And the problems with the health exchange - a buggy website that was shut for weeks this fall to address technical and security problems - have not encouraged residents about the state's health management capacity. But an ally in that cause, state House Health Care Committee Chair Mike Fisher, lost his race for re-election. Shumlin still would like to convert the state to a single-payer health care system. 'Is he going to listen to the center, which is very frustrated about property taxes and the economy, or will he go back to the left-wing, asking for more and more programs?' 'The first question he has to answer is what part of Vermont is he now going to listen to,' said Joe Benning, the GOP leader in the state Senate. Since the election, Shumlin has been making conciliatory statements and reaching out to a wider variety of political players, including Republican legislators. In his four races for statewide office, including one run for lieutenant governor, he only cracked the 50 percent mark once - in 2012, when he still managed to trail President Obama in the state by 12 percentage points. Turnout was well down from 2010, with just 193,000 votes cast in the governor's race last month, compared with more than 240,000 four years ago.Īnd Shumlin is not personally popular. Many Democrats, dissatisfied with the governor, but not expecting him to be in any trouble, simply didn't vote. The only public poll conducted during the campaign showed Shumlin comfortably ahead.

'His battles for a single-payer health care system and GMO food labeling have been well-received, but liberals expect more.' 'Liberals in the state admire Peter but don't trust him,' said University of Vermont political scientist Garrison Nelson.

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