respond to that text.
“I definitely could have been more stern, basically saying, ‘Don’t ever think about doing something like that,’” Bartley said. But, he added, “[DeFrancis] did the ad on his own, the whole nine yards. I could have chosen my words better. Absolutely, I’ll fall on that sword.”
Bartley, a former executive director of the Vermont Republican Party, clarified that he did not, in fact, approve of the attacks against Ingram.
“It’s a heinous ad. It’s disrespectful. It’s not good for the process,” Bartley said. “I think the ad needs to come down no matter what and Alex can continue talking about the issues. This is such an ugly distraction.”
So why did DeFrancis release the texts? He told Seven Days he’d grown furious after Republican Gov. Phil Scott condemned the video Wednesday on Twitter and Bartley retweeted Scott’s message.
“I wasn’t some rogue actor out there,” DeFrancis said. “And then it doesn’t feel good to have Bartley and the governor’s campaign proceeding to just rile this up again.”
The Burlington GOP chair said he understood that Farrell had to distance himself from the attacks and was “more upset at the governor’s team.”
“There’s no need for him to stick his beak out,” DeFrancis said of the governor.
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While Executive Director of the Vermont GOP, Bartley never said anything about Bill Lawrence, a GOP candidate for House, despite knowing Bill Lawrence shared Islamophobic rhetoric on social media (sharing images which call for all Muslims to be burned).
So Jeff can’t condemn public hate speech from a candidate. He also has trouble shutting down an abusive attack when communicating with party members privately. Why is this just a suspension?
By the way, the attacks that Paco said never came from the official GOP account? They are still viewable on the official BTV GOP Twitter feed.
Props to Farrell for being sincere about this. That’s rare with office-seeking types.
I just want to know why Mayor Weinberger hand-picked Paco as his representative on the Community Development and Block Grant committe, which give out money to organizations that fight addiction, and how his unfortunate bias will affect his perspective of marginalized and homeless residents.
Theres no need for him to stick his beak out,” DeFrancis said of the governor.
Wrong governor!
Thanks, Alex Farrell. Good call!
Come on, Republicans… I know you have no chance in hell (or Vermont), but this is really bordering on Trump-level sleaze.