 Okay, I have what amounts to a reasonably brief statement, and then I will accept questions limited to the content of what I've said. For the last year, ever since my re-election as mayor, it seems to me that not one day has gone by when I have not been asked by one member of the media or another, am I going to run for governor, and when will I make that decision? And over and over again, I give the same answer, and frankly, as those of you in the media know, I get annoyed by the constant repetition of that question, that question, it never seems to end. Today I would like to make a few very simple points. Number one, as I have indicated on numerous occasions, I would very much like to run for governor of the state of Vermont. In addition, I would like to see an entire political movement develop in this state, including large numbers of candidates running for the state legislature from every section of the state of Vermont, who would fight for a fair and progressive tax system, for affordable electric rates, for affordable telephone rates, for affordable medical care, for an intelligent program to deal with a housing crisis which exists all over the state, and for a new relationship between state government and local government, among many other issues. I would like to see this happen, and I in fact would be very proud to head that effort as a candidate for governor, but as I have said on many occasions, I will not run for governor unless I am convinced that I have a serious and realistic chance to win. I am not going to run because I need to see my name in the newspaper, and I am not going to run because I think it important that we run an educational campaign. I do not want to run for governor and get 15% of the vote, or 20% of the vote, or 30% of the vote. If I run for governor, I would run with the full expectation that the campaign would be a success, that I could win, or I would not enter that race at all. What has to be fully understood, and I don't think it is, is that the campaign we are contemplating has never been successfully waged in the history of the state of Vermont, and our state is 200 years old. No one, no candidate has ever run outside of the Democratic and Republican parties, taken on the big money interests and the business community, and won. In fact, in the last 50 years in the United States of America, to the best of my knowledge, this has happened on one occasion in Minnesota when a candidate for the former Labor Party was victorious. I am not Peter Smith, and I do not have the Republican party and the Republican apparatus behind me. I am not Governor Cunin, and I do not have the Democratic party apparatus behind me. As any student of modern politics understands, it requires a great deal of money to run a successful campaign for statewide office. Former Governor Snelling and Senator Leahy are talking about spending a million dollars each, minimum, for their campaigns. Peter Smith, Lieutenant Governor Smith, is talking about spending $400,000 to $500,000 for his campaign. Governor Cunin, I expect, would be spending at least that much. People that I am working with have come up with some estimates as to what it would require as a minimum, as a minimum, to run for governor, and the estimate that we have is that it would cost at least $180,000 to run a successful campaign. If, in my view, one runs for governor, one can, in fact, win while being outspent two to one, you can win and be outspent three to one, maybe even four to one, but you cannot wage a serious campaign and be outspent ten to one. Can, in fact, an independent campaign running outside of the Democratic and Republican parties raise $180,000. During the next month, starting this weekend, in fact, the effort has already begun. I intend to travel around the state of Vermont. I intend to visit areas where I have not visited since I've been mayor of the city of Burlington for the last five years. I intend to talk to people, to people who are living in trail parks, to people who are living in low-income and working-class neighborhoods, to people who are living in senior citizen centers, to farmers, to workers, to college students, and I am going to, in fact, determine whether or not there is the support there to wage a progressive independent campaign. In addition, and we have already begun this effort, I will be talking to supporters, political supporters, both within the state of Vermont and outside of the state of Vermont, and see, in fact, if we are going to be able to raise the very substantial sums of money that we need to wage a successful campaign. Within one month from today, a final decision will be made. If I run for governor, I'll be running to win, or else I'm not going to make that effort, and we'll determine that within a month. Thank you. Are you concerned that, as this issue that you say has annoyed you, that it's come up so often, that it's been dragged out so long that there may be the perception, six months into this that it's been going on, that you have trouble making decisions? That's right. Sure, I'm annoyed. And that's why I am upset that there are articles in the paper every other day, which says, sand is undecided about running, because I am not undecided. I know exactly what I intend to do, but I am being asked every other day, and I keep being obliged to respond to questions. You have never heard me call a press conference, and come down here and say, ladies and gentlemen, today I am undecided as to whether or not I am running for governor. I have never said that. I know what I want to do, and I know when it's appropriate for me to make that right decision. I am very annoyed, and that is exactly the purpose of this press conference, to say that I am being tired of being asked every single day. As I have said time and time again, I will make the decision when people who are working with me, people in the progressive movement, and I feel it's appropriate, and we'll make the best decision we can make. And I don't want them to have to make that decision, because the media feels that somehow or another, I'm taking too long. That's my problem, my decision, not yours. Go ahead. You did way back last fall, I mean, you did have a time here. And it was my mistake. What happened is, over and over again, are you going to, well, I don't know, are you going to do it this December, you know, and I should have been firmer to tell you the