Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman conceded his reelection race to Republican challenger John Rodgers Thursday morning, after falling more than 6,000 votes short in Tuesday’s election, and said he would not seek a recount. But he nodded at the possibility that the Legislature could overturn the result — and suggested it had good reason to do so.
Zuckerman called Rodgers Thursday morning before appearing on WVMT’s “The Morning Drive,” according to both men. The incumbent said on-air that the outcome of the race was “not gonna change with a statewide recount” and that such an undertaking “would be a fool’s errand.”
“I did tell him, ‘Congratulations,’ you know, he’s won the race,” Zuckerman told co-hosts Kurt Wright and Anthony Neri. “I have conceded to John. But as you just pointed out and everybody else, the Legislature gets to make the decision.”
That’s because, according to the Vermont Constitution, if no candidate for governor, lieutenant governor or state treasurer wins more than 50%, lawmakers in January take a vote and can install any of the top three vote-getters.
In recent history, however, they have nearly always ratified the voters’ choice. The last time they declined to do so was in 1976, when they passed over Democrat John Alden for Republican T. Garry Buckley.
Rodgers, a former Democratic state senator from Orleans, won 171,808 votes, or 46.2%, according to unofficial results provided by the Secretary of State’s Office. Zuckerman picked up 165,792 votes, or 44.6%. A third candidate, Green Mountain Peace & Justice Party nominee Ian Diamondstone, took 13,657 votes, or 3.7%. Another 5% of voters left the ballot line blank.
In a press release Wednesday night, Diamondstone and the Green Mountain Peace & Justice Party said the Legislature should elect Zuckerman, arguing that (if one ignores blank ballot lines) a majority of voters selected one of the two liberal candidates, Zuckerman or Diamondstone.
Even as he told the radio hosts he’d conceded, Zuckerman expressed agreement with that argument.
“I did hear that late yesterday the folks from the Peace and Justice Party put out a press release saying, ‘Hey, we think our votes should be counted towards David and he should win,’” Zuckerman said. “I really appreciated that they did that. I think that’s a fair statement.”
Zuckerman said he had not called the party to discuss the matter. But, he continued, “Their putting that out there probably will keep that discussion alive. I’m not against that discussion, but I did call John directly and say, you know, ‘You’ve won.’”
The incumbent said he did not plan to lobby legislators to install him, though he said he would certainly discuss that argument with them.
“The reality is they have to decide — and they have to decide based on the facts before them,” Zuckerman said. “And of course I’m going to point out those facts, which is that, I think with those other votes — even if it was split, like seven of those (voters) would have voted for me and one or two would have voted for John and one or two would have voted for nobody — I think I would have more votes than him. But that’s for them to decide. I don’t think they’re going to decide to do that. You know, I think there needs to be either a strong effort on my part or a strong effort on somebody else’s part to make that happen. I’m not going to do that.”
Reached Thursday morning after Zuckerman’s appearance, Rodgers told VTDigger, “We had a good conversation. I told him I appreciated it. He deserved the time and he has come to the conclusion that we won, and I appreciated the call this morning.”
Rodgers said he was not concerned that the will of the voters might be overturned by the Legislature.
“I guess you’ve always gotta be concerned about shenanigans, but I have faith in the system, and I have faith in the Legislature,” he said. “It wasn’t like we only won by 10 votes. We won by 6,000. It has to go before the Legislature, constitutionally, but I had faith they would do the right thing whether he contested it or not.”
Zuckerman told VTDigger by text that he was not immediately available for an interview.
Read the story on VTDigger here: David Zuckerman concedes lieutenant governor’s race to John Rodgers — but with a caveat.