At public event, Klar takes aim at Scott over mail-in-ballots, race, lockdowns and more

Michael Bielawski/TNR

GOATS HELP WITH THE MESSAGE: Farmer and Republican candidate for governor John Klar says he’s an ordinary Vermonter tired of the status quo in Montpelier.

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. — About 60 supporters gathered Sunday at Veterans Memorial Park to hear Republican gubernatorial candidate John Klar criticize Gov. Phil Scott over a possible mail-in election, his handling of the Black Lives Matter protests, and the constitutionality of his lockdown orders in response to COVID-19.

Alice Flanders, an African-American who is running for the House Windsor 4-2 District, also spoke to the crowd and urged people to see each other as Americans rather than according to race. She also led the audience in the singing of the “Star-Spangled Banner.”

For the upcoming election, Scott has told lawmakers they can draft legislation that would enable mail-in ballots to be sent to all registered voters, despite concerns from Vermont residents, town clerks and GOP leaders.

In his speech Sunday, Klar took aim at the governor.

“First of all, there’s the question of exactly how much integrity our voting system has already without mail-in voting,” he said. “Additionally we already have absentee ballots — the governor is making dramatic shifts very quickly for something that’s far in the future, something we may not even need.”

Michael Bielawski/TNR

Alice Flanders, an African-American candidate for the House Windsor 4-2 District, urged Vermonters to see people as Americans, not segmented races.

Klar says it’s important for Scott to remain involved in the election decision.

“So they [state lawmakers] are removing the executive power from the consideration of a huge decision that impacts our voting rights, which is essential to our constitutional democracy and our freedoms,” he said.

Klar also commented on Scott standing by while Black Lives Matter ran an event at the Statehouse on Sunday in which non-blacks may have been banned from speaking.

The event’s Facebook page stated that the open mic is “for Black people.” The event organizers did not respond to TNR’s request for comment on whether non-blacks were barred from speaking.

“We have a compact, we have a contract for 250 years in the U.S. Constitution,” Klar said, “and if you are going to throw it out the window and you are going to allow only black people to speak on the Vermont Statehouse steps … enough already, we have to stand up against it.”

Klar also commented on what he sees as a lack of constitutional authority for the governor to continue with his lockdown measures on businesses and personal freedoms related to the coronavirus. Klar said he agrees with St. Johnsbury attorney Deborah Bucknam, who is representing Rutland-based Club Fitness in a legal challenge against the state.

“Falling short of that demonstration of medical necessity, the burden of which is on the government, Deb Bucknam is absolutely correct that this now clearly does not rise to that level,” he said. “Government also has to delineate a clear purpose — the purpose was supposed to be flattening the curve. We’re are now flattening our constitutional freedoms, there is no curve.”

Klar said this economic suppression can’t last for much longer.

“If you stifle the economy for two more months and we have zero cases, and we reopen the economy for one week and you are gonna have new cases, what are you gonna do, shut down again?” he asked.

Flanders, whose resume includes working with the nation’s military budget and as a naval aerospace engineer overseeing the nation’s nuclear weapons systems, took aim at the state’s shortfalls in education.

“Education is what makes the difference between those who succeed and those who don’t succeed,” she said. “I don’t know what California plans to do with getting rid of the SAT and the ACT requirements to get into college. Once those kids come in what are you gonna do with them?”

On the BLM protests regarding the death of Goerge Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, Flanders said what happened to Floyd was wrong, but that there are problems with the current social justice movement.

“The most racist people I’ve ever met have been leftist liberals,” she said. “So to be very honest, what the hell is all this going on with having to hold my hand and walk me across the street into a voting poll or whatever you think?”

Tom Licata, a resident of Burlington who came to the event, pointed out that local media were not covering the event.

“I’m disappointed,” he said. “I wish I could say I’m shocked, but I’m not, that there are no other major media here.”

Sue Lanoue, of St. Albans, said the continued restrictions on businesses reopening at limited capacity is not good enough. She has a boutique and a nail salon.

“I have two businesses with restrictions,” she said. “It’s not very good, people are afraid to come shopping. I lost nail clients and my boutique is not doing very good.”

She said the whole area is struggling from Scott’s shutdown orders.

“We went to Burlington downtown to just to have a quick breakfast and it’s very sad what this governor is allowing — it’s just all falling apart,” she said. “There is nobody in downtown Burlington, everything is closed.”

Michael Bielawski is a reporter for True North. Send him news tips at bielawski82@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @TrueNorthMikeB.

Image courtesy of Michael Bielawski/TNR

16 thoughts on “At public event, Klar takes aim at Scott over mail-in-ballots, race, lockdowns and more

  1. Guy Page has done quite a lot of work to get the opinions regarding of Town Clerks regarding mail-in voting.
    Remember, many of them are good Dem/Progs
    If their party wants mail-in, they likely would not talk against it.