truth. But I have never come before you, and said, I intend to make a decision. It's always been a response to the question, and that process is annoying me. And that's what I would like to end today. Alex? For graph people with the progressive movement, speculate that you need to tap the 50% of voters who are not voting. And could you, do you think that you would have a, you know, and also key to this? Well, Alex, obviously, in a state of $500,000, one does not run the same type of campaign. One runs in a city of $38,000. It is my view that if I were to be successful, there is no question that we would have to do statewide what we have done here in Burlington. And that is significantly increase the number of people who are coming out to vote. As you indicate, about half the people of the state of Vermont, mostly poor and working people, have given up on the process. There is no question in my mind that if I ran for governor, a major effort would have to be made to get those people involved in the political process. Now, that does not mean to say that I or any other candidate is going to knock on every door in the state of Vermont. That is, in fact, a physical impossibility. If I run for governor, I certainly would wage a very vigorous effort and one of our goals would be going to those areas, into the low income areas around the state, into the trail of walks, into those areas where people historically have not participated in the political process and bring them out to vote. Could you do that in any change? What I would like to do this afternoon is concentrate and give you my perspective about the election, not deal with city issues, not deal with my own political future, but concentrate, wrap up basically the campaign and be happy to answer any questions in that area. Let me begin by saying that while we are disappointed that we didn't win the election, and that certainly was the goal of our campaign from the beginning, we are very proud that we, in fact, did receive more votes than any third-party candidate for governor in Vermont in the last 70 years, and in fact, more votes for a progressive, independent candidacy than any candidate in modern American history. And once again, I think Vermonters have shown the courage to lead the nation. I also believe, and this is a point that I want to emphasize, that the support for the ideas and the programs that we raised during this campaign was, in fact, significantly greater than the election results indicated. While 15 percent of the vote is, in fact, a significant total, I think there are a number of factors which prevented our vote total from equaling the real support that exists for our ideas and programs throughout the state. And let me just tick off some of these thoughts. Number one, many of the people who, in fact, most strongly supported the goals of our campaign are low-income and working people. And very sadly, in Vermont, as throughout the nation, the vast majority of low-income and working people have so much given up on the political system that they don't vote. They simply do not come out to vote. So I think we started the campaign and, in fact, ended the campaign to some degree with probably our strongest area of support, the people who supported us most strongly, not in fact participating in the election process, just not voting. And that's a real problem that we have got to address. Number two, clearly in terms of campaign financing, the Sanders campaign was outspent heavily. In fact, we were outspent. We estimate by a factor of at least 10 to 1. The fact of the matter is that with the exception of one campaign worker, Cheryl Muglowski, who was underpaid and overworked, and she did an outstanding job, basically we ran an all-volunteer campaign. And that hurt us in terms of our organizational strength. It also hurt us in terms of just media advertising. We were tremendously outspent in terms of television advertising, radio advertising, print advertising. And I think anyone who knows anything about politics will, in fact, tell you that 30-second ads do work. They get the voters. And that was a real disadvantage that we had to deal with. If you analyze the spending totals, one comes up, in fact, with an interesting figure. Roughly speaking, the Smith campaign ended up spending, we estimate, about $6 for every vote that Peter Smith received. The Cunin campaign spent about $5 for every vote that Madeline Cunin received. And the Sanders campaign, we estimate, ended up spending about $1.50 for every vote that we received. I think many Vermonters understood the correctness of our positions, and it was not necessary for us to spend many thousands of dollars and 30-second ads to convince them to vote for us. Further, I think that in terms of campaign organization, there is no question but that the governor had benefited significantly from the Leahy campaign effort, both in terms of organization and getting out the Democratic vote, as well as, of course, the money that she received from the senator. Number three, another issue that we had to deal with uniquely, it is that it is my perception that we lost many, many votes from people who were, in fact, sympathetic to the issues that we raised and to my candidacy, but who felt, quote, unquote, we couldn't win. No one will ever know how many, but it could have well been 5 percent, 10 percent. Nobody really knows. And I think one of the problems that we had to deal with, especially with, quote, unquote, experts telling us that I was going to get 6 percent of the vote or 8 percent of the vote, that people would come up to our campaign workers and say, I like what Bernie is saying, I support him on the issues, but I'm going to be voting for Madeleine or Peter because I don't think Bernie can win. And I think it's very fair to say that very few people went up to Governor Cunin or Lieutenant Governor Smith and said, you know, I like what you are saying, but I'm going to vote for Bernie Sanders because I think you can't win. And that's a real problem that we have had to address, and I think that that's a problem in the pandemic to third-party candidacies, but it hurt us. We don't know how many, but certainly we lost many votes in that process. I think, however, the main point I wish to make this afternoon, however, is really not to analyze the election results, but to say as loudly as I can that we do not intend to allow the issues that we