http://rutlandherald.com/article/20140917/NEWS02/709179905
Published September 17, 2014 in the Rutland Herald
Independent Jokinen to challenge Emmons, Forguites for House seat
By SUSAN SMALLHEER
Staff Writer
SPRINGFIELD — Tyler Jokinen is making it a race: He is challenging Democrats Alice Emmons and Robert Forguites for one of Springfield’s two House seats.
Jokinen, 23, a 2009 graduate of Springfield High School and a respiratory therapist in the emergency room at Rutland Regional Medical Center, said he is waging the write-in campaign as an independent out of a dissatisfaction with state government, even though his name will not be on the ballot.
Jokinen said he had missed the June deadline to have his name listed as a independent candidate, and he also failed to garner the necessary write-in votes during the August primary to also get his name on the ballot.
But he said Tuesday he wanted to get involved in politics.
“I don’t believe either party fully represents what I believe,” said Jokinen. “I don’t want to vote along a party line.”
Jokinen said he is “very liberal” when it comes to individual rights, but he described himself as a fiscal conservative.
Jokinen said that he has worked at Rutland Regional Medical Center for the past three years and he also worked for a couple of years at the Springfield Mobil gas station, near the VFW Post.
Emmons, the state’s longest-serving House representative, is running for her 17th term. Forguites, the Springfield town manager, is retiring at the end of the year as manager and is running as a Democrat for the seat vacated by Rep. Cynthia Martin, D-Springfield.
The independent said that state government is heavy on administration and bureaucracy, and that funds used to help people would be better handled locally.
“Everyone falls on hard times, and the state helps them get back on their feet,” he said. “But the money goes through too many hands and too many departments.”
Jokinen garnered only 21 write-in votes on the Republican ballot for the House district 3-2, according to Springfield Town Clerk Barbara Courchesne. By state law, he needed 30 votes to get on the ballot. Jokinen also received a scattering of write-in votes for Congress, she said.
Jokinen said he doesn’t believe in a single-payer form of health coverage. “Vermonters need better options,” he said.
He said a statewide health care system, “if run properly,” could meet the state’s health care needs, he said.
Jokinen, who went to college to study becoming a respiratory therapist, works mostly with acute patients who come to the RRMC’s emergency room. He said he hopes eventually to return to school and become a physician’s assistant.
Jokinen, who owns a home on Elm Hill, said he and friends would be going door-to-door in the legislative district, which covers most of Springfield. A small portion of North Springfield is part of the Chester legislative district represented by Rep. Leigh Dakin, D-Chester.
Do your self a favor....elect this cat!!!
ReplyDeleteI agree, he is very smart, and really cares about springfield
DeleteGood luck! Emmons has been around too long and contributes much to the complacency permeating Springfield and environs. After having a hand in the closing of Idlenot, criminal mismanagement of a local bank causing its failure, and managing to steer the Springfield ship of state onto the rocks, Forguites should be ashamed to run for state office. Shame on Springfield voters if this under-performing duo make it to Montpelier. It's time to pass the baton onto the Millenials. Maybe they can do what the Emmons-Forguites generation has failed to do and turn this town around.
ReplyDeleteDemocrat my ass. One look at his facebook page and it is quite clear this guy is as liberal as Dick Cheney. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100007938679210&fref=ts
ReplyDeleteJust another myopic voter who can't get by a "label", eh? Party line politics is what has brought us to this low point in state and national affairs, so wake up and consider an alternative for a change.
DeleteYikes I just saw the guy's Facebook page.
DeleteSo much for someone successfully challenging Alice Emmons. He's got about as much chance of being elected as there is of palm trees sprouting in VT in February. Oh well, looks like Alice gets to take care of those poor suffering prisoners for a few more years and stick it to her home town.
So, what's Jokinen's civic record? Committees, service clubs,initiatives, volunteerism?
ReplyDeleteBetter to be seeking to start a civic record whilst being young and possessing ambition than to have the FAILED RECORDS of AGING BUREAUCRATES LINE EMMONS and FORGUITES.
DeleteNow go forgo that cup of coffee!
Sorry, the days of Babbitt are gone. This is the 20th century. Both Emmons and Forguites have resumes filled with civic "leadership", service clubs , and volunteerism. And what has their leadership gotten us in Springfield? Gang wars, a robust heroin trade, prostitution, urban decay. Time for the aging hippies living in yurts to move on over...as the old union song says, "move on over or we'll move on over you." Go Tyler, go!
DeleteWithout a track record to judge by, a candidate is a blank slate on which voters impose their own wishes, dreams or fears. (Howard Dean and GW Bush were both state governors, and based on their records could have been expected to be as capable a president as their past behavior demonstrated. We never got to see how Dean would have done, but Shrub relived his governnorship to a T.)
DeleteThere was an aging hippie living in a yurt who pointed out to the public some years ago that two Springfield candidates had big problems-- one had forged a drug prescription and the other had brandished a gun at a tailgater.
This did not, despite their lack of a civic track record, prevent some 900+ voters for choosing them. Faced with a blank slate, the voters saw what they wanted to see, not what was there.
I agree with Chuck Gregory. He is young, just a few years out of school, and doesn't have any experience in government or lawmaking. His campaign website is long on complaints about the status quo, but short on solutions.
DeleteI remember, as a child, waiting until the last minute to do a school project on a few occasions, and then rushing to throw something together, just to get it done. The results weren't so great. His campaign reminds me of those school projects. If he were truly a viable candidate, he should have been able to get 30 of his supporters to write him in during the primary. Or you'd think he would have taken the day off from work to greet voters at the poles, and asked them to write him in.