    There are about 480,000 registered voters in Vermont, and in the 2016 presidential election year, which had a high turnout, just 67% of registered voters cast ballots.
    That means the Condos mail-in scheme, would lead to about 160,000 unclaimed or unwanted ballots.
    Many of them would be just floating around, for any unscrupulous, self-serving actors, such as Dem/Prog-handmaiden VPIRG, to collect, fill out, and mail in.

    If that is not bad enough, just read this.

    Condos would not know if a fraud would occur, and neither would the Town Clerks.

    Condos can say, with a blank face, “fraud is very rare”, because only the most egregious fraud cases end up in court.

    In Vermont’s case, we are talking about SYSTEMIC fraud, which exists, because the system data base is flawed from the get-go.

    Condos and Town Clerks know:

    1) The Vermont voter lists are riddled with names of people who left Vermont, or have died, according to interviewed Town Clerks
    2) There likely are great deficiencies regarding up-to-date photo IDs, copies of birth certificates, and copies of citizen papers
    3) Much of that documentation likely does not even exist in the Town Clerk files

    Condos, a Dem/Prog party fixture, acts as if he does not know, or as if it is not a problem. That my friends is a fraud, right there.

    Condos wants to INDISCRIMINATELY mail ballots to everyone on the voter lists, whether they want it or not, whether they want to vote to not, whether they belong on a list or not, whether they are properly documented or not. That my friends is a fraud, right there.

    Condos knows about these corrupted lists and the document deficiencies, as do the Town Clerks.

    He calls his mail-in scheme “universal”, as if calling it “universal” makes it A-OK; sort of like “universal” health care. It has a nice “ring” to it.

    All this is a highly deceptive/fraudulent charade. Few are asking the hard questions. Those who do, get drowned out.

    When will sane Vermonters finally sound off about this travesty and malfeasance?
    When will the Vermont Media, defenders of the faith, wake up and show a conscience?

    SENDING OUT POST CARDS

    Sending out postcards to all registered voters, as some Town Clerks, and Sen. Benning, suggested, is a great idea.
    The cards would advise/remind voters to REQUEST a regular absentee ballot, in case they are afraid to vote in NOVEMBER, MORE THAN FIVE MONTHS IN THE FUTURE!!!

    All Town Clerks already are highly familiar with the absentee ballot process. There would be: No learning curve; No excuses; No fuss; No muss.

    INDISCRIMINATE mail-in voting has been on the Dem/Prog agenda for years.
    Here comes along a golden opportunity to get it: THE OVERBLOWN VIRUS SCARE

    NOTE: TSA and all airlines require a photo ID before they check you in, and are allowed on board.
    Voting is far more important than taking an airline trip.

    Requiring recent photo IDs, etc., is not voter suppression. It is PRUDENCE.

    The PAPER TRAIL is not just the ballot, but also the copies of valid/up-to-date documents on file at Town Clerk’s offices, such as:

    1) A photo ID, and
    2) A copy of Citizen Papers (which likely have an old photograph), and/or
    3) A copy of a Birth Certificate.

    IF IN-PERSON VOTING, RECENT PHOTO ID, AND PROOF OF RESIDENCE (such as a property bill), MUST BE PRESENTED BEFORE VOTING

    IF ABSENTEE VOTING, RETURNED BALLOT MUST BE SIGNED IN THE PRESENCE OF A NOTARY, AND NOTARIZED, TO ENSURE ITS VALIDITY

  2. At this point i would make a concentrated effort on busting up the super majority in the legislature. If you don’t,it will not matter which person is in the Governors chair their hands are still tied.

  3. John Klar says he is an ordinary vermonter… Does he believe a photo op holding an animal proves that or fools anyone?

    John klar is running for governor on the Republican ticket being supported by some Republicans in the state. John klar is not a Republican nor should he get near the Republican party.

    I am a very confused why Republicans would be supporting John Klar and calling this man an ordinary vermonter.

    John Klar came to Vermont from Connecticut. Like all people from out-of-state we welcome them here with open arms.

    However we are not happy when they come to destroy us with the spread of socialism

    Klar has voted for Bernie Sanders… For Obama twice.. for Clinton…. And he has also voted twice for our rhino governor Phil Scott.

    If course he always provides some suspicious excuse why he voted for these people….pretty sure I know the reason it’s because he’s a socialist and that is his ideology.

    Hey everybody’s entitled to vote anyway they want but don’t try to convince me you’re a republican when you vote for our rhino governor Phil Scott who has imposed gun laws on the hard-working law-abiding taxpayers in the state of Vermont knowing full well he took part of our gun rights away. He made plenty of promises to the Vermont voters as well…

    We can see where that ended!

    Do you really expect vermonters to believe you will protect our gun rights when you voted to remove them by electing a rhino governor. are you going to try to convince us now that you didn’t realize governor Scott took away some of our gun rights when you voted for him.

