- Anthony Pollina
Anthony Pollina (born
February 17 1952 ) is an American politician, currently running for Governor of the state ofVermont . Pollina entered the race as a Progressive Party candidate, but switched his party affiliation to "Independent" in July of 2008. Pollina is challenging Republican incumbent Jim Douglas and Democratic Speaker of the House, Gaye Symington.Electoral history
Pollina is running his fourth campaign for statewide office in Vermont. In 1984, Pollina won a Democratic Party primary for Congress against Paul Forlenza and John Tatro. Pollina received 44% of the vote, Forlenza received 24% and Tatro received 27%. Pollina was defeated in the general election by incumbent Republican
James Jeffords .In 2000 Pollina ran for governor as a member of the Vermont Progressive Party, receiving 9.5% of the vote in the general election. Pollina ran against incumbent Democrat
Howard Dean who received 50.4% of the vote and former Representative Ruth Dwyer who received 38% of the vote.In 2002 Pollina ran as the Progressive Party candidate for Lieutenant Governor, receiving 25% of the vote against Republican Brian Dubie and state Senator Peter Shumlin.
Pollina's latest bid for Governor has received the endorsement of Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry
Political activism and platform
Pollina served as a Senior Policy Advisor for then Congressman
Bernie Sanders from 1991-1996. Pollina has worked as the Interim Director and as a Policy Director for the Vermont Public Interest Group. During the 1997 and 1998 sessions of the Vermont Legislature, Pollina worked as advocate for campaign finance legislation that established public funding for statewide political campaigns. In 2002, when Pollina’s campaign for Lt. Governor failed to qualify for public funding, he filed suit in federal court to overturn the law. In 2003 Pollina started a call in radio show on WDEV called Equal Time Radio. The program was a forum for Pollina to discuss local and national politics from a left-leaning perspective. He quit the radio program in 2007 in order to run for Governor. Pollina served as a founding board member of the Vermont Milk Company, a farmer owned and operated dairy in Hardwick Vermont. The company was established in 2006 with a focus on paying farmers a higher than average price for milk and marketing the products locally. Pollina resigned from the board of the Vermont Milk company in 2008 to focus on his campaign for governor. Shortly after, allegations arose that the Vermont Milk Company was experiencing financial problems. News reports at the time confirmed that the company was more than 60 days past due on payments to its member farmers.Shortly thereafter, an anonymous investor assisted the company with a $200,000 investment. [http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/79871/]Personal life
Anthony Pollina was born in New Jersey. He graduated from
Johnson State College in Johnson, Vermont. He is presently head of the Vermont Democracy Fund. He currently resides in Middlesex Vermont with his wife Deborah and their two daughters, Alessandra and Maya.External links
* [http://www.anthonypollina.com/ Pollina for Governor] Campaign Website
* [http://www.progressiveparty.org/ VT Progressive Party website]References
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