The single-payer advocacy group Vermont Leads has endorsed 10 legislative candidates the group says are committed to the goal of bringing a publicly financed, single-payer health care program to Vermont.
“We know these candidates will work with their colleagues and Gov. Peter Shumlin in the coming year to make Green Mountain Care a reality,” said Peter Sterling, the group’s executive director, in statement released Wednesday.
Vermont Leads will make direct donations to the candidates it endorses and support them through “get-out-the-vote work and volunteer recruitment,” according to a news release.
It will make a final round of endorsements in September, following the Aug. 26 primary.
To be endorsed by the group, a candidate must either have voted for H.202, which became Act 48, the state’s health reform law that calls for universal coverage through a program known as Green Mountain Care, or have satisfactorily completed the group’s survey on universal health coverage.
Vermont Leads is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit and in addition to capped donations to candidates, it can spend a percentage of its money on electoral activities, as long as electoral activities do not become its primary activity.
There is a separate Vermont Leads expenditure PAC that is likely to spend money this election cycle, but the two groups cannot coordinate their activities.
The group has not decided the specifics of how it will conduct its electoral activities, Sterling said, but will discuss and research “what would work for each candidate.”
Earlier this year, Vermont Leads received $80,000 from the National Education Association, the nation’s largest union.
It’s been a busy week for Sterling, a health reform advocate involved with several issue advocacy groups. Earlier this week, he hired former Conservation Law Foundation attorney Anthony Iarrapino to lead a campaign to pass a sugar-sweetened beverage tax.
The list of endorsements is as follows:
For representative:
Amy Sheldon and Betty Nuovo in Addison 1
Rachel Fields, Bennington 2-1
Brandy Reynolds, Bennington 2-2
Dave Sharpe and Mike Fisher, Addison 4
Tim Briglin and Jim Masland, Windsor/Orange 2
For Senate:
Sara Kittell, Franklin County
Anthony Pollina, Ann Cummings, Sandy Gaffney, Washington County
