Jim Douglas

With just hours until Election Day, gubernatorial candidates have kicked campaigning into high gear.

For the next 48 hours, the top-three gubernatorial candidates will be working almost nonstop to gain the support of every last voter around the state.

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Anthony Pollina

Independent gubernatorial candidate Anthony Pollina’s involvement with Vermont Milk Company has become a sour point in the final days of his race for the state’s top office.

Incumbent Gov. Jim Douglas’ (R-Middlebury) campaign continued to highlight Pollina’s ties to the Vermont Milk Company and their apparent failure to pay due wages to local farmers.

Incumbent Gov. Jin Douglas (R-Middlebury) and gubernatorial challenger Anthony Pollina (I-Middlesex) continued to lock horns on Tuesday with just one week left until the general election.

On Monday afternoon, Pollina criticized  the governor for his agricultural policies and for not supporting Pollina's proposed Vermont Credit Card. The Douglas camp fired back early Tuesday, calling Pollina’s credit card idea “bizarre,” especially during the ongoing global economic crisis.

“Anthony’s credit card scheme is not only the wrong direction for Vermont, it’s irresponsible to push more debt on the backs of working Vermonters,” said Douglas’ campaign manager Dennise Casey in a statement.  “This is a time when we should encourage Vermonters to save more money, not incur more debt.”

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Jim Douglas

Incumbent Gov. Jim Douglas (R-Middlebury) attacked his fellow gubernatorial candidates House Speaker Gaye Symington (D-Jericho) and Independent Anthony Pollina on Friday for their tax policies.  

Douglas spoke against raising property taxes while advocating capping property taxes, a view he claims his opponents do not share.

Gov. Jim Douglas (R-Middlebury) holds a 20 percentage-point lead over his nearest re-election opponent, the latest poll from Rasmussen Reports found.

The poll, which had to be conducted several times due to errors in the process, found Douglas (R-Middlebury) winning 45 percent support. Independent Anthony Pollina came in second with 25 percent, and House Speaker Gaye Symington (D-Jericho) rounded out the group winning the support of 20 percent of those polled.

A he-said-she-said battle over a Vermont Yankee oversight ignited between the Green Mountain State's Democratic and Republican gubernatorial candidates Thursday and continued into Friday.

The controversy began Thursday afternoon when House Speaker Gaye Symington (D-Jericho) held a press conference attacking incumbent Gov. Jim Douglas (R-Middlebury) for what she claimed was inadequate monitoring of the facility. She argued that the Douglas administration had complicated the Public Oversight Panel's tasks, then proposed a set of her own policies regarding the monitoring of Vermont Yankee.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gaye Symington has been on the attack this week, assailing on Thursday incumbent Gov. Jim Douglas (R-Middlebury) for his policies related to the Vermont Yankee nuclear power facility, while proposing some of her own.

At a press conference Thursday afternoon, Symington, the state House speaker, hammered the governor for what she claimed was a failure to provide adequate oversight of  Vermont Yankee. She then outlined her own set of initiatives for dealing with the aging power plant should she be elected governor in November.

Symington claimed that Douglas' oversight was "weak" and that "Vermonters are not being well served."

Gov. Jim Douglas' re-election campaign fired back Tuesday against Democratic challenger Gaye Symington's recently released television ad, claiming that a headline used in the clip is from a letter to the editor and is used in a way that suggests the headline is from a news report.  

Four seconds into Symington's ad is a shot of a newspaper clipping with a headline that reads "Douglas Hinders Yankee Review," and the date beneath it. The headline is taken from a July 24 letter to the editor written by Mary Field Belenky to the Rutland Herald. 

The Douglas camp claims that Belenky is a supporter of Symington and noted the letter is very similar to the "sample letter" found on Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance's web site.  

"The Symington campaign is so desperate for traction that they will say anything," said Dennise Casey, campaign manager for Douglas. "This citation is blatantly misleading and misrepresents Rutland Herald reporters and editorial page writers. Gaye Symington should be embarrassed by this."

Michael Carrese, communications director for the Symington campaign, countered that the message conveyed in the video clip is true and completely accurate, citing several newspaper articles that enforced his claim.

Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas: Politicker PhotoLess than 50 days are left until the general election, and a WCAX poll from Tuesday offers a glimpse of how Vermonters are feeling about the gubernatorial candidates.

Republican incumbent Gov. Jim Douglas is in the lead with 48 percent of the vote. He's trailed by Democratic challenger Gaye Symington, the state House speaker who garnered 33 percent of the vote, and Independent candidate Anthony Pollina, who was the choice of 7 percent of voters. Twelve percent of Vermonters remain undecided.

Though Douglas holds a 13-point lead over Symington, he is still three points shy of commanding the majority of votes he needs to win.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- Republican Gov. Jim Douglas addressed the Massachusetts delegation to the Republican National Convention Thursday, applauding the Wednesday night presentation given by vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and expressing optomism for the GOP's chance in November.

"(Palin) is going to bring a great deal of enthusiasm to the Republican team, and I am very optomistic about what the fall portends," Douglas said.