Category — TJ Donovan

Click Picture to go to TJ Donovan’s Website.

At the last school board meeting, Joey Donovan and I were trying to figure out how many years ahead of her son TJ I was at BHS.   I think it’s two, but I honestley can’t remember. You cross twenty years past high school, and it sort of gets to be a blur. Well… certain memories are still vivid, just not this particular factoid. The point is I went to high school with TJ Donovan, and I’ve always liked him.  I also think he’s done a very good job at State’s Attorney. Can he beat Bill Sorrell in the Democratic primary on August 28?  I think he can.

The NPA was a little disorganized, but it worked.  The open forum on Burlington Telecom broke out during the city councilors’ report, and it never stopped, so in essence it took the form of a Q & A with Vince Dober, Paul Decelles and Kurt Wright.  Bob Kiss took part from the audience, answering questions from there.  I spoke with him a bit before the meeting convened and he agreed to do another interview with me.  Sweet.   Hopefully we can set that up soon.

The place, as usual, was a virtual who’s who of hardcore local political types.  In attendance beside the folks I mentioned, Dale Tillotson, Lea Terhune, Karen Paul, Russ Ellis, Bernie O’rourke, Dave Harnett and Loyal Ploof.

I’ll come back to this…

*Jane Knodell has been named the UVM Provost.  That’s the #2 UVM administrator behind the president.  Congratulations to her.

*Jonathan Leopold is on the Board of Trustees  at Burlington College.  Did you know that?  Anybody know how Burlington College can afford the Diocese?  I just don’t see how that’s possible.  Didn’t Burlington College try to buy a much smaller property recently and fail for lack of financing?  Or was that just a rumor?

*Dave Harnett is running for city council from Ward Four.  Will he have an opponent?

*There’s a school board meeting tomorrow night when we will officially find out if Burlington plans on meeting “Challenges for Change.”  Oh the suspense!

*TJ Donovan is taking over the State’s BT investigation.

*Um…oh!  1000 years ago Abenaki Indians used to walk from Appletree Bay to the Intervale  across what is now North Avenue.

*And 3 years ago there was all this…

It’s a serious form of exhibitionism to want to tell people who your voting for, but based on this blog’s traffic stats, I’m guessing I find at least 200 voyeurs willing to accommodate me on election day.

I live in Chittenden 3-2 so I’m just going to tick off who I plan on voting for by looking at the sample ballot on the City’s website.

*Constitutional Amendment to let folks register to vote at 17 if they will be 18 by the time the general election rolls around: Yeah, I guess. Hey if that means you turn 17 in January like I did you can vote on Town Meeting in March even before turning 18? Hmmm. I don’t know anymore. Maybe I won’t vote on this.

*For Congress Pick: Peter Welch Prediction: Peter Welch
*For Governor: Pick: Peter Shumlin Prediction: Peter Shumlin
*For Lieutenant Governor: Pick: Steve Howard Prediction: Phil Scott
*For State Treasurer: Pick: Jeb Spaulding Prediction: Jeb Spaulding
*For Secretary of State: Pick: Jason Gibbs Prediction: Jason Gibbs
(Jim Condos gave me a really weak wave at a honk and wave. That’s gonna cost him.)
*For Auditor of Accounts: Pick: Doug Hoffer Prediction: Doug Hoffer
*For Attorney General: Pick: William Sorrell Prediction: William Sorrell
*For State Senate: Picks: Philip Baruth and Andy Montroll Prediction: They both win.
*For State Representaive: Pick: Angela Chagnon Prediction: Mark Larson
*For Probate Judge: Skip it.
*For Assistant Judge: Skip it.
*For State’s Attorney: Pick: TJ Donovan Prediction: TJ Donovan
*For Sherriff: Skip it.
*For High Bailiff: Skip it.
*For Justice of the Peace: Picks: Ed Adrian, Terry Bailey, Angela Chagnon, Paul Decelles, Vince Dober, Thom Fleury, Jim Flint, Carmen George, Maggie Gunderson, Selene Hoffer-Shall, Michelle Lefokowitz and Kurt Wright. Prediction: Terry Bailey wins on the strength of this blog’s preceding post.

*Ward Three Special City Council Seat: Vince Brennan has probably already won.  His absence will be felt on the school board.  Good luck on the council Vince!

TJ Donovan is running again for State’s Attorney and David Zuckerman is bowing out of the race for the Vermont House.  Go TJ.  Thank you for your service David.

*****

The New Moon Cafe event tonight for Philip Baruth’s Vermont senate campaign was nice.  Nice to see Philip and Charity and Steve Benen.  Steve won’t give me Rachel Maddow’s phone number.

