Sanders plans rally with Vt. gubernatorial candidate

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will hold six rallies around Vermont for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Sue Minter, the first time he has campaigned for the Democratic ticket in his home state since ending his presidential campaign.

Sanders will headline rallies Friday in Montpelier; Saturday in Vergennes, Bennington and Rutland; and Sunday in Burlington and St. Albans City. Minter will attend all six events, and state Sen. David Zuckerman, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, will attend five of the rallies.

{mosads}The potential boost from Sanders comes as Minter finds herself in an unexpectedly tight battle with Lt. Gov. Phil Scott (R). A Castleton Polling Institute survey released over the weekend showed Scott leading Minter by a statistically insignificant 39 percent to 38 percent.

Scott, who has served three terms as lieutenant governor, is winning a surprising 24 percent of Democratic voters, the poll showed. Minter, who won a competitive Democratic primary earlier this year, is only getting 5 percent support among Republican and leans-Republican voters. Twenty-two percent of Democrats remain undecided in the race.

Both the Democratic Governors Association and the Republican Governors Association have run advertisements on behalf of their candidates, a sign that both parties believe the contest is close.

Despite its liberal bent, Vermont has a long history of electing Republican governors. The last Republican governor in Vermont, Jim Douglas, won four elections until he retired in 2011. Republicans controlled the governor’s mansion continuously from 1854 to 1963.

Minter is also struggling because incumbent Gov. Peter Shumlin (D) has suffered from lousy approval ratings in recent years. Shumlin decided to retire rather than seek a fourth two-year term.

Sanders, who won more than 85 percent of the vote in Vermont’s March 1 presidential primary, is perhaps the most popular politician in the state. But since ending his presidential campaign, Sanders has spent his time stumping for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, a congressional candidate in a safe Democratic district in Washington state and for a ballot measure in California.

Sanders only endorsed Minter on Oct. 13. Some state Democrats grumbled that his absence wasn’t helping the party he pledged to build after ending his presidential campaign.

Sanders’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.