Shea returns for run at House
Fairfax independent starts campaign for Franklin-1
By LEON THOMPSON
Messenger Staff Writer
FAIRFAX — Do not call Bob Shea a perennial candidate.
Despite running unsuccessfully for the Vermont General Assembly during seven consecutive elections - five for the Senate, two for the House - Shea caught his breath in 2008.
"I wanted to see what happened with the elected candidates," Shea, 69, said Wednesday. "And now, government continues to grow at the expense of taxpayers. We've just about reached our limit."
If Shea like a man that's running for office again - he is. Yesterday, he filed his petition as an independent candidate for the Vermont House in Franklin-1, which covers Georgia and Fairfax.
Depending on the results of today's 5 p.m. filing deadline, Shea's announcement creates a four-way race in Franklin-1 that also includes incumbent Reps. Carolyn Branagan, R-Georgia; Gary Gilbert, D-Georgia; and Fairfax GOPer Chris Santee.
Shea, also from Fairfax, said his platform is easily defined: fiscal responsibility and public accountability in Montpelier.
Shea said state government must prioritize spending with an emphasis on the core of government, even if it is at the expense of discretionary programs.
For example, it irks him that state employees took a 3 percent cut in wages this year, yet the state awarded a $150,000 grant to Monkton for a salamander crossing.
"I call that backwards priorities," Shea said.
As he did in 2006, his last bid for the House, Shea feels he is electable this year, because he is an independent. In his eyes, caucus leaders under the Golden Dome bully Democrats and Republicans into voting along party lines, even if the issues are in conflict the wishes of their constituents.
"I think people are ready to embrace an independent because of a breakdown in the two parties," Shea said. "And my message about fiscal responsibility is finally hitting home."
Shea also enters this election a healthier man. He underwent a kidney transplant in 2006 and is still a self-employed carpenter, though he admits he is "assiduously looking for work."
Shea and his wife, Laraine, have been married for 45 years.
"That shows I can keep a commitment," he joked.