As Mr. Gregory says, He should start by serving locally in civic, volunteer, and policy making activities. He should develop a track record that voters can truly assess, rather than just being the "somebody else". Granted, having truly viable alternatives to choose from would be nice. But Jokinen isn't one.
[To the powers that be at this blog: This is the THIRD TIME that I've tried to post in support of Chuck Gregory's points. You've allowed through comments attacking him, why block my supportive comment? Is this a Tyler Jokinen campaign site, or a REAL news blog???]
Hey, sounds like our current President!
DeleteYou and Chuckles need to go out and not have a cup of coffee. As others have effectively noted, the lack of experience is not nearly as severe a handicap as are years of failures and indifference by Emmons and Forguites to the town they serve. I'll take motivation over misery any day!
DeleteWhile it's hard to overlook Jokinen's failure to meet the filing deadlines for this race, it's even harder to overlook the major failings of his competitors, Emmons and Forguites.
ReplyDeleteJokinen faces a nearly impossible task here, because we all know that at least half of the district's voters are just going to blindly vote for a recognizable name on the ballot - and Jokinen's name won't even be on it.
Jokinen needs to find himself a couple of old Idlenot 53' semi-trailers and park them strategically with the message "VOTE OUT EMMONS - WRITE IN JOKINEN".
Hello,
DeleteI know the reason Jokinen did not get enough votes to fill the deadline, was because he only decided to run the day before, Many people have been asking him to run but he had planned to finish his education but in the end he decided that he wanted to really help the people of Springfield, a town he grew up in and has high hopes for our town..
Amen posters!! How can anyone in their right mind walk the length of Main Street and not be so depressed as to believe anyone could do a better job than Emmons and Forguites. Here is an real opportunity for a positive change. Only a fool would ignore it.
ReplyDeleteWe need a change and Tyler Jokinen will help Springfield. Vote Nov. 4th write in Tyler Jokinen.
ReplyDeleteJokinen and his door-to-door team need to hand out copies of sample ballots with his name written in so that voters will immediately be able to identify where to do so on the real ballot. Leave nothing to chance or most voters will just place their lazy mark beside one of the lame choices already preprinted on the ballot.
ReplyDeleteA cardboard cutout would be better than Alice Emmons.
ReplyDeleteAnd I went to school with her. :-?
Alice has always been terrific at constituent service, and quite a few people are grateful to her work on their behalf!
ReplyDeleteBaloney. I and other went to school with her. I have a friend who is getting s*****ed right now by the state of VT over the cost of caregiving for his dying mother. He and his sister took turns caring for her, and the state sent someone out once a month to take a took at her. Montpelier is trying to bill him $12 k for this "service" when they didn't do squat. He asked Alice to intervene and she didn't do squat - didn't even reply. She is as useless as teats on a log. Actually worse because of her efforts on the part of prisoners and against Springfield.
DeleteToo bad Jokinen has decided to present himself as a WND-inspired gun nut.
Hmmm, the few times we've asked her questions, the answer is always, I don't know, I'll look into it and call you back. The end. Never get the call back.
Deleteglad she's moving on.
And even more people, i.e., the Town of Springfield, have been sorely let down by her thorough ineptitude and ignorance of economic principles. it's irrefutable that the town has declined substantially under her years of milquetoast representation.
DeleteEMMONS MUST GO! EMMONS HAS FAILED SPRINGFIELD!
VOTE JOKINEN!
yeah, she's really done a lousy job of defending our freedoms in the statehouse…..
DeleteRE: Chuck 1:29 - "Faced with a blank slate, the voters saw what they wanted to see, not what was there."
ReplyDeleteLook in the mirror Chuck. You just described yourself!
????????
Delete9:20, every time I have run, I have been defeated. If I was a blank slate, then the voters must have been voting against their own invention of me. Curious….
Can't tell what he stands for from his website except for pushing a non-issue in Vermont, namely gun rights. The rhetoric sounds a lot like Tea Party stuff. Agree that something needs to be done about Emmons, but he doesn't sound like a solution. His ads sound a bit self righteous.
ReplyDeleteBasically be thinks he will be the knight in shining armor that will ride into Montpelier and singlehandedly save our town. Somehow, that armor will lose it's luster rather quickly.
DeleteWhat's our alternative, a milquetoast spinster with minimal social skills, no professional credentials, that has never held a real job, paid a mortgage, achieved anything of merit, and most lacking, never demonstrative critical thinking within any professional capacity? I'm more than willing to take a gamble with Jokinen. Just look around, this is Emmon's legacy. The classic definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Really want more of this?
DeleteI'm sorry, but we do this sort of thing all by ourselves. For example, it was not Alice Emmons but the people of Springfield who voted not once but twice to have the prison put in town. Alice Emmons has been excellent at cross-communication among all the elements in town in order to make sure information about vital topics is being shared for sound argumentation. When voters decide to give Springfield a bad school system or landlords incentives for neglecting their properties, we have but ourselves to blame.
DeleteSorry Charlie. Emmons, Martin, and all the liberal "cross-communication" idiots before them get to own this one. THEY HAVE DONE NOTHING WITH THEIR OFFICES OTHER THAN VISIT MORE MISERY ON A DYING TOWN. You and your liberal friends remain in denial as you watch Springfield shrivel up before your tear-filled eyes. Pass the Kleenex, because putting the likes of Emmons or Forguites into the state legislature just means a future of collapse and more weeping for Springfield...
Delete