Free Republic

Bernie is still beloved here, where 86 percent of voters in the Democratic primary supported him—his strongest showing in the country. But some political experts suggest the cost of Sanders-style progressive policies—including, most notably, the state’s failed single-payer health care system—is driving many voters away from the Democrats, substantially boosting the odds that Republicans could retake the governorship this November.

The Reuters polling of the nation as of Thursday shows “high confidence” in a win by Republican candidate Donald Trump in Vermont. Reuters did not give a margin for Trump’s victory but instead said it has “high confidence” in a GOP win. According to their polling standards, “a state is reported as ‘high confidence’ for a candidate if they win 95 percent or more of the simulated elections.”

MONTPELIER, Vt. — Sen. Bernie Sanders has pushed hard for transparency on U.S. trade and campaign finance, but has been far less aggressive in disclosing his own personal finances. Now his wife and campaign confidante, Jane O'Meara Sanders, is defending the senator's decision not to file a candidate personal finance disclosure and talking about the purchase of a new vacation home.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is the proud new owner of a summer home in the Champlain Islands, Seven Days has confirmed. The Burlington resident last week plopped down nearly $600,000 on a lakefront camp in North Hero. Sanders’ new crib has four bedrooms and 500 feet of Lake Champlain beachfront on the east side of the island — facing Vermont, not New York. The Bern will keep his home in Burlington and use the new camp seasonally.

After losing to Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders is back to his day job as a US Senator for Vermont. Sanders campaigned against the 1%, promising to bring America closer to his Democratic Socialist ideal and to take corporations and rich people down a peg or two. But now that his campaign is over, he’s picking up a sweet new pad. According to Seven Days, a news publication in Vermont, the Democratic Socialist from Vermont shelled out 600 grand for a lake house.

SANDERS LEAVES DEM PARTY -Will return to his Senate seat as an Independent.

The Democratic National Convention ordered the state party of Vermont to replace two delegates — because they're men. State Sen. Tim Ashe and party insider Ken Dean were ordered to be replaced by the DNC so that the party could achieve a gender balance. Dean and Ashe have filed a formal complaint with the DNC's credentials committee, according to the Associated Press. Dean and Ashe were elected by the people of Vermont to serve as delegates on June 11. Everything was fine until July 5, when the DNC ordered the state party to replace the two men with women. This...

Hillary Clinton’s claim that Vermont is a key culprit in New York gun crime is misleading at best, federal data show, and even some of Clinton’s own supporters Tuesday turned on the former first lady and said her argument doesn’t hold water. Mrs. Clinton made the charge Monday night at a roundtable discussion on gun violence in New York and used it as ammunition in making the case her primary opponent, Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont, is far too weak on gun laws. She cited ATF figures showing that, when adjusting for population, more guns from Vermont were found at...

On the Republican side, Donald Trump led the GOP field with roughly 33 percent of the vote, followed by Marco Rubio and John Kasich at 14 percent each. Clark isn't surprised by Trump's popularity in Vermont. "I think Vermont has that independent streak that having the nomenclature of establishment candidate isn't going to sway a lot of Vermont voters," he says. The poll also shows that the GOP race is still very fluid. Roughly half of all people who plan to vote in the Republican primary say they might change their mind before March 1. Clark says it's clear that...

What the Drive-Bys are not telling you (and you probably know it by now) is that Bernie Sanders and his campaign planned all of these hecklers and disrupters. There was a strategic plan to disrupt Trump's appearance last night by the Bernie Sanders campaign. And who knows? Maybe old Bern himself was involved in it. So Trump gets wind of it, and he's not going to let it happen. The protesters start protesting, start heckling, and Trump kicks 'em out. Which is standard operating procedure. Look, just like the Constitution's not a suicide pact, neither is the First Amendment. Just...