    Now mister Klar you expect us to believe that you are the savior of the Republican party when you have continually voted against everything Republicans believe in.

    If you were a Republican you had the opportunity to vote for the best Republican president in the United States of America in recent years. You didn’t support him.

    The group 802 Vermont alliance does not support our Republican party or our president. Seems odd they are supporting you along with others that do not support our great president.

    802 Vermont alliance leader John debruin voiced that he was upset that one of our best senators in the state of Vermont
    Brian Collamore was re-elected to office. I am just wondering how members of our Republican party remain in bed with an organization that does not support the Republican party.

    John I know you tell everyone to read your writings to try to convince them that you have been redeemed..that clearly exposes you as one that says “do as I say not as I do.”

    I for one will never vote to elect a socialist for governor in the state of Vermont…. Your actions speak much louder then those words!

    We are on the tipping point of losing our state to socialism and you should be the last consideration for political office in the state of Vermont based on your ideology.

    You are part of the reason that we are in the trouble with socialism in the United States of America today for voting the socialist agenda that is slowly eroding the Republican values.

    You sure are not the average Vermonter.. average vermonters or a hell of a lot smarter than you give them credit for…..you are depending on what the out-of-staters consider us, “dumb” vermonters to elect you to office.

    I hope “dumb” vermonters are paying attention…

    • Re: “Klar has voted for Bernie Sanders… For Obama twice.. for Clinton….”

      Mr Ley: Can you substantiate these assertions?

    • Interesting, Richard….I notice you stumped for John Rodgers in 2018, Democratic Write in for Governor….it amazes me to see this, since you are such a red Republican and can’t understand anyone voting any differently…..you’ll have to explain that to me. Certainly doesn’t make much sense that you would encourage people to vote for a Dem when you are such a staunch Republican……color me confused……

      • Politics makes for strange bedfellows, No?

        I recall there were others favoring Rodgers not long ago due to his more moderate views. Nobody cried ‘CONFUSED’ then. How ‘blue’ are you?

        • All very valid points on both sides. This is all part of our inability to play as a team. Many of the Rodgers camp purposely tore down the efforts for Keith Stern and made concerted efforts to publicly do the same on my campaign. Ironically is was this exact tearing down of people and the second amendment that brought us Bernie Sanders, think about that for a moment.

          The internal conflicts have not been resolved within the party, which is part of the plan for the pimps, a divided party is easy to conquer and does the tear down work for them.

          We might find success in giving them their own, because it is a party divided, the pimps are desperately, doing anything to keep control over the American loving democrats.

          Pimps and Rinos have us perfectly where they want us, not recognizing the true division is America against the globalists/NWO/pimps.

          We need to flip the script, bring about peace, love and joy the true spirit and basis for which made America great.

    • One of your nuttier claims of John Klar as a closeted secret-socialist: “John I know you tell everyone to read your writings to try to convince them that you have been redeemed..that clearly exposes you as one that says “do as I say not as I do.”

      I for one will never vote to elect a socialist for governor in the state of Vermont…. Your actions speak much louder then those words!

      We are on the tipping point of losing our state to socialism and you should be the last consideration for political office in the state of Vermont based on your ideology.

      You are part of the reason that we are in the trouble with socialism in the United States of America today for voting the socialist agenda that is slowly eroding the Republican values.”
      ““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““
      After working hand-in-glove to elect a Democrat as governor – most recent missive exposes glaring hypocrisy. Entire post nothing but a litany of lies – per usual – and as evidenced by own writings – seemingly unable to tell the truth. Soo why should anyone listen? Unless you can share a link or *any* proof of evidence to support your wild-eyed crazy – looks like you’ve proven comments as patently ridicullous, clearly false and completely untrue *once again* and hope any VTer dumb enough to take any of this seriously sit up and take notice?

  4. John Romney Klar. With Romney everything the president does is wrong. With Klar everything the governor does is wrong. Monday morning quarterbacks.

    • Mirror mirror misnomer much. It’s in fact Phil Romney Scott. Last I checked Benedict Scott is not POTUS – however takes a Romneyesque pride in wearing his Trump-delusional syndromed religion of hate on sleeve.

      As candidate attempting to unseat the Chairman Phil – has a duty to expose this destructive dictator and Communist run-UN apparatchick. Along with UN Communist-controlled legislators and EU-themed Montpelier loyally following the many mandated 2030 dictates.

  5. Republicans need to circle the wagons and get behind whomever they
    feel can keep the Governorship and move the state forward

    I’m glad to see we have a pretty good group willing to run for office but
    we need to push our top contenders now !!

    Save the state from the progressive cancer we have in Montpelier.

  6. Sun Tzu, know your terrain, know your enemy, you can live to fight a 100 wars. Notice the crowd in Montpelier, notice their mind set and education.

    To wage the discussion on their terms is guarantee serious struggle….

    To have the enemy fighting amount themselves does the job for you, with better numbers and more effective results.

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