Philip seemed a little disappointed that we aren’t seated next to each other on the School Board so I promised to text him the comments I would have made to him under my breath if we had been.  I was probably kidding.

(Re-run from 06.28.07)

Scudder Parker vs. Charity Tensel

Caught in the crossfire of an eye-laser battle between former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Scudder Parker and former Republican city council candidate Charity Tensel, Ed Adrian and TJ Donovan wonder how long their invisible force field will hold out.

Can they survive?

The family and I are just back from the 3rd annual Political Barbecue and Hamburger Summit hosted by Philip Baruth and John Odum. Thanks to our fabulous hosts, the thing was a rockin’ success once again.

The crowd size was similar to those of the last two years, even if its composition was a little different. We didn’t see Charity there, and of course Bill was out of town- but most of the pillars were in attendance- Steve Benen, Jack McCullough, Jay Vos, Julie Waters, JD Ryan, Christian Avard, Neil Jensen, Linda from the Northeast Kingdom, and many many more. There was the whole Brattleboro crew including Steve and Gorty from the radio.

As for politicians, we had Anthony Pollina who genuinely seemed to remember our one meeting 19 years ago in Bernie’s office. “You’re still around?” he asked me. Gaye Symmington was there, and Chris Pearson… Kesha Ram showed up toward the end… Mark Larson was hanging out. Neither Ed or TJ made it, but I guess we’ll forgive them. Selene wasn’t there either- but not because of a birthday party as I mistakenly said in a previous post, but because she had to attend an event in another part of the state with Peter Welch. I heard her dad was there, but I didn’t see him.

We brought a few of Poopsie’s unbelievable grape leaf lamb dolmas which got gobbled up quickly. And the lake was relatively clean too so Poopsie, Koko, Yanna and I splashed around for a while. Poopsie ate a brat. Koko ate a hot dog and I ate a bunless burger with ketchup. Poopsie wouldn’t let Philip toss the leftover watermelon, so I had to find a way to carry it home.

I love the blogger barbecue and have genuinely had a good time all three years. That’s weird for me because I generally hate social events like that- but among the pols and the bloggers, I actually feel like I belong. And that’s special.

Good times. Good times.

Yesterday was the third and final jury draw I had to attend at Chittenden District Court. Once again I was in a pool of potental jurors, and once again I was asked to go back to the gallery and not be a juror. That’s good. I didn’t really want to be picked.

As I was leaving, I saw that guy Ted Kenny. He lost to TJ in the primary for State’s Attorney and is now working as a defense lawyer. He told me he reads this blog. Hey Ted. Nice to meet you.

What else is going on today? Big primary in Pennsylvania. Nice state. Philly has a nice train station and there’s a big football stadium at Penn State in State College. I’ve seen them both in my little life.

I’m not sure if I got the email because I’ve been involved in education, or have a blog, or why, but Bernie’s office sent me an email invitation to discuss the “No Child Left Behind” with the Senator tonight at 6:30pm at Burlington High School.

And this is where the post gets lame. I know it’s gonna sound like a bunch of excuses, but I can’t go to that thing. Poopsie and I were up most of the night with two screaming kids. I’ve got one of those searing stomach aches I get all the time, and we have to go to TJ Maxx to get a Christmas Tree Stand. Yesterday I bought my first Christmas Tree ever. Koko wanted one and it was worth the $14 (small tree) just to see his smile when I showed it to him.

Plus, what do I know about NCLB? I took a short seminar on it a few years ago as part of my training at Colchester Middle School, but I don’t remember much about it. I vaguely remember learning NCLB essentially criminalizes public education in a round-about way.

Oh… I just got a check for $77.04 in the mail. My share of a class action lawsuit against H&R block’s “rapid refund” service. I only ever did that once, sometime between 1994 and 1996 apparently. I remember joking that it should be called “Rapid Ripoff” because of all the fees they charged. I guess other people felt the same way. I was invited to join that suit months ago and had forgotten all about it. Hey it’s 77 Bucks. I’ll take it. I’ll use it to buy a Christmas Tree Stand.

What else? Oh I may as well mention the Church Street smoking ban proposed by Councilor Adrian went down last night on a vote of 8-5.

Thanks for reading BurlingtonPol.com. Visit often!

Scudder Parker vs. Charity Tensel

Caught in the crossfire of an eye-laser battle between former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Scudder Parker and former Republican city council candidate Charity Tensel, Ed Adrian and TJ Donovan wonder how long their invisible force field will hold out.

Can they survive?