The Vermont Democratic Party has apologized to lieutenant governor candidate Ryan McLaren for wrongly informing local party officials that they are not allowed to endorse candidates in contested primaries. That follows weeks of infighting between McLaren’s campaign and party leaders over wheth er the party is showing favoritism toward his primary opponent, Molly Gray. VDP executive director May Hanlon confirmed to Seven Days on Monday that a “member of VDP leadership” mistakenly advised local party officials that they should not endorse candidates in contested primaries. That’s not the party’s official policy, as McLaren’s camp has been pointing out for weeks. “This should not have happened, and we regret the error,” Hanlon said in a statement. “That guidance has since been explicitly retracted in email correspondence to all Town and County Committee Officers, as well as all State Committee Members.” Officials are free to endorse whomever they choose unless their local committee rules restrict it, the statement says. “We apologize to the McLaren campaign for the unauthorized and incorrect communication that took place regarding officer neutrality policies, and will continue to take steps to remedy the situation,” it reads. The unusual mea culpa follows weeks of behind-the-scenes wrangling between the McLaren campaign and the Vermont Democratic Party over claims that party leaders appeared to be putting a thumb on the scale for Gray. McLaren, an Essex resident and former staffer for Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), says he has strong support from local party officials and worried the guidance was meant to undercut his campaign. At least six people declined or rescinded their endorsements, said McLaren’s campaign manager, Molly Moore. In addition, the campaign claims that Gray, who served as LG from 2021 to 2023, appears to have received access to an internal email list of members of local Democratic committees, allowing her to kick-start her fundraising effort within days of her January 5 campaign launch. By contrast, McLaren says he was denied access to such lists by party leaders until March 26. “This is exactly why people are turning away from politics,” McLaren said in a statement. “Voters become disengaged and jaded when they see party insiders tip the scales for the preferred candidates of billionaires and entrenched interests.” Party politics hurt Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) chances when he pursued the Democratic nomination for president in 2016 and 2020 and came up short, McLaren said. “I joined the Democratic National Committee last year to end this kind of manipulation nationally and I’m extremely disappointed to see it happen here in Vermont,” McLaren said. Moore, McLaren’s campaign manager, wrote to VDP leaders decrying the party’s “unfair, selective, and unauthorized conduct.” Her letter claims that “actors operating under the auspices of the VDP” have interfered with the McLaren campaign. The letter didn’t identify any person. But on February 3, party vice chair Amanda Gustin, a first-term member of the Barre City Council, emailed officers of town and county Democratic committees stating they “must remain neutral in Democratic primaries.” “The party’s job is to provide a level playing field,” Gustin told the officers in an email obtained by Seven Days. Local officers are free to communicate with candidates and even help arrange campaign events, she wrote. “You are certainly welcome to have a personal preference, but you cannot endorse, use Party resources to support, or show preference within the apparatus of your town committee for one candidate over another,” Gustin told the officers, who are often some of the most politically engaged members of their communities. Gustin did not return a call for comment. Her guidance is not the state party’s official position nor is it in party bylaws, Moore told Seven Days. It’s not clear whether McLaren’s claim of unfair access to internal email lists has any merit.Moore said she has no proof of it. Gray emailed local party officials on January 14 asking for their support. She said she did not get that email list from the party but rather compiled her own list from past campaigns and has been hard at work updating it. Before the party apologized, Gray said she found it odd that McLaren, a member of the VDP executive committee and longtime Welch staffer, was claiming favoritism. “Why is Ryan, who has access to all of this, crying foul?” Gray asked. The post LG Hopeful McLaren Says Democratic Party Showed Bias appeared first on Seven Days. ...read more read less