Sunderland explained the rare, intraparty intervention on Saturday morning. “You simply cannot accuse an opposing campaign of illegal activity without a drop of evidence,” he said. “We’re not picking sides here, but if there’s no evidence of the accusation, we can’t tolerate that.”
At issue are recent phone calls to Lisman supporters, who were allegedly reminded to vote on August 23 — two weeks after next Tuesday’s actual primary election date.
Mary Richter of Northfield said she received one of them. When she told the caller, whose identity she didn’t catch, that she was planning to vote for Lisman, she said, he read off a list of negative things about the candidate, including a sexual harassment allegation. The caller asked if she would be more or less likely to vote for Lisman if she knew about these things.
Finally, she said, the caller reminded her to vote August 23, which she knew was not the primary date. Richter, who said she’s never been active in politics and isn’t a Lisman volunteer, sent the campaign a message about the call via Facebook.
Sunderland said while the phone calls themselves are troublesome, his chief concern is sorting out what he described as “very serious” accusations by Lisman. Sunderland said a Friday afternoon press release from Lisman campaign manager Shawn Shouldice “clearly suggested a link between Phil Scott and voter deception.”
It read: “Really, Phil? After saying you would run a positive campaign and one that your children could be proud of, you are letting this stuff transpire?”
That prompted Sunderland’s email response, hours later, on Friday night. The party chair wrote, “If such evidence exists, we will have to have it completely and thoroughly investigated by the Vermont attorney general and the Vermont secretary of state.”
In the same email, Sunderland gave Lisman’s campaign until 9 a.m. Saturday to produce evidence or retract the accusation. By 9:45 a.m., Sunderland said he hadn’t heard from the campaign. Sunderland, who described his party’s primary campaign as “difficult,” said Lisman had not returned a message he left Friday night.
Brittney Wilson, Scott’s campaign coordinator, said Scott’s campaign had nothing to do with the calls, describing the accusation as “absolutely, blatantly false and another one of [Lisman’s] desperate lies.”
On Saturday morning, Shouldice contended Lisman’s campaign isn’t actually accusing Scott of masterminding the phone calls and has no plans to retract anything. “I’m not saying Phil Scott’s doing this,” she said. The statement was carefully worded to avoid that implication, she insisted, adding the goal was to get Scott to denounce the calls.
A moment later, however, Shouldice came very close to an all-out accusation, asking who else would benefit from such activity.
Less than an hour later, Shouldice sent out another press release in which she again sideswiped Scott’s campaign with the allegation.
“The Scott campaign has spent $47,000 with SPG, LLC of Arlington, Virginia for ‘robocalls’ and ‘phone banks.’ Voters deserve to know, in light of the ongoing fraudulent push-polling being inflicted on Vermonters, specifically what services SPG, LLC is providing to the Scott campaign,” Shouldice said.
Scott’s campaign did hire SPG, a political consulting firm, to make phone calls to Vermont voters this week, Wilson said. The expense is described on the state’s campaign finance reports as “Media-phones/robocalls” because that’s the category that best describes it. But the calls were live, not recorded, she said.
Wilson said the Scott campaign calls have been directed to already-identified supporters, reminding them to vote next Tuesday. She said SPG used this script in the calls and did not follow up with further questions:
Hi, I am calling on behalf of Phil Scott. Please join Governor Jim Douglas and more than one hundred current and former elected Republicans in voting for Phil Scott for Governor.Election Day is this coming Tuesday August 9th and your support is vital to making sure Phil’s vision of affordability and no new taxes for Vermont is realized.
Don’t sit this election out — join your friends and neighbors in supporting Republican Phil Scott for Governor.Again Primary Election Day is Tuesday August 9th.
This call was paid for by Phil Scott for Vermont.
Scott, meanwhile, is accusing a pro-Lisman political action committee of violating the state’s campaign finance laws. Scott’s campaign filed a formal complaint Friday with the Attorney General’s Office accusing American Future Fund Political Action Committee, a pro-Lisman PAC, of failing to disclose the names of those contributing more than 25 percent of the cost of an ad in the commercial itself, as required.
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Part 1The Vermont Republican Party’s press release slamming Bruce Lisman for protesting the deceitful phone calls defaming him and steering his supporters to vote on the wrong day is every bit the equivalent of the election rigging that the Democratic National Committee did in order to pull the rug out from under Bernie Sanders.
Have they asked Phil Scott about it? I am one of the voters that received that phone call. I offered the Scott campaign a way to find out the phone number that made that call to my house for the price of the subpoena that it would take to get it. They declined.