raised during this campaign to fall by the wayside just because the election is over. I and fellow members of the Progressive Movement in Vermont intend to fight as hard as we can to see that the ideas that we raised during this campaign are as soon as possible implemented into the State's public policy. Very briefly, what are some of the important issues that the legislature and the Governor must deal with in the coming legislative session? Before I go any further, I do want to make another point is that I feel, as I've said throughout the entire campaign, that the person who won the election, whether it's one vote or 9 percent, deserves to be seated as the Governor of the State of Vermont, and I hope and expect that Governor Cunin will have the unanimous endorsement of the Vermont State legislature. She won the election. She should be seated without any controversy whatsoever. What are the issues? What are the issues that we've got to continue fighting on? And what are the issues that we raised during the campaign? Number one has to do with agriculture and the family farm. In my view, the Cunin administration's effort, in truth, and now the campaign is over, but in truth, still, my view is that the Cunin administration has not done anywhere near what has to be done to fight to preserve the family farm in the State of Vermont. There is a crisis in agriculture right now. We have lost 10 percent of our family farms, and state government must be bolder and more vigorous in that area if agriculture is going to remain an important part of the Vermont economy. And certainly, in my view, Commissioner Paul Stone has not been a strong advocate and fighter for the preservation of the family farm. And as I looked at election results, I was very proud, very proud to see that in many rural agricultural areas around the State, Addison County, the Northeast Kingdom, we in fact got a very reasonable vote from the agricultural community. I think that should be assigned to the governor. Number two, property tax relief is very clearly a high priority, a major priority for thousands of Vermonters. People want their property taxes lowered, and they do support the concept. They do support the concept that we've got to break our dependency on the property tax and ask those individuals and institutions who can best afford to pay to start paying their fair share of taxes. For Governor Cunin and the legislature to think that because Bernie Sanders didn't win the election, that they don't have to deal in a strong and effective way with the absurdity of relying, of our state relying on the property tax, the fund educational municipal services would be very wrong. We have got to break our dependency on the property tax, and I hope that will be a major priority for the governor and the legislature. Point number three, if there's any issue I think that we talked about during the campaign that struck home was the fact that many thousands of Vermonters are outraged by the public service board's role in terms of utility rate regulation. We presented a program and we're not going to give up on that program. We presented a program that will significantly lower telephone and electric rates for consumers around the state of Vermont, and we're going to press forward with that program in the legislature. We also hope that the legislature will put pressure on the governor to replace the members who are presently serving on the public service board with strong consumer advocates. Point number four, in the human services areas, there are many areas that have not been addressed that were neglected that have got to be addressed. In terms of mental health programs, we need a strong commissioner, we need to significantly increase funding in that area. We have got to begin boldly in tackling the daycare crisis in the state of Vermont, increase reimbursement rates and starter funds, and in fact build many, many new daycare centers throughout this state. Housing, not only in Chittenden County, but throughout the state there is a crisis in terms of affordable housing. State government has been extremely lax in that area. We need a program and we need money to start building the housing that working people need. And lastly, we certainly have got to make sure that state government replaces the funding for the programs designed for low income people that were cut by the federal government. Number five, in terms of environmental protection, we need to go forward, in my view, in phasing out for Mount Yankee and replacing that significant amount of energy that was lost there. We need to bring forth a strong solid waste program to deal with that problem. And we need to make certain that Act 250, the major environmental protection act in the state, is vigorously enforced by an adequately staffed department. In conclusion, I am very proud of the campaign that we ran and very encouraged and excited by the results. Governor Cunin was quite correct when she said that our campaign, quote unquote, touched the nerve. In my view, the progressive movement in Vermont is alive. It's very well. And in fact, it is leading the nation in terms of independent progressive electoral activity. Thank you. OK, well, I think, Mark, basically in two ways. Number one is mayor of the city of Burlington. Obviously, we have been involved in a number of areas, not areas like agriculture, for example. But I think there are two ways. Number one, certainly, is mayor of the city of Burlington, as the vote on Tuesday indicated, are very concerned about the whole issue of state aid to education, and I think are strongly in support of breaking our dependence on the property tax. So as mayor of the city of Burlington, one has a forum, a very strong forum, I think, in many respects to fight for many of the issues that we fought on. Second of all, as a candidate who received 15 percent of the vote in the statewide election, getting support from many low-income communities, from agricultural communities, I think it is not wrong for me to present my ideas to the legislature and to do my best, along with coworkers, to make certain that the ideas that we fought for are acted upon by the legislature. Because, again, the point that I want to re-emphasize is that I think 15 percent is a not insignificant vote, but I really do believe, very honestly, that the support for the ideas that we brought forward is far greater than 15 percent.