A Difficult Campaign for Both Candidates
By Sandy Cooch

"Rozo" McLaughlin "liked to take on challenges—they didn’t frighten her," recalled her friend John Dumville of Royalton this week.

In the past two and a half months, McLaughlin was engaged on two fronts, fighting an aggressive abdominal cancer while never giving up on her reëlection campaign to represent Royalton and Tunbridge in the legislature.

McLaughlin had a "full steam ahead" determination to "beat this cancer" and return to Montpelier, said another long-time friend, Rep. Patsy French of Randolph.

"It didn’t quite turn out the way we hoped," French said Tuesday.

On Monday, Rep. McLaughlin succumbed to complications related to the cancer.

This week, mourning friends and campaign workers urged a "Vote for Rozo," all the same.

In a repeat of the 2004 election, McLaughlin, a two-term Democratic incumbent, was—or really, still is—facing a challenge from Royalton dairy farmer and moderator David Ainsworth, who lost by only 60-odd votes two years ago.

This year, McLaughlin’s name will remain on the ballot, and a win for her would, in effect, create a vacancy, explained Kathy DeWolfe, director of the Secretary of State’s elections and campaign finance division.

"The vacancy would be filled in the same manner as always," DeWolfe explained.

If McLaughlin, a Democrat, wins, the Democratic committees in the two towns would submit names of recommended appointees to the governor, DeWolfe said.

The governor would then appoint someone to fill the vacancy, DeWolfe said, but is not legally bound to select one of the recommended names.

Nor is the governor required, for that matter, to select a Democrat.

Revised Campaigns

McLaughlin’s diagnosis in early August, and subsequent surgery and chemotherapy, resulted in a difficult campaign for both candidates.

Ainsworth—who, like Dumville and French, grew up in Royalton with McLaughlin—altered his campaign strategy once she fell ill.

"I didn’t do anything to give any undue stress or strain," he said this week.

Ainsworth limited himself, he said, to "comments about general Democratic policies or strategies, with no mention of Rozo, or saying anything about her voting record."

Ainsworth continued to trim back his campaign this week, canceling two events, one on Wednesday night and another planned for Saturday at the home of Mary Demar and Joe Rogers, "out of respect for the family."

While Ainsworth altered his campaign, so did McLaughlin, who had to rely on local supporters and visiting representatives from other districts to make the door-to-door visits she had done in the past. At home, she wrote letters, strategized with supporters, and continued to write email newsletters to constituents.

"There wasn’t a time when I went to visit her at the hospital or at home that she didn’t want to discuss politics," said Kathy Hassey, another friend, whom McLaughlin recruited to be Royalton’s Democratic party chair earlier this year.

If the campaign has been awkward, this week between McLaughlin’s death and the election is even harder, according to Hassey.

McLaughlin’s supporters are trying to strike a delicate balance between pausing to honor her memory, and continuing the campaign, as they know she would have wanted them to do.

As for coming up with a list of possible appointees, local Democrats are waiting to see Tuesday’s election results, because "only then do we know if we have this job," Hassey said.

What her supporters are doing is quietly urging "all Royalton and Tunbridge Democratic supporters to vote for Rozo on election day," said Janet Zug of Tunbridge.

A win for McLaughlin, according to Zug, will make it more likely—though not guaranteed—that a Democrat will be appointed to fill the seat.

Should McLaughlin win the election, there is no time limit to make the appointment, according to Atty. DeWolfe, but the governor would probably take action in time for the appointee to take a seat in January, when the new legislative session convenes.