You see, I called my land line provider to ask if they retain a list of the phone numbers that call my phone number and explained why it is of great interest. The representative that I spoke to did not know for sure but she did know that it would take a subpoena and must be done in my name. I told her that if the interested parties wanted to pay for the subpoena I would cooperate with them to get the phone numbers. She said to call back if I wanted to go ahead and she would put me in touch with their legal department so that I can find out in advance of obtaining the subpoena if that information is stored.
Phil Scott has been in politics for many years and run many races without controversy or venomous attacks. Yet when retired investment banker Bruce Lisman runs for office all sorts of unethical accusations arise. For me, past performance is a very large predictor of future success. I don’t trust Wall Street bankers or their motives and I sure don’t elect them to public office.
Whether you agree with him or not, Phil Scott has a long record of working honorably for his constituents and deserves respect as a successful local business owner who has proven himself an effective and compassionate leader, especially during the Shumlin administration’s unending annals of idiocy.
I don’t believe Phil Scott has suddenly changed into a person who would lie, cheat, or steal, to win public office. I haven’t voted for him before but I will now. Because I vote in the direction of someone who has earned the respect of a wide faction of legislators and constituents, built a thriving Vermont business, and is possessed of integrity and political courage. Vermonters could choose to vote in a different direction, but I sure hope it isn’t the direction of bankrupt Wall Street investment firms.
I have been very neutral in this campaign and I think either Phil or Bruce would be 100% better than the alternative. I have had both candidates multiple times in the past year campaigning in front of the Orleans County voters. I have known both for a number of years and respect their positions on the issues.
However, this past week we received a call asking if I was a voter and if I wanted to take a poll. Asking if I was voting D or R, I said R and they quickly asked if I was voting for Scott or Lisman. I had been told of a phone canvasing asking strange questions so I took the bait and said Lisman. The questioning turned uncomfortable when the caller asked if I would be more likely, less likely or no change to vote for Lisman if I knew he had been accused of sexual assault while with Bear Stearns. Next, would I be more likely, less likely or no change if I knew Lisman made $50 million while at Bear Stearns while they went bankrupt and put xx people out of work. Two or three more questions along this line and I finally asked if they had evidence of any accusations and she refused to answer. The caller did say it was paid for by the Scott for Governor campaign.
Other people have received this call and I will make my telephone records available to anyone who disputes this.
It bothers me how VT GOP can issue a news release demanding Lisman show prove of these calls when several people have received them. We are doing a real disservice to the VT GOP when we have double standards for our candidates.
Chet Greenwood
Chair, Orleans County Republican Committee
The VTGOP should have not been involved in this at all.
If any of the people commenting or Mr. Lisman think that there was any actual foul play from Mr. Scott’s campaign than they should make an official complaint to the Attorney General’s Office instead of trolling the comments section here. The fact that Mr. Lisman doesn’t want to make an official complaint and just wants to bad mouth Mr. Scott leads me to believe he doesn’t even believe the calls originated from the Scott campaign.
I am sick of these weaselly politicians on both sides (Republicans and Democrats alike). Clearly Mr Lisman has as little respect for voter intelligence as Mr. Dunne and neither appears to believe integrity is an important trait for our next Governor.
Unfortunately former Wall Street executive Lisman surrounds himself with the type of people who seem to think trolling comment sections or smearing the good name of their respectable opponent is a good plan to get him elected governor. I shudder to think what type of people he would hire for government positions. VOTE on Tuesday and let’s all show Lisman these sleazy tactics may work on Wall Street but Vermonters are smart enough to see right through them!
Perhaps Mary you should ask Lisman’s campaign to fund your subpoena to find out who called you. He’s the one who’s spent nearly $2 million on this race.
This sounds like high school not VT GOP… Sounds to me like the people making the calls are taking them into their own hands… Scott has a long record of working honorably so to believe that he’d just randomly decide to do that doesn’t sound right. It could of been anyone going around calling and theres no way to fully prove it, just because people say they got calls similar doesn’t mean thats proof… it could of been people taking it into their own hands, Lisman trying to make Scott look bad, or even people pranking thinking its funny! Lisman wont make a formal complaint so it seems to me he just wants to make simple minded people get on his side even though he knows it has nothing to do with Scotts campaign but obviously it worked!
At first I was for Mr. Lisman, but after hearing his hateful ads, I will not vote for him now.. If he has proof of what he is saying then bring it out..Respond to calls from the GOP and Seven Day reporter..by not doing so makes it sound like it’s lies.