As Vermont Republican women prepare to rally Sept. 12 at the State House to celebrate 100 years of Vermont suffrage, a large percentage of GOP candidates for state office are women.

The VT GOP has seen years of slow decline in the Legislature. This year, it hopes to turn that around thanks to a popular GOP governor and a record number of candidates running for state office.

Army veteran Jonathan Morin of Holland is among the many first-time GOP candidates for Vermont Senate. Vermont’s minority party is fielding 29 candidates, the most for the Senate in many years.

In Orange 1 (Williamstown, Orange, Washington, Vershire, Corinth and Chelsea), incumbent Rodney Graham has a comfortable lead for the first seat. However, Levar Cole and Samantha Lefebvre - both candidates associated with the John Klar campaign - are within a percentage point, with one town - Orange - not yet reporting.

The persistent Mr. John Klar won’t let the possibility of losing the GOP nomination prevent him for running for governor in the 2020 general election. He hasn’t made up his mind, but the paperwork’s filed, just in case.

Phil Scott is the Boston Globe’s idea of a Good Republican. New England’s biggest newspaper contrasts him favorably with…..He Who Must Not Be Named.

Wherein VT Digger says that centrist Vermont Republicans want Scott Milne to be the next lieutenant governor, not (as Digger recently described candidate Meg Hansen) some 30-something minority woman with bulbous cheekbones and flawless skin. Instead, they want someone with “the physical appearance of a classic northern New England politician,” who “stands a shade over 6 feet tall, squints inquisitively when he speaks and has an easy crooked smile.”

A fiscal conservative and experienced auditor/CPA like Linda Joy Sullivan is a better choice for state auditor than current State Auditor Doug Hoffer (D/P) - even if she is a Democrat, GOP Sen. Randy Brock says. And since no Republicans are running for auditor, he urges Republican voters to write in her name in the August 11 primary.

House Democrats missed an opportunity to show united support for the abolition of slavery and race-relations progress when their Juneteenth resolution also took a gratuitous slap at President Trump’s “racist” tweets.

A 2018 Republican candidate for governor is running as an independent in bluer-than-blue Windsor County.