James Ehlers for Vermont Governor

Videos & Photos

Candidates for Vermont governor square off on WCAX

The four Democrats and two Republican gubernatorial candidates on the Aug. 14 primary ballot participated in Channel 3’s candidates forum

Governor Candidate Forum in Ludlow

FOLA (Friends of Ludlow Auditorium) sponsored this gubernatorial candidate at the Ludlow Town Hall.

Ben Cohen Supports James Ehlers

Check it out. Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, supports James Ehlers for Vermont Governor, and it feels pretty sweet. Find out why…

James says he will work to stop the F-35 from coming to Vermont

I don’t think it’s good for the people of Burlington, Winooski, Essex Junction, Colchester and South Burlington, and many of those people have gone on record in the form of a ballot.

James Ehlers opposes the F-35 basing in Vermont

James’ profile on WCAX

Neal Goswami gives his overview of James on WCAX

View from the Rally for a Fair Contract

1 AM or 6 AM, I will always stand with the hardworking nurses and support staff. The community stands with them in their fight for economic justice.

Water is Life: Part 1

Protecting Lake Champlain and the rivers and streams that feed it requires real leadership.

Water is Life: Part 2

James shows an example of pollution flowing into the Winooski River and talks about his vision for a cleaner future.

Cormier Testimonial

“I reached across the aisle to him, and he reached back”

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James Ehlers for Vermont

The official Facebook page for James Ehlers' campaign for Governor of Vermont. To join the team, please be in touch: JamesEhlersforVermont@gmail.com
James Ehlers for Vermont
James Ehlers for Vermont shared Tim Ashe's post.1 day ago
Senator Ashe addresses his peers. He mentions many issues, except one ...
James Ehlers for Vermont
Tim
I'm grateful to my colleagues for trusting me to serve as Senate President for the next two years, and to my close friends Dick Sears and Christopher Pearson for their nominating remarks.

I focused my opening remarks on what I call the Two Vermonts. Below is an excerpt which I hope you'll take a minute to read:

"One Vermont is the Vermont that wins superlatives like Best Place to Raise a Family, Healthiest State, Safest State. The Vermonters experiencing this Vermont are highly educated, have skills that command good pay in the economy, and have the financial resources to enjoy our unique culture and food and recreational opportunities. In this Vermont, families can save a little money, they may worry about the cost of college but don’t doubt for a second that their kids will indeed attend one, they can post photos of their exotic vacations on social media. From an economic point of view, the inhabitants of this Vermont are relatively secure.

But then there's The Other Vermont. The Other Vermont is not a place, and it can be found in pockets of our larger communities as easy as it can be in rural areas. No, it’s not a place, it’s more like a shared experience.

In the Other Vermont, the good paying manufacturing jobs that used to be all but guaranteed to people with a high school diploma are gone. They’re gone not because the Vermonters who had these jobs weren’t loyal and hardworking. They were both those things. They’re gone because of federal trade policies that stiffed them.

In the Other Vermont, kids are growing up in households racked with drug and alcohol addiction, mental health challenges.

In the Other Vermont, thousands of adult full time minimum wage workers just got a 28 cent an hour increase to 10.78 and they're condescendingly told that that’s what the market dictates for their efforts, while those same people need only watch one newscast or open one newspaper to observe the obscene spoils lavished on others all across this country, including some of the shadiest people who don’t seem to know what laws and rules mean. Put it in perspective a person who makes $1M a year makes about $50 more in just one hour than a minimum wage worker makes in a full week.

To put it simply, the people who live in The Other Vermont can only dream of a life without economic anxiety, and I’m especially worried about the children of the Other Vermont, who because of the parent lottery are often condemned to lives of poor health, poverty, and struggle.

I return to this theme of the Two Vermonts because this and every other Legislature in America typically show up to start a new session wondering what this year’s shiny objects will be. What bills will the interest groups and lobbyists be pushing for, what will the media latch onto, what bill or idea can have our names on it so we can go back to our constituents and say we did something innovative and new. And Senate Presidents and Speakers of the House and Governors are all reciting agendas like they’re reading out shopping lists.

I do not favor this approach, which artificially emphasizes the passage of bills, and incremental thinking.

Instead I challenge the Senate to have a more fundamental view of the upcoming two years. I challenge each of you, I challenge each committee you’ll serve on, and I challenge myself to never let go of this one question:

What Can We do To Improve Life in the Other Vermont?

Answering this Question is all our jobs, and touches on every policy area.

What will we do, for instance, to develop a coherent rural economic development strategy, knowing that rural areas all across the United States are suffering from the same challenges we do in our completely rural state.

When it comes to the imperative to reduce carbon emissions for the future of our planet, what will we do to make sure policies aren’t designed for just those who can afford solar and electric cars, but make economic sense for people living in the Other Vermont.

As we rebuild our fragile human services system, what will we do to make sure that we ourselves are not part of the problem of populating the Other Vermont. You know, this fall I met a young woman in Brattleboro who provides employment support to a developmentally disabled man. She companies him to a local supermarket every day so he can hold down the job and live a self-directed life. With a college degree and several years on the job, this young women was earning less than the client she served. Her pay is entirely state funded.

What will we do to ready thousands of younger people, especially young men, who often fall through the cracks and never attach to the workforce, what will we do to better prepare them for their futures. Will we tinker with the dozens of programs that have failed them? Or will we think simpler and bigger.

Will we do more to recognize and grow the skills of our New American neighbors who may arrive with certain barriers but also offer tremendous potential as individuals and more collectively as part of our future workforce. Will we hold ourselves accountable to keep them and other minority populations from slipping into or becoming stuck in The Other Vermont.

In short, it is the people of The Other Vermont who need us the most, and whose well-being should be the basis of any judgment about how we’ve performed in our elected roles.

Bobby Kennedy once told a large gathering of young people, while speaking not only of the poison of racism but also of poverty and lack of education, and armed conflict, he said:

“Everyone here will ultimately be judged-will ultimately judge himself-on the effort he has contributed to building a new world society and the extent to which his ideals and goals have shaped that effort.”

That’s really what it comes down to. Judging our own efforts to improve the well being of the people who live in this Other Vermont.

Knowing how hard the task is, how complicated the solutions are, how inextricably linked the issues can be, I still accept the responsibility and am prepared to be judged on the part I play, and I challenge you all to accept that responsibility as well, as I know you will."
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James Ehlers for Vermont
James Ehlers for Vermont shared James Ehlers's post.3 days ago
Does anyone know if their representatives or senators are introducing legislation to address nuclear weapon systems in Vermont? Thank you.
James Ehlers for Vermont
James
Barbara,
Here is the Department of Defense background on the F-35’s role in delivering the B61-12 nuclear bomb. Why is this weapon system being based at a commercial airport within a densely populated residential community? And why are our local elected officials complicit? To the extent that our Nation continues to maintain a nuclear arsenal, these weapon systems belong on military installations, not across the street from the Pizza Putt Family Entertainment Center.

https://dod.defense.gov/News/SpecialReports/2018NuclearPostureReview.aspx

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