Scott Milne

Scott Edward Milne (born March 10, 1959)^[1] is a businessman from North Pomfret, Vermont who was the 2016 Republican candidate for United States Senate from Vermont.^[2] Milne was the 2014 Republican nominee for Governor of Vermont when he lost to the two-term incumbent by less than 1.2% of the vote, the closest gubernatorial election in modern Vermont history.

Early life and education

Milne was the second of four children born to Donald and Marion Milne in the New York City borough of Brooklyn.^[1] The family lived in the town of Barre, Vermont until 1964 then moved to the Orange County town of Washington. Their new home, Twin Brook Farm, had been a working sheep farm for much of the 1800s.^[3]

His parents started Milne Travel American Express in 1975.^[1] Milne himself was entrepreneurial as a child, "from selling newspapers and rabbits as a kid, to painting houses, to promoting concerts...." Additionally he has worked as a farm laborer, construction worker, grocery store clerk, bartender and waiter, political campaign aide, and investigator for a public defender as an unpaid intern.^[3]

Business and civic life

Milne has worked at Milne Travel since the mid-1980. It was started by his parents in 1975. Milne operates the company.^[1]

Milne serves as President of the Vermont Society of Travel Agents and as an advisory board member for the Australian company Travcorp. He was an advisory board member of American Express and Avis. He is involved with the Vermont Chamber of Commerce and was president of the Vermont Association of Private and Non-Profit Organizations.

Through Milne Travel, Milne supports more than one hundred civic and non-profit organizations.^[3]

Political family

Milne's paternal grandfather, Henry Milne, served in Vermont's state House representing Barre. He also worked for the late United States Senator George Aiken and as state employment commissioner. His father's cousin, Jim Milne, served as secretary of state from 1995 to 1999.^[1]

His father, Don Milne, served one year in the Vermont House. He also worked as an assistant clerk in Vermont's House and Senate, and as House clerk after 1993. He made unsuccessful bids for the Legislature and for state's attorney. He was prior to his death a member of the select board for the town of Washington.^[1]

Milne's mother, Marion Milne, served three two-year terms in the state House. In 2000, she cast a vote in favor of civil unions and lost in the primary. Running as an Independent in the general election, she fell short of winning back her seat by a thousand votes.^[1]

Political life

When Milne was nine years old, he went to the Champlain Valley Fair. While there, the 1969 Republican candidate for Vermont governor, Deane Davis, offered him three dollars to put up campaign bumper stickers around the fairgrounds. As a young boy in the 1970s, Milne would hitchhike from Washington, Vermont—where his family lived—to Montpelier, the nearby state capital. Once there he would often ride the elevator of the Pavilion Building to catch a glimpse of then-Democratic governor Tom Salmon.

Milne worked on the 1980 U.S. Senate primary campaign of Republican Stewart Ledbetter, who was defeated by the Democratic incumbent, the still-serving Patrick Leahy. Decades later, he campaigned door-to-door for his mother, Marion, as she fought to retain her legislative seat.^[1]

In 2006, Milne lost a bid for a Windsor County House seat by a hundred votes. He finished in second place in the popular vote with 87,075 votes (45.1 percent. Two-time incumbent Democratic governor, Peter Shumlin, came in first with 89,509 popular votes (46.4 percent). Libertarian candidate Dan Feliciano earned 8,428 (4.4 percent). Because no candidate received 50 percent of the popular vote, the decision was made in Shumlin's favor by the Vermont House of Representatives and Senate. Milne was slow to concede defeat, noting that 54 percent of Vermonters voted against the incumbent.^[4] He later declined a recount request, citing the expected cost to the state.^[5]

Political positions

Climate change

In a 2014 debate Scott Milne said “climate change is a reality…. We want to be responsible citizens, but the government can't be sticking its neck out and getting too far overboard on spending money on this.”^[6]

2014 Vermont gubernatorial election

According to uncertified results, Milne came within 2,434 votes of beating the two-term incumbent Democratic governor. A challenger had not removed an incumbent governor in Vermont since Phil Hoff in 1962 when, riding the popular wave of President John F. Kennedy, he became the first Democratic governor in the state since 1854.

Milne declined to call for a recount of the vote—a right he earned by state law by coming with 2%—saying: "It is extremely unlikely, almost unfathomable, that a recount would put either candidate above the 50 percent mark."^[5] With no candidate gaining 50% of the popular vote, the election was decided by 180 members of the Vermont House and Senate in January 2015.^[7]

Of Vermont's 275 "polling places" that report results separately—corresponding to the state's 255 towns and cities, with some larger municipalities broken into multiple precincts (Burlington has seven)—Milne won a plurality in 162 precincts, or 58.9%. His Democratic opponent won 112, or 40.7% (they tied in Woodbury). Shumlin won the state's biggest voting area, the city of Burlington (representing 9,604 gubernatorial voters), by a margin of 66% to 23%. He also won South Burlington. In three of the state's other five "top-voting municipalities"—Essex, Colchester, and Rutland City—Milne had more votes.^[7]

Milne won 10 of the 20 "top-turnout towns and cities"—e.g., Williston, Barre Town, Milton, and Barre City. Shumlin won in Bennington, Montpelier, Hartford, and Middlebury. Of Vermont's 13 Senate districts, aligning roughly with the state's 14 counties, Milne won eight (61.5%) and Shumlin five (38.5%).^[7]

Milne, and Vermont Republicans, believe state legislators should decide the election in line with how their individual districts voted.^[9]

Determining winner

With no candidate receiving a majority of the vote, the Vermont General Assembly decided the election by secret ballot January 8, 2015.^[10] Milne lost to Shumlin. Milne had said that if Shumlin won a plurality, he would support him, expecting Shumlin to do the same if the situation were reversed.^[11] After the election, he said: "it's clear that 54% of Vermonters want a new governor, and a new path forward."^[4]

The Assembly most recently reversed a plurality vote in the 1976 lieutenant gubernatorial election, when Democrat John Alden was "bypassed" in favor of Republican T. Garry Buckley.^[12]

Personal life

Milne resides in the unincorporated community of North Pomfret, Vermont and is a divorced father of two grown children.^[1]

References

External links

• Milne for Vermont official campaign website